To explain that exercise does not affect your weight, or impact on obesity rates

[allmyown]

I see this misconception all over MN every day.

Exercise is fantastic for your physical and mental health in many ways, but it is not a weight loss tool.

Posters are forever quoting energy in -minus energy out = energy stored, etc, as if we are petrol engines or something! we are not - this is not how our body works.

It is more like energy available / energy required to maintain weight= energy body decides to use.

Your body burns off excess energy if you are taking in more than your homeostatic systems think you need. Your body slows down and uses far less energy if you have taken in less than your homeostatic system thinks you need.

And so if you lose weight, and go below what your body wants you to be, then your metabolism will just slow down massively to make the weight go back on. And if you exercise a lot, your metabolism will just adjust to accommodate that.

The key to weight loss is making sure your homeostatic systems decide you should be a healthy weight. You can lower the weight your homeostatic systems is attempting to maintain, with healthy eating, cut out sugar, HPF, vegetable oil, margarine, and cut down on wheat.

Eat plenty of fresh food and greens, nothing long dated.

Unless you are running 10K every single day, you are not exercising enough to change your weight, and even if you are, it won't stay changed.

The obesity epidemic is related to sugar, highly processed food, vegetable oil, margarine, etc, and poor diet in general, not too little exercise.

But don't get me wrong, there are other health problems caused by too little exercise, I am not saying exercise is bad, just that an obese child is not necessarily a child getting inadequate exercise, as so many people seem to think.

Read "Why we eat too much" by Andrew Jenkinson, he explains the up to date science in so much more detail.

A few years back when I was trying to exercise away chronic sciatica from disc degeneration and started feeling so good that I really got into exercise, I was spending around 3 hours a day straight after the school run cycling to the gym, bit more cardio, then strength training, then 30 minutes in the pool and cycling home again. I was burning 1000+ cals easily 6 days a week. Did not reign in my eating as all the exercise made me very hungry but I still lost 3.5 stone in 6 months. My body shape change was amazing and I dropped 4 dress sizes (pretty big to start with) despite not losing masses of weight as I built up muscle. I am also have hypothyroidism and was in perimenopause which is not a good combination to make weight loss easy.

It makes me want to cry to think back of how strong and amazing I felt 😭

I then had to stop my regime as I returned to work and couldn’t keep it up in the eves and eventually stopped going at all! Weight piled back with no change in eating habits- although probably ate less as didn’t have that ‘hangry’ feeling after exercise! Sciatica never came back though thankfully.

I‘m a case in point that exercise makes you lose weight but it’s needs to be hard physical exercise in good quantity like running or hours in the gym IMO.

I became a gym bunny and gained weight by putting on muscle.

I am 5'8" and had a 25" waist. The rest of me looked like a racing snake. Stupid nurse gave me a poxy diet sheet because, and I quote, "my BMI was too high." Ibwas do "fat" , I disappeared when I turned sideways.

How do you explain this garmin screen grab of my day so far then?

I don't have an overweight child. Because I understand about healthy diet. I am trying to help other parents understand. I know I am fighting a losing battle against long term ingrained myths and misconceptions, but hopefully at least one or two parents will look into what I am saying and make healthier choices for their children

You missed out yet in that.

I think it needs to be huge amounts of exercise
A friend has lost 6 stone, plus become absolutely shredded without changing his diet - he doesn't eat any fruit or veg so dieting wasn't really possible and he didn't want to
But he does 40 mins spin in the morning, then a run/crossfit/swim plus another 40 mins spin in the evening. Usually 3 ish hours exercise a day

I do 2-3 spin classes plus weights plus netball and my weight hasn't changed from when I did no exercise

That is nothing to do with exercise, but is how your metabolism responds to changing seasons, as all mammals metabolism does. How do you think mammals get through winter with less food available?

Prisoners buy canteen! You can't monitor it accurately at all!! 😂

Interesting thread OP, I first heard this when I read Ultra Processed People and my mind was blown. I told my partner and he didn't believe me!

Annoying isn't it when you get a lecture about BMI? I lecture back to them.

Weight training means Low body fat, increased muscle means more calories needed. Throw out the scales, use a tape measure and avoid constant ruddy fasting unless you want to develop heart problems.

