Dr. Oz had a segment called “The Best Time of Day to Lose Weight” where he discussed how the time of day you do certain behaviors can have an effect on their effectiveness.
#1. Weighing yourself.
Do it “as soon as you wake up.” He does mention, sort of in passing, that we should void before weighing – “both number 1 and number 2” but I wish he made this more clear. Weigh as soon as possible in the morning after voiding and before eating or drinking. 4 out of 5 stars!
#2. Exercise.
Right after you weigh yourself in the morning. “When you exercise in the morning, you’re burning calories from different parts of your body.” Basically, he’s promoting fasted morning workouts which offer such a small advantage over any other time of day that it’s more important to realize you can exercise any freakin’ time you want and do whatever works best with your schedule. This is a case of focusing on the small and unimportant and possibly not remaining flexible. In other words someone might think since they couldn’t exercise in the morning they should bother at all. Not true. 1/5 stars.
#3. Meal Timing.
Eat one hour after rising, then 4.5 hours later, then 6.5 after lunch. He stresses that you have to eat breakfast within an hour of waking up and dinner more than 3 hours before going to bed. I’m unconvinced. Again, I think the effects these rules will have, if any, are so small that we should not be concerned with them. It’s more important that you’re controlling your total intake and eating good quality foods. We’re focusing on the little things here. 2/5 stars.
#4. Boosting Metabolism.
The best time to boost your metabolism is 8:00 a.m. because that’s when your metabolism is the slowest and it needs a kick-start (assuming you wake up at 6:30). Dr. Oz recommends drinking a glass of cold water. People, on average, will lose about a pound a year from this habit. I think while saying it he even realized that a pound a year is pretty small. Drink water if you want, but don’t force it. There are more important, more effective things to be focusing on. 2/5 stars.
#5. Grocery Shopping.
“Most people do it when it’s convenient.” Best time – 10:00 AM. Great for anyone who doesn’t work or have any other restrictions to their schedule and can shop for groceries at any old time of day, but how many of us is that? He does mention to make a list and ONLY BUY what’s on your list. This is a great tip! In fact, I think he should say to make your list at 10:00 AM when you’re full from breakfast (or any other time you’re feeling satisfied) so you can rational decisions about food. Then you can shop when it’s convenient and just stick to your list. 4/5 stars for making a list and sticking to it!
#6. Fiber Supplements.
6:15 PM – 15 minutes before dinner for appetite control. I can agree with this one, although I would remind people that if you forget to take your fiber before your meal, don’t act like it’s the end of the world. Be flexible and rational in your approach. Don’t beat yourself up over missing the little nuances if you’re getting the big things right. 4/5 stars!
My Final Thoughts
Dr. Oz has to come up with new stuff to talk about and the producers come up with entertaining ways to get these points across. They surely can’t put him up there and say the same old boring things that actually matter because nobody would watch the show. Can you imagine that episode? “Hi, I’m Dr. Oz. Control your food intake, move around, sleep well, repeat. Thanks for watching!” Yeah, advertisers would love that, right?
Luckily, you don’t have to sit through a hundred episodes of Dr. Oz to learn what works for weight loss. We’ve put it all together for you in our book, SPEED. I don’t know of any other book that quickly explains what works for losing fat like our does. It’s short, sweet, to-the-point and backed up by tons of evidence. I don’t toot my own horn about much but we worked damn hard on our book and it’s worth far more than the $20 we’re currently asking for it. (It just might be getting more expensive soon) You’ll get a lot for that $20, including coaching with us. Talk to you soon!