Exercise doesn't help you lose weight...say what?
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OP, you are correct in your analysis, and your friend is wrong. My guess is your friend doesn't like to exercise and is looking for excuses to avoid it. Is it necessary? No. Is is helpful? Yes.
Personally, and this has very little to do with your original statement because it is personal, I would rather exercise until I'm exhausted and eat a big steak dinner than sit on my butt and starve myself. Could I still lose weight sitting on my butt starving myself? Sure. Can I lose weight working out and getting to eat steak? Sure. The only thing that matters for weight LOSS (as opposed to body composition because that's a different issue altogether) is reduction in calories.
If it wasn't for exercise, I would have gained back all of my weight and then some. No doubt. Eating overly reduced calories is an awful chore that makes me miserable, so I don't do it.2 -
Is it safe to assume that those of you who claim that exercise is not helpful in losing weight don't bother tracking exercise when figuring out your daily deficit? If you claim that and do track calories burned through exercise, there's a bit of an an incongruity.
Nobody has said exercise is not helpful to lose weight. A lot of people have said that exercise is not essential. Maintaining a calorie deficit over time is essential. (i.e. CI < CO)
Some people do very well by increasing their exercise to get to a deficit, but many others don't exercise enough to overcome their existing diet or increase their eating in response to the exercise.
The fact remains that it is easier to monitor and control for what you eat, and calories not eaten do not need to be burned off. That is why many people here advise to focus on the intake for weight loss, but use exercise for the fitness aspect, and to add some calories to your daily budget as a bonus.
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At this point, exercise has become a much bigger part of my weight loss. I only have about 10 pounds left to go, so my deficit has become much smaller. I don't want to decrease my calories anymore than I already have, but I don't necessarily want the last 10 pounds to take a year, either. I was already exercising, but now the exercise helps make my deficit larger because I choose not to eat back any exercise calories. I had injured my knee a few months back and took a break from all exercise. I maintained my calorie deficit, but without the extra calories burned, my weight seemed to be at a standstill. Obviously, I recognize that it wasn't, by definition of being in a calorie deficit. But once I was able to add exercise back in, my sanity was restored at weigh-in time.0
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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?
I think the thing that is most significant is that no matter how much a person exercises, one can always put oneself in a caloric surplus depending on how and how much one eats.
For example - I run for 40 minutes, I can burn around 600 calories. Great! However, let's then imagine that in a moment of weakness, I wolf down two glazed chocolate donuts during break time (which I could probably do in 5). Boom. There goes any benefits of exercise towards achieving my caloric deficit.
That being said, it's simply wrong to say exercise doesn't aid in weight loss at all - which is what your friends are saying. Exercise obviously burns calories, which can add to one's daily deficit (either allowing you to eat more food or to accelerate your weight loss if you don't change what you eat).
I will let others debate the subjective proportions (weight loss is 80% diet, or 50%, etc). Doesn't really matter. My personal experience is that exercise makes the business of weight loss easier, and it's also a good in and of itself, so that's why I do it.0 -
Your friend is advocating weight loss through diet alone, and while that works, it's not the path to optimal health and fitness.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?
I did not want to be some skinny guy who merely lost weight. My goal was peak fitness and stellar health. Exercise is paramount along with a sound diet to achieve such high goals. I actually pity those too lazy to exercise.
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Is it safe to assume that those of you who claim that exercise is not helpful in losing weight don't bother tracking exercise when figuring out your daily deficit? If you claim that and do track calories burned through exercise, there's a bit of an an incongruity.
Nobody has said exercise is not helpful to lose weight. A lot of people have said that exercise is not essential. Maintaining a calorie deficit over time is essential. (i.e. CI < CO)
Actually the very first response said exactly that:
"From what I have learned here, your friends are correct."
And the friends of the OP stated exercise was not helpful. That's the entire premise of this thread, though it's obvious from many of the replies that not everyone understands that.
The OP didn't ask about what is "best" for our bodies, or what is "essential" for weight loss. The issue is whether exercise is helpful for weight loss.
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Everything has pretty much been covered. You just need a deficit. There are hundreds of ways to skin that cat. Sounds like an argument on semantics. Does exercise help? For sum I am sure. For others, maybe not.1
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allaboutthefood wrote: »metcastillon wrote: »I look at losing weight as 80% diet and 20% exercise. Sure, you can only focus on what you eat, and you'll lose weight, but it might not give you the results you want. Same thing if you only focus on exercise. I believe it takes a healthy combination of the two working together.
I agree with this. I eat in a deficit and I exercise. I have played around with this and did some of my weight loss on diet alone, yes I lost weight, but I was always hungry. Than I added exercise with the deficit and I lost more weight and wasn't as hungry. So if you only want to lose weight and have no desire to exercise it can be done.
I recall hearing about studies that have been done that state that keeping weight off is much easier when one engages in regular exercise. Yes, weight loss can be achieved straightforwardly by just eating in a deficit, and you can't outrun a bad diet, but without exercise one might sabotage one's long-term prospects.
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Muscle burns more calories than fat - so if you build more muscle you can more effectively burn calories, but CICO0
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Overall deficit matters, not how you get there.
