Does Exercise Affect Weight Loss? 5 Lies You Should Know
Many people think that exercise is the key to losing weight, so much so that when most people embark on weight loss journeys, the first thing they do is start an exercise program. And there are lots of reasons for this. For starters, the thinking behind weight loss is centered on eating less and moving more. To add to this, health organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) advocate for people to be more active. In fact, its current recommendations stand at 150 minutes of physical activity each week for adults. Based on these and other fitness messages, it is easy for people to think that movement is the answer. But does exercise affect weight loss?
How Does Exercise Affect Weight Loss?
If you were to go by WHO recommendations, adults aged 18 to 64 years should engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate to intense physical activity each week or 75 minutes of vigorous intense physical activity. And if you really want the additional health benefits, the WHO recommends pushing your activity to 300 minutes of moderate to intense physical activity each week. It also recommends strength training on two or more days each week targeted at the major muscle groups.
But would keeping up with these recommendations guarantee weight loss? Well, the truth is that the answer is not as black and white as it may seem. To get to it, we have to get into 5 key factors.
Typical Exercise Alone Is Often Ineffective.
Social media and other platforms have been known to highlight exercise as a weight loss hack. In fact, if you were to go by most programs online, you would not question whether exercise can affect weight loss. But the truth is that studies have proven otherwise.
One such exhaustive review looked into the effect of exercise programs on weight when relied on as the sole weight loss methods. It combined findings from 12 systematic reviews and 149 studies that had looked into the very same thing. These researchers had followed participants engaging in routines ranging from 60 to 440 minutes of activity, thus averaging 150 to 200 minutes a week which would be in line with WHO recommendations. Surprisingly, the results showed that the average weight loss despite that much physical activity was only 1.5 kilograms to 3 kilograms (about 3 to 7 pounds) per person. While aerobic exercises did have a higher impact on exercise, they were still not as effective in weight loss as had earlier been implied.
So, can exercise affect weight loss? This review, and many other studies, concluded that while exercise comes with a wide range of positive health impacts and can result in weight loss, it is ineffective on its own and is instead best combined with a change in diet.
Crossing the 5% Threshold Requires A Lot of Effort.
At this point, you may be saying that you know that exercise can affect weight loss. After all, we have seen people lose weight through exercise programs alone. Programs like The Biggest Loser and others like it have often emphasized working out and have seen people lose significant body weight in the process.
You are not wrong. According to research, you can use exercise as a weight loss tool and drop more than 5% of your initial body weight. However, you would need to increase your physical activity by a great deal. In fact, studies have found that in order to succeed through just exercise, you would need to engage in up to 225 to 400 minutes of exercise each week or engage in physical activity that burns about 2,000 calories each week. They also noted that while this can lead to weight loss, it also comes with negative physical side effects, such as burning out, running the risk of injury, and so on.
Strength Training Preserves Your Metabolism.
For many years, women used to do cardio to lose fat. Back then, most women were unaware of the benefits of strength training, not just for their appearance but also their health. Times have since changed and we have more women lifting weights in the gym, eager to build bigger muscles, and it is not just in their glutes.
But does this type of exercise affect weight loss? Absolutely. Earlier, I stated that the exhaustive study found that cardio had a larger impact on weight loss compared to other types of exercise. But while that may be so, the researchers found that people who engaged in strength training had lower muscle tissue loss rates compared to those that only did cardio. As such, not only were they able to maintain and even boost their resting metabolic rates but they were also able to improve their body composition.
Therefore, if you want to embark on a weight loss program, incorporating strength training is a great way to ensure that you preserve your lean muscle mass.
Your Body Compensates for Energy Usage.
The idea has often been that when you start exercising, you naturally start burning more calories and this raises your total daily energy expenditure and makes it easy for you to achieve a calorie deficit. As such, many people find themselves increasing their physical activity with the sole aim of losing weight.
But studies on energy compensation have found that this exercise effect has its limits. In reality, your body reaches a plateau regarding the energy it expends during physical activity. And at some point, additional exercise results in diminishing returns. So, how can this happen given that we know that exercise can affect weight loss?
Well, it all comes down to metabolic adaptation. During calorie deficits as a whole, your body goes through metabolic adaptation which is geared at helping it conserve energy so as to make up for the deficit. This adaptation is often in relation to the degree of the calorie deficit such that the more aggressive the calorie deficit, the more your body adapts. So, how does it do this?
Reductions in non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). In this case, your body gets you to reduce your physical activity outside dedicated workouts. As such, you find that you are likely to sit more, walk around less, and just conserve energy on the small things such as fidgeting or taking the stairs. These effects are often so subtle that you may not even notice them.
Changes in your physiology. Since your body relies on energy to fuel its functions, it tends to prioritize where to use this energy in periods of aggressive calorie deficits. Therefore, to ensure that the basic functions such as digestion and breathing have enough resources, it can downregulate aspects such as reproductive functions.
Thanks to these changes, you may find that even though you may be exercising more, your body may not be losing as much weight as you would expect.
A Diet-Exercise Combination Works Better.
Having looked into how exercise can affect weight loss while accounting for variations in the durations and types of exercises, researchers have come to the same conclusion. Combining exercise programs with a calorie deficit is the most effective weight loss approach. In fact, these studies have found that the calorie deficit plays the bigger role in this scenario while exercise aids in improving your health and appearance.
And this is not just theoretical but has instead been proven to be an effective strategy for people across all demographics. As such, when people say that weight loss comes down to 80% diet and 20% exercise, they are not wrong.
Become Better in 90 the 80/20 Way.
Exercise has its place when it comes to weight loss and our health. However, as studies have shown, it has its limits. That is why the Better in 90 program focuses more on helping you find the right balance that incorporates both diet and exercise to help you lose weight. By using scientifically-backed strategies tailored to your needs, I can help you lose weight and keep it off, just as I have done for my clients over the years. To learn more about the program, you can use this link or fill in the form below to book a virtual consultation with me.
