DH has out-exercised a bad diet. How is this possible?

@fellrunner85 and @RunningFromInsanity

You both mention that you exercise a lot - enough to essentially mean you can eat what you want without weight gain.

Would you mind breaking down what exercise you do on a weekly basis? Just to satisfy my curiosity

You have to do a lot of exercise! 2/3 times a week isn’t enough - 6 days a week is more likely

Absolutely. And your idea of a rest day is probably a long walk or bike ride.

Meanwhile I'm low carbing, running regularly and still gaining weight

Then you need to eat less or run more.

I think "natural shape" has little to do with it, and even less when you get older. In my case, my family are mainly fat. I used to be fat. I'm now not fat because I run a lot.

You have to do a lot of exercise! 2/3 times a week isn’t enough - 6 days a week is more likely (making sure the intensity etc is varied).

If the key to weight loss really is calorie deficit then it shouldn't matter how many calories you take in as long as you expend more should it?

So if you eat 6000 calories a day but expend 6500 you'll lose weight, it would just be really difficult to use that much energy but theory is the same.

I don't have a bad diet but I do eat pretty much what I want. I'm certainly not dietting. I limit alcohol to a minimum and run 50k plus a week. Personally if I hear the phrase 'out exercise a bad diet' I wonder why on earth they are going to all the effort of the exercise yet too lazy to fix the bad diet for other health reasons that just weight.

Same as me.
I eat A LOT. Huge portions and lots of snacking.
But I exercise A LOT.
So am a perfect weight and toned.

It is possible.

It surely must also be genetic/natural shape. My DH is lean and muscular naturally. He doesn't diet, in fact the opposite (very sweet tooth). He does moderate exercise but nothing major and with lockdown has been pretty sedentary other than a couple of half hour exercise videos per week. He's still lean and muscular. I don't really get it, so figure it has to be genetics?

Meanwhile I'm low carbing, running regularly and still gaining weight

It is absolutely possible to out-exercise a bad diet. Most people just don't do enough exercise for this to be the case.

After being a size 12-14 for most of my adult life, I'm now a size 8 and eat pretty much what I like - I just run a lot. I don't drink and I don't eat takeaways/fast food, but I do eat large portions and a lot of chocolate and biscuits.

Most people who do a very high volume of running, cycling etc eat shedloads. We can outrun a "bad" diet...but the same can't usually be said of people who do c25k, a few gym classes, or whatever. Which is why many people believe the mantra to be true, when in reality they're just not doing the levels of exercise it requires over the long term.

If he's having a lot of sugary foods then he may still be building up health problems but they're not obvious as he looks fit.

You don’t need much of a calorie excess to gain weight over time

Coz the books have a simple message & reaility isn't so simple.

Maybe his calorie excess was relatively small, just 300-600/day. That's enough to put on a lot of weight and with a sedentary lifestyle end up quite flabby.

Because he's in a calorie deficit overall.

If he's losing body fat and toning up with muscle then those muscles require energy that fat doesn't.