BINGO
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Is it safe to assume that those of you who claim that exercise is not helpful in losing weight don't bother tracking exercise when figuring out your daily deficit? If you claim that and do track calories burned through exercise, there's a bit of an an incongruity.
Nobody has said exercise is not helpful to lose weight. A lot of people have said that exercise is not essential. Maintaining a calorie deficit over time is essential. (i.e. CI < CO)
Actually the very first response said exactly that:
"From what I have learned here, your friends are correct."
And the friends of the OP stated exercise was not helpful. That's the entire premise of this thread, though it's obvious from many of the replies that not everyone understands that.
The OP didn't ask about what is "best" for our bodies, or what is "essential" for weight loss. The issue is whether exercise is helpful for weight loss.
Absolutely. People don't read.0 -
Traditionally we've been told that it's all about calories in calories out and you don't have to exercise to lose weight, but recently studies have revealed that exercise is more important in the weight loss journey than previously acknowledged.
So, of course, when you eat at a deficit you will lose weight. It turns out that a deficit is a deficit, no matter how you get there.
Also, when people complain they are not losing weight and they're eating at a deficit, it turns out they probably are not. If one is honest about their intake, they will find they actually eat more than they thing. That's why keeping a diary/log of what we eat is so important, as is weighing and measuring accurately.
Movement/activity/exercise/working out can add to a deficit. However, when people count activities of daily living, they tend to also overestimate how much effort it takes to do things. Which is why, again, keeping an accurate measurement of the calories expended is important.
This tendency to underestimate eating and overestimate calorie expenditure is something that must be addressed for ultimate success.0 -
I understand that some people feel diet is the only way but I got my skinniest treeplanting burning thousands of calories working 12 hour days and eating thousands of calories a day. It takes a lot to do it but if you overwork your consumption you lose. My two cents.0
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WaterBunnie wrote: »But the whole point is that the exercise burn is creating a calorie deficit isn't it?
It doesn't create a deficit if you are someone that eats their exercise calories back as many here on MFP do. Aside from the health benefits some just use exercise as a way to eat more. Nothing wrong with that method especially if it helps them be able to maintain their deficit through diet.
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kshama2001 wrote: »Weight loss happens in the kitchen, fitness happens in the gym. I love to exercise , but I don't need it to lose weight, I just need a calorie deficit.
Weight loss happens wherever you are able to create a calorific deficit. I really dislike the above saying SLL because it blurrs the issue, whilst pretending to be clear. All things being equal 500 calories not eaten is going to be the same as 500 calories burned in the gym.
Tiger, you are missing the point. The original conversation is about exercise being essential to losing weigh, not about whether exercise creates a deficit. Exercise is not requires to lose weight.
I think only one poster took the position that exercise was essential. The OP posited that it was helpful.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?
Actually, you are correct that I misread. However, the point is that you will lose weight whether or not you exercise as long as you are in a calorie deficit.0 -
I don't think this is a controversial topic really.
To lose weight you need to create a calorie deficit / negative energy balance. You can do so by:- diet alone
- exercise alone
- a combination of diet and exercise
Many people choose a combination of diet and exercise because it doesn't entail the greater time commitment of the exercise only approach or the greater reduction in food intake than the diet alone approach. However they can all be successful.
This!
Theoretical person has a sedentary TDEE of 2500 with normal daily activity (they don't currently work out). They want to lose 2lbs a week --> 1000 calorie a day deficit.
Any of these three methods will work, but I'm ranking them from hardest to easiet (IMO of course).
Hardest: Continue to eat 2500 calories a day, do 1000 calories a day of working out. Not easy to sustain that level of activity day in a day out.
Easier: Eat 1500 calories a day, no working out. Not too bad, but it's a little hard to work in treats regularly on 1500 calories so I would give up after a few months.
Easiest: Eat 1700 calories a day, do 200 calories of working out (or whatever level of working out is sustainable for you). You get to eat a little more, but aren't killing yourself with the workouts either. If you find that you want more calories, add extra workout time.
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Based on the positive effects that exercise gives me on an emotional and mental level, exercise is the very important thing in my weight loss plan. To each be their own, but I think the value of a good exercise plan has become undervalued and should not be ignored. Exercising on a regular basis changes the lazy habits that enables some of us to gain weight in the first place. Don't get me wrong, a person's diet has the greatest influence on fat loss, but I think the value ratio between diet/exercise should be 60%/40%. Anyone have any thoughts regarding my theory?0
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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?
Exercise is the CO part of CICO.
It is part of weight loss.
Many people early in the fitness journey can't exercise enough to burn off many calories.
It is a blend of both. Eat less and do more.
Those answers that seem to be extreme all or nothing type answers are often not true for most people.
There is no feelings part to the answer. It is just math.
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Cardio is better
Better than what? Sitting on your butt? With that I would agree.
Don't get me wrong...I tend to favor cardio but I also know that resistance training is just as important.
I am 62.
Cardio helps me be able to walk that 2 mile round trip to the grocery store...resistance training help me be able to carry a loaded backpack...another bag over the shoulder...and pull a load cart back home.
In my case at least...both are equally important...IMO.
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