Exercise slows down metabolism ?
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yarwell
Posts: 10,477 Member
Controversial, but worth a read -
http://www.drbriffa.com/2012/06/15/exercise-boosts-the-metabolism-it-seems-the-reverse-might-be-true/
I often see postings along the lines "I'm eating {sensible number of calories} and exercising five times a week but haven't lost a pound since Easter / Xmas / other milestone". Big deficits and stalls / plateaus seem to go hand in hand.
Does exercise have its own "starvation mode" ?
Is the conventional logic inadequate - " First, exercise builds muscle, and muscle burns energy even at rest. Second, there are a lot of skinny athletes out there who think they are skinny because they train hard (as opposed to being able to train hard because they are skinny). Third, it is a common observation that heavy people tend not to exercise much, so it is easy to blame their weight problem on a lack of exercise."
Exercise less to weigh less ? Who knows.
http://www.drbriffa.com/2012/06/15/exercise-boosts-the-metabolism-it-seems-the-reverse-might-be-true/
I often see postings along the lines "I'm eating {sensible number of calories} and exercising five times a week but haven't lost a pound since Easter / Xmas / other milestone". Big deficits and stalls / plateaus seem to go hand in hand.
Does exercise have its own "starvation mode" ?
Is the conventional logic inadequate - " First, exercise builds muscle, and muscle burns energy even at rest. Second, there are a lot of skinny athletes out there who think they are skinny because they train hard (as opposed to being able to train hard because they are skinny). Third, it is a common observation that heavy people tend not to exercise much, so it is easy to blame their weight problem on a lack of exercise."
There are 4 well-controlled, inpatient, metabolic ward studies (the gold standard for human research) published from 1982 thru 1997 that showed statistically significant reductions in resting metabolic rate when overweight subjects performed 300-600 Calories per day of endurance exercise for weeks at a time [1-4]. There are no equally rigorous human studies showing the opposite.
Exercise less to weigh less ? Who knows.
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Kind of makes logical sense to me that a more efficient body would need less food to survive if you aren't doing very much? Dunno though, I'm not a scientist!0
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"when overweight humans do more than one hour of endurance exercise daily, resting metabolism on average declines between 5 and 15%."
Is 5-15% significant? !5% sure "sounds" significant, but I really dont know what that impact would be taken into the whole scheme of an over weight person trying to get fit and slimmer.
what do they mean by "more than one hour" is that 3 hours? or one hour and one minute?
to be honest, given the benefits of moderate exercise, Im not going to worry too much about this and also wonder why it wasn't "bigger" news if it is significant0 -
This is more sensationalistic crap. It refers to "exercise" as aerobic activities, while terms like "strength training", "weight lifting" "anaerobic" not only don't show up in this article, let alone countless studies performed over the span of decades which almost all conclusively demonstrate the effects of anaerobic activities on RMR.0
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Well, if it slows down your resting metabolic rate 5%, that is only 65 calories less a day for a 150 lb person.
If that same 150 lb person is exercising 60 minutes (to create that effect), he or she is burning at least 600 calories.
SO... you are still burning 535 more calories for the day than if you didn't work out, regardless of the drop in the metabolic rate.
If you drop it 15%, it cuts 225 calories--but you are still burning more through your exercise to compensate for the lowered metabolic rate. You would lose more weight than if you did not exercise at all.0 -
It makes sense that it would slow down metabolism due to either (1) the people lost weight (I'm assuming they didn't as the study would've controlled for that or at least mentioned it) or (2) their resting heart rates decreased, implying their cardiovascular system got healthier and more efficient.
People don't seem to take into account that a 'slowed down metabolism' has positive implications for overall health. It means your body processes function more efficiently, not that they're damaged.0 -
Big deficits and stalls / plateaus seem to go hand in hand.
Don't want to hijack the thread, but I am curious about yours and mcarter's take on the above statement. I think both of you are intelligent and knowledgable and I respect your opinions. I frequently see you both going against conventional wisdom and advocating for or supporting the idea that large deficits are not necessarily to be avoided.
When I see a post like "HELP I'M NOT LOOSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" on the forums, 99% of the time the person has a really large deficit. That, and my own personal experience of success with a small to moderate deficit, makes me think that too big a deficit is detrimental for weight loss. Do you agree? What do you guys think is the best way to determine an optimal deficit?
Thanks!0 -
Exercise less to weigh less ? Who knows.
Sure. If you're not losing weight the best thing to do would be to exercise less or stop all together. That and eat more calories. Those two things will most definitely make you lose weight.
[/sarcasm]0 -
It makes sense that it would slow down metabolism due to either (1) the people lost weight (I'm assuming they didn't as the study would've controlled for that or at least mentioned it) or (2) their resting heart rates decreased, implying their cardiovascular system got healthier and more efficient.
People don't seem to take into account that a 'slowed down metabolism' has positive implications for overall health. It means your body processes function more efficiently, not that they're damaged.
I have noticed that my typical pulse has dropped at least 30 beats per minute since I've lost weight.0 -
It makes sense that it would slow down metabolism due to either (1) the people lost weight (I'm assuming they didn't as the study would've controlled for that or at least mentioned it) or (2) their resting heart rates decreased, implying their cardiovascular system got healthier and more efficient.
People don't seem to take into account that a 'slowed down metabolism' has positive implications for overall health. It means your body processes function more efficiently, not that they're damaged.
