Exercising won’t help you lose weight. Only cutting calories REALLY makes the difference.
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Ok... after the comments, not even going to read article.... I mean calories are king, exercise helps burn more and allow you to eat a little more when losing.... whole different ball game for maintanace. Exercise is very important. *edit* also want to note, you probably won't see too many obese hunter gatherers. I think the human body was meant to move. These people probably walk 17km a day... just MY observation. Actually there is some evidence that when you make a hunter gatherer group sedentary and give them high calorie food, well... they become obese...just saying..8
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LindseyUtibe wrote: »https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-exercise-paradox/
Or, free summary if you don’t want to pay for the publishers fee: https://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/why_physical_activity_does_little_to_control_weight
Exercise makes a huge difference for me. For some reason it makes me about 90% less likely to overeat. I am less focused on food and less bored. I don't want to outeat my calorie burn most of the time. Only time I gain weight is when I am not exercising.13 -
WillingtoLose1001984 wrote: »LindseyUtibe wrote: »https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-exercise-paradox/
Or, free summary if you don’t want to pay for the publishers fee: https://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/why_physical_activity_does_little_to_control_weight
Exercise makes a huge difference for me. For some reason it makes me about 90% less likely to overeat. I am less focused on food and less bored. I don't want to outeat my calorie burn most of the time. Only time I gain weight is when I am not exercising. I think people on here underestimate the benefits of exercising on what you end up consuming.
I think the biggest problem is the bolded/underlined in your post - extrapolating n=1 to n=all.
Some people find that exercise reduces their appetite. Others find that it makes them hungrier and they eat a lot more (or struggle very hard not to do so). Some find cardio hunger-inducing ("runger"), some discover that strength training does it to them. Personally, neither running nor strength training have any effect upon my appetite either way - but for whatever reason, swimming makes me absolutely famished, like I could eat a house and everything in it. If swimming was my main form of exercise, I would have found weight loss a lot more difficult and I would have been hangry a lot more than I was.
Exercise can certainly help create a calorie deficit (and is a good idea for a lot of other reasons), but you can't out-train a bad diet. I don't think it's at all accurate to say "exercise won't help you lose weight", but your calorie intake will be the primary driver.12 -
I lost at around 1 pound a week. I burned around 500 calories a day with exercise when I was actively losing.
Did that 1 pound a week loss come from the 500 calorie a day deficit created from the amount of food I ate or was it from the 500 calories extra a day I could eat because of exercise?
You can not say that exercising won’t help you lose weight. Only cutting calories REALLY makes the difference. You can lose weight without exercising and what you eat makes a more significant difference for most people because there simply are not enough hours in the day to eat away a poor diet through exercise. To say that exercise makes no difference is, however, incorrect. It is all part of balancing the CICO equation.4 -
I don't know about not being about to "out-train a bad diet." I hear that phrase a lot and I guess I don't even know what that saying means. Because whenever I totally blow my calorie budget (I love to bake), I just go for a run and it's all cool again. It sure seems to work for me on a regular basis. I'm a middle-aged person who has been maintaining at goal for over 7 years and I'm pretty fit from out-training my bad diet all the time. I'm terrible, I know.
ETA: IMO, it's all about the calorie deficit. Whether you get that from restricting food intake or increasing activity, or both, it doesn't matter to me. If you're doing it right (accuracy and consistency) it all does the same thing in the end. Different methods are going to appeal to different people. Rock on, everyone!
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I've successfully lost weight using 3 methods ...
-- exercising a lot, and eating quite a bit too.
-- cutting back on what I've been eating, and not exercising very much.
-- a combination of cutting back on what I've been eating and exercising.
In my 20s, I had crept up just into the "overweight" category. I began cycling a whole lot, plus other exercise like walking, weight lifting, and cross-country skiing ... and lost the weight. I kept it off for a couple decades by continuing to do a whole lot of exercise.
In my early 40s, I crept back up into the "overweight" category. That winter, I didn't do much exercise (just walking 3 km/day to get to work and back) but cut back on what I was eating ... and lost the weight.
