Why You Need Exercise for Adequate Nutrition

One of the things I've been accused of is doing more exercise so that I can eat more food: “Oh, you just do so much exercise just so you can eat more.”

Although that’s really not the case, I do recognize that by doing more exercise, I do indeed get to eat more. But I also think two things about that.

By Exercising More, I Do Indeed Get to Eat More

First of all, by doing more exercise, I have to eat more, or I’ll fade away to nothing and won't be able to maintain my fitness and my activities.

But I also think of all the other creatures on the planet. They're all economical in their efforts in some way or another, but they're also all just amazingly fit.

You watch a squirrel go straight up a tree at speed. I've watched dogs chasing coyotes—it's as if the dog is standing still and the coyote just takes off. Dogs tend to be pretty fit but even they can’t catch a fox.

Some animals are flying 10,000 miles to go somewhere for the winter and then fly back again in the summer and very often not even eating through most or all of that flight. Some whales are taking months out of the year to swim from the northernmost Arctic down to the equator and back and not eating through that entire time—but then they eat like crazy.

The point is, they're incredibly fit. Fitness is never an issue for any of the creatures out in nature.

Animals in Nature Are All Fit, or They're Gone

I want to keep it that way for me too—I want to be fit and then eventually gone. But I'm not in any rush to be gone, so I want to stay fit. And yes, being fit lets me enjoy my food a little more because I build up an appetite. And yes, I get to eat a little more.

But the part that I think is cool about all that is this:

Imagine you took two identical twins and put them on two different programs, one completely sedentary, and the other person gets into fitness doing all sorts of activities—from gardening to climbing to sprinting to swimming so that they're burning through a lot of calories.

The sedentary person eats 2000 calories a day and the active person needs 4000 calories. But other than that, they're the same people—identical twins.

The person eating 4000 calories a day is taking in twice as much protein, twice as much calcium, twice as much vitamin E—twice as much of everything. They're eating identical diets. It's just one is eating twice as much.

Maybe in Nature's plan—which calls for all creatures to be fit, hence active enough so that they must eat more food than their inactive counterparts would eat—that's where we get enough nutrients.

My Fitness Activities Are Part of My Nutritional Plan

An inactive person might very well be able to eat enough calories to meet their calorie needs, while not taking in enough nutrients to meet their nutrient needs. Hence, my fitness activities are part of my nutritional plan to take in enough nutrients.

My fitness activities are also part of my meditation and mental health plan so that when I need to be sedentary, I can become so and I'm not fidgeting, or hyperactive—I've taken care of that and used my muscles so that I can now focus on some mental activities.

My fitness plan has become part of my sleep program because, after good hard exercise, I find it very easy to get a long, very satisfying, and restful night's sleep.

The farmers—people who really go hard—call it “Going from ‘can’ ‘till ‘can't’.”  Then when you can't, you hit the pillow and you're out, and you recharge overnight.

So, my fitness is part of my sleeping plan.

It’s part of my mental health and nutritional plan.

It's part of my weight management plan.

It's part of my physique development plan.

And most of all, I love doing fitness activities—fitness is part of my fun plan.

So, I encourage you to go out and play, be active, earn your meals, and know that you're earning your nutrition, your mental health, your deep sleep, and all the other great things.


This post was derived from the video posted above, recorded at the 2022 Detoxification, Cleansing, & Healing retreat in Costa Rica.

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About Dr. Doug Graham

Dr. Douglas Graham, a lifetime athlete and raw fooder since 1978, is an advisor to world-class and motivated athletes and trainers from around the globe. He has worked professionally with top performers from almost every sport and every field of entertainment, including such notables as tennis legend Martina Navratilova, NBA pro basketball players Ronnie Grandison and Michael Porter Jr., track Olympic sprinter Doug Dickinson, pro women's soccer player Callie Withers, championship bodybuilder Kenneth G. Williams, Chicken Soup for the Soul coauthor Mark Victor Hansen, and actress Demi Moore. As owner of a fasting retreat in the Florida Keys for ten years, Dr. Graham personally supervised thousands of fasts. He was in private practice as a chiropractor for twenty years, before retiring to focus on his writing and speaking. Dr. Graham is the author of many books on health and raw food including The 80/10/10 Diet, The High Energy Diet Recipe Guide, Nutrition and Athletic Performance, Grain Damage, Prevention and Care of Athletic Injuries, and his latest, Perpetual Health 365. He has shared his strategies for success with audiences at more than 4,000 presentations worldwide. Recognized as one of the fathers of the modern raw movement, Dr. Graham is the only lecturer to have attended and given keynote presentations at all of the major raw events in the world for each of the last eight years. Dr. Graham has served on the board of governors of the International Association of Professional Natural Hygienists and the board of directors of the American Natural Hygiene Society. He is on the board of advisors of Voice for a Viable Future, Living Light Films, Vegetarian Union of North America, and EarthSave International and serves as nutrition advisor for the magazine Exercise, For Men Only. Dr. Graham is the raw foods and fitness advisor for The801010Forum.com. He taught the Health Educator program at Hippocrates Institute, served as the "source authority" for Harmonious Living, and authors a column for the magazines Get Fresh! and Vibrance (previously known as Living Nutrition). Dr. Graham is the creator of "Simply Delicious" cuisine and director of Health and Fitness Week, which provides Olympic-class training and nutrition for people of all fitness levels in beautiful settings around the world. He will inspire, motivate, educate, and entertain you like no one else in the health movement can.