These threads do my head in. Always advertising a book..

OMFG no it's not. Perhaps after running she feels less likely to snack etc. All it is is simple maths she is burning more calories than she is ingesting. Perhaps when it is dark and depressing she comfort eats or has red wine at the pub. Jesus Christ I wish some people would stick a camera on their heads and add up (accurately) how much they eat (yes including finishing the kids left overs and milky drinks etc).

Honestly people, don’t bother - this one is too mince thick to even understand her own argument 😂

I don't think this is correct OP.

When I started powerlifting and building muscle I had to eat more to keep up with the calories I needed to build muscle and not just atrophy.

The bigger your muscles, the more energy those muscles consume per exercise than previously when they were smaller.

I absolutely agree that the metabolism adjusts to compensate for calorie restriction and increased activity, and the science about body 'set point' is interesting and persuasive.

But emphatically, I lose weight and maintain a lower weight when I am more physically active, and gain when I'm not - regardless of what I'm eating, which stays roughly similar these days.

I just don't think it's as black and white as you're stating, OP.

I've read Jenkinson's book by the way, and I rate him. But based on my own experience, I disagree.

This book.... this jenkinson bloke....he's a bariatric surgeon so obvs suits him to not encourage exercise.... he can offer surgery instead and make £££

This winds me up no end because people seem to think it's complicated!! Just bloody track (accurately) what you eat (including weight/volume of food until you can eyeball) then use one of the many free on line calculators and most people will be shocked at their intake! Then just calorie count over a decent period eg a week. If you go out on a weekend don't stress just rein it in over the weekdays if you go over at a weekend. Once you start seeing this works you will never look back, it will become a tool you have for LIFE. As I said unless you are a bikini competitor this is ALL you need forget the details you're all worrying over icing when you haven't baked the effing cake!!!!

of course you can if they are in a study - you can monitor it very accurately.

Why did l not put eight on as a teacher walking 11k steps a day?

Why have l put on weight being totally inactive with bad Long Covid?

Food hasn’t changed. I used to put weight on in the holidays when l wasn’t rushing round school as much.

l think exercise does help a bit.

This is exactly the problem, people think the human body runs on "simple maths" like an electric motor or something, no it doesn't, it is nothing like that.

Clearly not a teacher of maths then!

Yes it is for the average person who is over weight. Once you are an ideal weight aesthetically but want to say compete then yes you need to get very scientific but 99% of people don't. Anyone arguing this is either making excuses or has an undiagnosed medical issue eg thyroid!!!! FACTS

I would have thought this was total nonsense, but it's basically the conclusion of one of the Van Tulleken podcasts. Essentially, I think they were saying that if you use less than your preprogrammed energy quota, then your body will expend that extra energy on unhelpful things- they seemed to think this was largely "inflammation".

I'm still not entirely sold, but I definitely don't think it should be dismissed as a theory. Regardless, moderate exercise is certainly healthier in many many ways than sitting on the sofa scrolling MN.... 🙋‍♀️

Nope....you cannot accurately monitor prisoners, 'study' or not!

But carry on, I'm pmsl at the thought of honesty amongst prisoners food diaries! How many calories in Hooch?

OP, meant nicely, you've completely confused the science as what you've written doesn't make any sense. There are literally thousands of scientific articles making clear the direct link between fat loss and exercise. There is no discussion here. You're misunderstanding what you're reading.

I'll give you an example. I work in London with regular clients, some very keen exercises, some first timers, and a big event yearly (can't specify as outing) which a lot of people will need to actually drop weight for. We work on exercise plus diet to get predictable weight loss timed for the event which we get. That's because weight loss is predictable, it's science. What isn't predictable, of course, is how stress, life and emotions can get in the way for people who try to lose fat, in general! So I'm not saying it's easy
But if you're ready and you have a goal and you commit it's pretty predictable because the science is so solid so it's not hard to create a game plan for fat loss for a specific event/time/etc (taking emotions out is hard though!).

OP if what you’re saying is true then why can elite athletes eat many thousands of calories a day and stay slim. If what you’re saying is correct then all the thousands of extra calories they eat would make them put on weight. But that doesn’t happen does it - because they are using those calories with all the exercise!