Most recently, late 40s, I had crept back up into the "overweight" category again. I came here and did a combo of the two ... and lost the weight.11 -
What if I tell you it's possible to cut calories while consuming what would have otherwise been your maintenance calories if you introduce more exercise. Would that blow your mind?
My current sedentary maintenance is just under 2000 calories. On days I'm more active I'm able to maintain my deficit eating 2000 calories.9 -
Exercise is the tipping point for some people because they intuitively eat maintenance calories and exercise creates the deficit. This is why some people march through here extolling the power of exercise while also saying they never stopped eating differently. Unfortunately these results are only reproduceable in very specific situations so mimicking them is likely to end in failure.
That is not to say people shouldn't exercise or praise exercise they just shouldn't expect it to be the key to their weight loss by itself.7 -
Exercise is the tipping point for some people because they intuitively eat maintenance calories and exercise creates the deficit. This is why some people march through here extolling the power of exercise while also saying they never stopped eating differently. Unfortunately these results are only reproduceable in very specific situations so mimicking them is likely to end in failure.
That is not to say people shouldn't exercise or praise exercise they just shouldn't expect it to be the key to their weight loss by itself.
I think the biggest problem with that route is the possibility that you could become injured, which would result in a major change in how you have managed weight loss. I know it is always in the back of my mind that there could come a time when I can not burn as much as I now am and will have to make changes to compensate.3 -
NorthCascades wrote: »It's kind of like saying your side business won't pay for your house. But it's still better to have an extra income.
I love this analogy! I have two jobs & my part time one doesn't pay the mortgage, but it puts food on the table. I could have lost the weight I did without exercise, but the exercise has added to my quality of life even more than just the weight loss alone.5 -
Lillymoo01 wrote: »Exercise is the tipping point for some people because they intuitively eat maintenance calories and exercise creates the deficit. This is why some people march through here extolling the power of exercise while also saying they never stopped eating differently. Unfortunately these results are only reproduceable in very specific situations so mimicking them is likely to end in failure.
That is not to say people shouldn't exercise or praise exercise they just shouldn't expect it to be the key to their weight loss by itself.
I think the biggest problem with that route is the possibility that you could become injured, which would result in a major change in how you have managed weight loss. I know it is always in the back of my mind that there could come a time when I can not burn as much as I now am and will have to make changes to compensate.
Add to that if you eat intuitively you may eat more after exercise and then negate your deficit and outside of injury if a person requires a gym to exercise life can get in the way with work, personal responsibilities, and finances for weeks or more.
It does work for a select few but it is not a plan a person should count on.
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Lillymoo01 wrote: »Exercise is the tipping point for some people because they intuitively eat maintenance calories and exercise creates the deficit. This is why some people march through here extolling the power of exercise while also saying they never stopped eating differently. Unfortunately these results are only reproduceable in very specific situations so mimicking them is likely to end in failure.
That is not to say people shouldn't exercise or praise exercise they just shouldn't expect it to be the key to their weight loss by itself.
I think the biggest problem with that route is the possibility that you could become injured, which would result in a major change in how you have managed weight loss. I know it is always in the back of my mind that there could come a time when I can not burn as much as I now am and will have to make changes to compensate.
Add to that if you eat intuitively you may eat more after exercise and then negate your deficit and outside of injury if a person requires a gym to exercise life can get in the way with work, personal responsibilities, and finances for weeks or more.
It does work for a select few but it is not a plan a person should count on.
That's why for me, tracking is NECESSARY! I know that if I get hurt, I have to eat less. That's the end of it.3 -
TavistockToad wrote: »That's absurd. Of course weight loss is all about the calories, and making sure you consume fewer than you burn. But if the calories I burn during exercise contribute to that deficit, then it does help. Sorry, that's just physics at work.
