Exercise doesn't help you lose weight...say what?
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Right. I could exercise and burn 500 calories from that every day, but if I was eating around a 500 calorie surplus per day, I would still lose no weight and possibly gain some weight.0
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I agree with what everyone has said here so far. My argument to her was then, if I ate 500 calories less per day, or I exercised 1-2 hours more a day and burned 500 calories more a day while eating the same calories as before, I would lose weight in the same fashion. My body does not know if I ate less calories or if I burned more calories to get the same net result. That was essentially my point.
To me if you're looking to get fit and in shape, you should diet and exercise together. But technically speaking you can lose lots of weight just by adjusting your diet and lowering your calorie intake without adding any exercise into your day. It just seemed to be an odd statement to me that "exercise does not make you lose weight". It's more of a matter of wording I suppose.
Yes, if you want to get fit diet & exercise go hand in hand imo.
If you want to lose weight, diet should be your main focus.
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Cherimoose wrote: »ashleypetrie4 wrote: »You can't out run a bad diet
Not sure i agree with this cliche. Many have lost weight while eating foods perceived as "bad", simply by increasing their calorie output.
"Most studies indicate that .. when combined with dietary restriction, exercise has a synergistic effect and enhances weight loss beyond the effect of diet alone."
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23174547
I think in this case bad isn't greasy cheese burger, but 2000 calorie surplus etc
As in you can't perform enough exercise in a day if your eating too much.
In my experience I burn like 8-10 cal per minute on a treadmill etc. if I was over eating by 1000 or more calories I would have to use the treadmill for like 1.5 hours just to maintain my weight.
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Right. I could exercise and burn 500 calories from that every day, but if I was eating around a 500 calorie surplus per day, I would still lose no weight and possibly gain some weight.
Right.
Your exercise (calories out) has to be greater than your calorie intake.
In my previous comment, when I say ...
"-- increasing my activity level significantly while eating a lot (eg. 2000-5000 calories/day ... and consuming whatever I wanted). I was my slimmest and most fit when I was doing this, and I maintained my light weight and fitness level for almost 2 decades."
I was cycling in the neighbourhood of 10,000 kilometres/year + walking about 750 kilometres/year + cross country skiing + snowshoeing + weightlifting + cycling indoors during the winter.
I actually had trouble keeping weight on ... eating anything over about 3000 calories in a day was just a pain. I like food, but I don't like food that much. I'd roam the grocery store looking for small but calorie dense foods so I didn't have to eat so much quantity.
(Unfortunately when the activity level drops suddenly ... like when you develop DVT after a long-haul flight ... it is difficult to readjust the eating adequately.)
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Weight loss can be 100% diet, in that you don't need to exercise at all to lose weight. As long as you are eating in a calorie deficit, you will lose weight.
Exercise really is for fitness. As far as for weight loss, it does add to the calorie deficit, because by increasing activity, you naturally burn more calories (increase TDEE). People tend to depend on that too much, however, if they are thinking 'if I exercise I will lose weight' as a stand alone thought.
A person in a wheelchair can lose weight by eating in a calorie deficit, as can a person who is bedridden. You shouldn't need any further proof than that, that it's 100% diet.
Exercise is just another potential tool.4 -
So it's more like exercise can help you lose weight, but it in of itself does not make you lose weight.
I agree that you can lose weight with 100% diet only, I just don't agree with the statement that exercise does not help you lose weight because it can provided you are not overeating.2 -
80% diet, 10% working out, 10% genetics3
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In addition to supporting adherence/motivation with dieting, some kinds of cardio can reduce appetite in some people.
And for fitness, not even a question, do what you can.0 -
I have to disagree and say that fitness is just as (if not more) important than diet. I know I will be attacked for this, but I just cannot agree.
Fitness is key to weight control. If a person is at a good fitness level, they would have to literally be a glutton to become over weight. In addition, the more over weight a person is, the lower their fitness level.
Let the attacks begin...
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Got into a discussion with some friends the other day regarding diet and exercise and losing weight, etc. One of my friends said that exercise does not help you lose weight, it's 100% diet. I disagreed and said that whether you take in less calories (diet) or burn more calories (exercise), if you're in a deficit you'll lose weight, therefore exercise does in fact help you lose weight. She disagreed with me still.
Your thoughts?
Diet has a much greater impact than exercise from a calorie standpoint. If you do 30 minutes of treadmill time and burn 135 calories...sadly, that isn't even a beer (sadly, because I love a cold beer). On the flip side, you can make eating decisions that will keep you at 500 calorie deficit for a day rather easily - say replace a bacon double cheeseburger with a bit of fish or chicken. Exercise will add more calories to your daily burn, but not as much as many people believe. As long as you consistently stay on your calorie budget, you will lose weight exercise or not. Exercise only ups your total calories burned for the day.