This was my initial thought even before I read the article. I think more recent studies would also provide a more concrete foundation to the claim.0 -
I exercise between 2 and 4 hours daily, and I can eat right at 4000 calories and never gain an ounce.
This study sounds like junk.
The MFP numbers are spot on for both me and the wife, and every time we plug in, we both lose exactly what's supposed to come off each week.
High amounts of exercise have done nothing but make me fit as can be with a HIGH METABOLISM:drinker:0 -
Controversial, but worth a read -
http://www.drbriffa.com/2012/06/15/exercise-boosts-the-metabolism-it-seems-the-reverse-might-be-true/
I often see postings along the lines "I'm eating {sensible number of calories} and exercising five times a week but haven't lost a pound since Easter / Xmas / other milestone". Big deficits and stalls / plateaus seem to go hand in hand.
Does exercise have its own "starvation mode" ?
Is the conventional logic inadequate - " First, exercise builds muscle, and muscle burns energy even at rest. Second, there are a lot of skinny athletes out there who think they are skinny because they train hard (as opposed to being able to train hard because they are skinny). Third, it is a common observation that heavy people tend not to exercise much, so it is easy to blame their weight problem on a lack of exercise."There are 4 well-controlled, inpatient, metabolic ward studies (the gold standard for human research) published from 1982 thru 1997 that showed statistically significant reductions in resting metabolic rate when overweight subjects performed 300-600 Calories per day of endurance exercise for weeks at a time [1-4]. There are no equally rigorous human studies showing the opposite.
Exercise less to weigh less ? Who knows.
Makes sense, it doesn't usually take too long to become more cardio vascularly fit, especially from the state of having done no cardio.
So initially you may get some great calorie burns, but then your system becomes more efficient overall, and that extends into the other 23 hrs of the day.
Plus the fact some other studies have shown folks that are new to exercise tend to do less in the day of activity when they exercise, so you burn 600 in an hr, but for say 2 hrs later in the day you might have been activity enough to burn 200 cal over RMR, you sit around and burn no extra. So the workout only brought you net 400 gain to the day, plus it's made you more efficient, so now the whole day burns say 200 less, that means the net burn was only 200.
Hence those studies we've all seen where the diet and resistance group does best at keeping LBM, better than even the diet and cardio group.
Really shows how walking, as a way to just make up for our generally inactive lifestyle, can be a enough cardio. Helps make up for the extra sitting we do, mainly fat burning, don't improve so fast in efficiency because it's not as stressful and demands less improvements, ect.0 -
Interesting article. Thank You. It is an especially interesting read for me, because I have been finding that the more I exercise, the less I seem to lose. Now, I'm not saying exercise is bad, but the harder I try to use exercise to lose weight, the slower my losses. I find that the optimum level of exercise for me seems to be just about a 1 mile walk/day and/or just working on increasing my overall level of activity. I'm not saying I'm hitting a "starvation mode", but I also find this correlates to calories also. The less calories I eat, even if I'm not really hungry, the harder time I have actually losing weight. I seem to have a very fine line for my optimum weight loss. It appears that my body would have been amazing at surviving in times of great famine.0
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Wow. That's really intriguing. Definitely controversial but interesting none the less.0
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this is probably a study that's been paid for by couch and big screen TV manufacturers
anyway, i dont exercise to lose weight or boost my metabolism. in fact i exercised the entire time as i gained 80 pounds. i exercise because i like it0 -
This is more sensationalistic crap. It refers to "exercise" as aerobic activities, while terms like "strength training", "weight lifting" "anaerobic" not only don't show up in this article, let alone countless studies performed over the span of decades which almost all conclusively demonstrate the effects of anaerobic activities on RMR.
^^This. The way that this article comes across is very "it's not your fault you're fat".0 -
Interesting read. I find the comments even more interesting.0
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^^This. The way that this article comes across is very "it's not your fault you're fat".
I don't agree. It doesn't make excuses for people at all. It just points out that a person may not be getting the benefit they expect from just doing cardio. If that turns out to be true, I think it's important for people to know that. It would have been better if he'd pointed out that weight lifting may be a more effective alternative.0 -
^^This. The way that this article comes across is very "it's not your fault you're fat".
I don't agree. It doesn't make excuses for people at all. It just points out that a person may not be getting the benefit they expect from just doing cardio. If that turns out to be true, I think it's important for people to know that. It would have been better if he'd pointed out that weight lifting may be a more effective alternative.
But that's kind of my point- it refers only to cardio with out taking anything else into account. So someone who's "running for a half an hour a day" to use the same example as the article does, may never have the thought that lifting could actually be, you know, GOOD for them, and a viable alternative to running every day.0 -
This is more sensationalistic crap. It refers to "exercise" as aerobic activities, while terms like "strength training", "weight lifting" "anaerobic" not only don't show up in this article, let alone countless studies performed over the span of decades which almost all conclusively demonstrate the effects of anaerobic activities on RMR.
^^This. The way that this article comes across is very "it's not your fault you're fat".
If anyone wants onboard, I'm launching a class action lawsuit against Precor. Use of their equipment has caused my metabolism to slow down and I want compensation for my physical and mental stress. They are destroying America by preaching exercise and we must make our voices heard!0 -
Sure. If you're not losing weight the best thing to do would be to exercise less or stop all together. That and eat more calories. Those two things will most definitely make you lose weight.
[/sarcasm]
When you have to label it sarcasm, it takes away all the fun.0
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