(Of course, if you do what I did during training for my first marathon years ago and eat all the calories you burned back plus extra, then yeah, exercise won't help you lose. LOL. )
The runger is real!! :bigsmile:
Yes it is!!!0 -
What I notice about my body is that when I walk I need to eat those calories back because I’m hungrier, and on days I don’t walk I’m not needing to eat extra. I’m on my 4th month of maintenance and haven’t gained any of the weight I’ve lost. And that’s just staying in my caloric maintenance. Regardless of my walling which is my form of exercise, or not. Just pay attention to your body. It will eventually tell you how much to eat.0
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WillingtoLose1001984 wrote: »LindseyUtibe wrote: »https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-exercise-paradox/
Or, free summary if you don’t want to pay for the publishers fee: https://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/why_physical_activity_does_little_to_control_weight
Exercise makes a huge difference for me. For some reason it makes me about 90% less likely to overeat. I am less focused on food and less bored. I don't want to outeat my calorie burn most of the time. Only time I gain weight is when I am not exercising.
This is essentially true for me as well - exercise generally prevents me from stress eating or bored eating.5 -
kshama2001 wrote: »WillingtoLose1001984 wrote: »LindseyUtibe wrote: »https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-exercise-paradox/
Or, free summary if you don’t want to pay for the publishers fee: https://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/why_physical_activity_does_little_to_control_weight
Exercise makes a huge difference for me. For some reason it makes me about 90% less likely to overeat. I am less focused on food and less bored. I don't want to outeat my calorie burn most of the time. Only time I gain weight is when I am not exercising.
This is essentially true for me as well - exercise generally prevents me from stress eating or bored eating.
Same. I find I have no problem finding room to eat back my exercise calories, but I shoot for 50% of those and seldom feel hungry. And it occupies my time, so I'm less bored. And it helps my stress levels.2 -
kshama2001 wrote: »WillingtoLose1001984 wrote: »LindseyUtibe wrote: »https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-exercise-paradox/
Or, free summary if you don’t want to pay for the publishers fee: https://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/why_physical_activity_does_little_to_control_weight
Exercise makes a huge difference for me. For some reason it makes me about 90% less likely to overeat. I am less focused on food and less bored. I don't want to outeat my calorie burn most of the time. Only time I gain weight is when I am not exercising.
This is essentially true for me as well - exercise generally prevents me from stress eating or bored eating.
Yes, and I usually feel less hungry when I exercise a lot. For example, when I cycle a century (100 miles) or more, initially I feel like I'm really hungry, but when I start eating, I discover I'm not. Evidently (I've been told) the blood goes to the legs and away from the stomach and it takes a while before things go back to normal.
When I've lost weight exercising and eating normally or slightly larger quantities, I've been cycling centuries or more just about every weekend ... plus lots of cycling during the week, plus walking as my recovery activity.1 -
I generally find the more active I am the less hungry I am, except for the odd day here and there when the hormones take over and all hell breaks loose.1
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Lillymoo01 wrote: »Exercise is the tipping point for some people because they intuitively eat maintenance calories and exercise creates the deficit. This is why some people march through here extolling the power of exercise while also saying they never stopped eating differently. Unfortunately these results are only reproduceable in very specific situations so mimicking them is likely to end in failure.
That is not to say people shouldn't exercise or praise exercise they just shouldn't expect it to be the key to their weight loss by itself.
I think the biggest problem with that route is the possibility that you could become injured, which would result in a major change in how you have managed weight loss. I know it is always in the back of my mind that there could come a time when I can not burn as much as I now am and will have to make changes to compensate.
When I got hit by a car riding my bike, I wasn't able to exercise for weeks, and only walking for about a month. My appetite shrank like you wouldn't believe.4 -
WillingtoLose1001984 wrote: »LindseyUtibe wrote: »https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-exercise-paradox/
Or, free summary if you don’t want to pay for the publishers fee: https://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/why_physical_activity_does_little_to_control_weight
Exercise makes a huge difference for me. For some reason it makes me about 90% less likely to overeat. I am less focused on food and less bored. I don't want to outeat my calorie burn most of the time. Only time I gain weight is when I am not exercising.
A lot of people eat for emotional reasons. Probably everybody does sometimes.
Exercise can provide the same joy and satisfaction as delicious food. It can be fulfilling. Reaching goals makes you feel great. When you're getting all of that from exercise, it's natural that you don't need to look to food for it.4
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