Another thought people like to bat about is that via exercise, you build LBM and that LBM burns more maint. calories than fat. There is truth to that, but again, not what people think. I don't remember the article name, but the guy over at bodyrecomposition.com addresses the numbers in one. Basically, the number of additional calories burned by LBM is rather insignificant in the overall scheme of things. If anyone disagrees with that, I would love to see a scientific breakdown.
That said, different people react to exercise differently. My wife says it makes her want to eat more. I am pretty indifferent, but I generally do not like to eat right before or right after I workout. My son - he doesn't want to eat for two hours after a workout. A friend told me recently that a workout is a time she is away from temptation and the memory of the workout keeps her from binging (she values the workout more than the food pleasure so to speak. This is one I get because I would love to sit down and have a few ice cold beers right now, but I'd rather not spend the next several days on the treadmill trying to work 'em off). So, I think there are some possible advantages in this regard, but I see no rhyme or reason in the anecdotal experiences of family and friends. Just seems everyone is a different and has to kinda figure out how it functions for them.3 -
bcalvanese wrote: »I have to disagree and say that fitness is just as (if not more) important than diet. I know I will be attacked for this, but I just cannot agree.
Fitness is key to weight control. If a person is at a good fitness level, they would have to literally be a glutton to become over weight. In addition, the more over weight a person is, the lower their fitness level.
Let the attacks begin...
I'm not going to attack you ... see my comments above.
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So it's more like exercise can help you lose weight, but it in of itself does not make you lose weight.
I agree that you can lose weight with 100% diet only, I just don't agree with the statement that exercise does not help you lose weight because it can provided you are not overeating.
Exercise does help burn more calories. Many people greatly overestimate the calories burned however, and overeat because they "earned it" at the gym. A protein power smoothie from the shop next to the gym can be 450 calories easy, wiping out a lot of time on the treadmill.
When people focus on the calories eaten first and treat exercise calories as small bonus, it's easier to reliably maintain an deficit that will consistently lose weight. It's just to easy to eat calories faster than you burn them otherwise.
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bcalvanese wrote: »I have to disagree and say that fitness is just as (if not more) important than diet. I know I will be attacked for this, but I just cannot agree.
Fitness is key to weight control. If a person is at a good fitness level, they would have to literally be a glutton to become over weight. In addition, the more over weight a person is, the lower their fitness level.
Let the attacks begin...
No attack needed .... You're simply wrong.
I'd say power lifters are pretty fit people but some of those guys n girls are pretty big.3 -
bcalvanese wrote: »I have to disagree and say that fitness is just as (if not more) important than diet. I know I will be attacked for this, but I just cannot agree.
Fitness is key to weight control. If a person is at a good fitness level, they would have to literally be a glutton to become over weight. In addition, the more over weight a person is, the lower their fitness level.
Let the attacks begin...
I can't attack you, because I don't understand what you are trying to say.0 -
Agreed, definitely easier to eat calories faster than burn them.3
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bcalvanese wrote: »I have to disagree and say that fitness is just as (if not more) important than diet. I know I will be attacked for this, but I just cannot agree.
Fitness is key to weight control. If a person is at a good fitness level, they would have to literally be a glutton to become over weight. In addition, the more over weight a person is, the lower their fitness level.
A completely disabled person is capable of losing weight. To say fitness is the key negates anyone who is incapable of exercise from the ability to lose weight, and that's simply not true.
And no, a person would not have to be a glutton to become overweight - they would simply have to eat over their TDEE, a few hundred calories consistently, over time. That's how it happens to everyone.8 -
So it's more like exercise can help you lose weight, but it in of itself does not make you lose weight.
I agree that you can lose weight with 100% diet only, I just don't agree with the statement that exercise does not help you lose weight because it can provided you are not overeating.
Exercise does help burn more calories. Many people greatly overestimate the calories burned however, and overeat because they "earned it" at the gym. A protein power smoothie from the shop next to the gym can be 450 calories easy, wiping out a lot of time on the treadmill.
When people focus on the calories eaten first and treat exercise calories as small bonus, it's easier to reliably maintain an deficit that will consistently lose weight. It's just to easy to eat calories faster than you burn them otherwise.
Agree, it's about hitting the sweet spot where you can have a deficit while fueling your workouts and recovery and remaining sated. Small deficit, all the way1 -
^ This is what happens to me when I get lazy. I gradually put on weight. Before long, 6 months has gone by and I put on 15-20 lbs. I never really gorged myself or went overboard with eating, I just overate a bit each day and exercised less.1
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