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.

Why the desperate need to share it? If people find what works for them who cares? Why is it any of your business?

@RagingTiger, I think, reading through this thread, it is in defence of certain courses of action in the presence of criticism.

The op was defending parents of obese children who she felt received flack for allowing them to be overly sedentary. I myself, am defensive of running as well as exercise in general.

And this because it can be an emotive topic. Exercise was part of my recovery after cancer treatment and I associate it with that. I was overweight with a bad back after finishing treatment and over a period of 3 years lost 4 stone (back to the weight and size of my youth in my 50s) with much improved fitness and strength.

I agree with this. I do strength training but don’t lift very heavy weights or do powerlifting, repeatedly lifting heavy weights in a controlled setting is very far from natural activity which is much more functional with balance, explosive strength and endurance all playing their parts.

I’m toned with visible muscle definition but also lean so I definitely don’t have a lot of muscle mass I don’t need. My functional training of choice is martial arts, I get cardio, strength, balance and overall body conditioning in one go plus I definitely don’t “push myself over the limit”. It’s a lifelong journey of self discovery and discipline, not a “let’s drop some stones before holiday” mentality.

Climbing, specifically bouldering, also seems to help people shift weight in a similar way to weight training, you spend your whole session doing almost nothing but peak and trough exertion. Go 100% then rest, go 100% then rest.

Anecdotally but most of the people I know who have tried to lose weight aerobically just seemed to get fitter, like their body was more adapting to moving that weight instead of losing it. OH for example slowest/negligible weight loss was from doing couch to 5k. She got much fitter though, then when she was more fit she switched to climbing again and the inches started coming off. This time round she didn't do the running part and just went straight into climbing and again even in the first couple of weeks at twice a week and you could see the difference. In her it's like flicking a switch

@OneTC yeah, everybody I think is different with individual requirements. I did lose weight with running. As I have said previously I think being aerobically fitter is beneficial for weight loss as it helps the body's efficiency at burning body fat for fuel when needed so someone can carry on instead of experiencing a slump in energy and then stopping.

It's interesting that your OH did couch to 5k. My own criticism of this method when it first emerged was that it didn't emphasise good technique enough. Running inefficiently is hard!!!! I thought I couldn't run until I learnt good technique. Some people have an incredible amount of stamina though. Thing is that makes for a harder work out which isn't at maximum aerobic function (see MAF training).

Climbing, specifically bouldering, also seems to help people shift weight in a similar way to weight training, you spend your whole session doing almost nothing but peak and trough exertion

I'd certainly be shifting my dinner one way or another at regular intervals if I had to something involving heights for exercise 😱

I tried pole fitness once and got vertigo on a ten foot pole.

I don't really see the point of HIIT, I must say. When I run or do the mountain climber, or row, or really go for it on a bike or cross trainer my heart rate goes up to 150 and sometimes more anyway, and I can sustain that for 45 minutes on a run outdoors. I think that's quite a challenge enough for someone aged 48 and I don't really need my heart to be going a lot faster, even for short periods!

That's absolutely fine, @shearwater2 - if you enjoy running, cross-training and rowing. I happen to enjoy HIIT, so that's what I do. Plus working out with dumbbells and doing calisthenics exercises. Both can raise the heart rate considerably.

I think the posters who are chiefly interested in losing weight have left this thread and now it's just those of us who are interested in strength and fitness who are left...

At the end of the day what matters is that we listen to our bodies and do what works for us - and what we actually enjoy doing. I'm 70 and yesterday I worked out for 80 minutes, swam c. 250m, biked a few miles and played pickleball for an hour so. And cleaned the house, went shopping and cooked dinner. I call that functional fitness and active retirement!

I get this on UPF. But why was I so underweight on a diet of pure UPF? Now that I eat more healthily I'm a normal weight.

I'm just curious - there's a lot of skinny people who eat UPF too

My dm lived on UPF since the 70’s.

Very slim. Lived until she was 86. We were bought up on it. Still
alive and kicking.

Sorry to hear about your dad.
Yes, it's important to listen to your body and not push too hard. Some people hit the genetic lottery and their bodies can take a lot. Others not so much.

I know somebody who was in competitive dance from the age of seven. Now in her thirties, she has the knees of an elderly woman. The dancing did tremendous damage.

Absolutely. I'm sorry if I sounded scathing. It was not intended. All I was saying is that if you have been working out awhile but not getting the results you want, it could be that what you are missing is intensity. I do the slow runs too. I was never a fast runner. I'm just not genetically gifted for it. I alternate the runs with HIIT and kickboxing for my cardio. The cross training helps prevent overuse injuries.
Naturally, an unfit beginner needs to start with something low intensity and low impact like walking.

Does your Fitbit know your weight? It seems quite a lot to me.

@XChrome no worries, I appreciate I can be a bit sensitive to it. I people can be quick to criticise exercise, runners can often be up for flack IME. Yet it has been really was great for my recovery. Circulatory systems, blood vessels and lymph vessels can be toned (Wim Hoff mentions this) and exercise can be part of that. This is another important reason running is great for me as my cancer treatment involved the removal of some lymph nodes plus the chemo can harden blood vessels. After chemo you could actually see the tightness in the veins where it entered my arm. That's all gone now.

Funny you mention being genetically gifted. Whilst I appreciate we also have starting points I also think is important to point out that there is often much room for improvement with the right technique. I thought I couldn't run hardly at all. Was awful at cross country at school even though I was first enough to cycle all day. But subsequently at almost 50 I learnt the correct technique and discovered I could run (albeit slowly initially) pretty much immediately. Now I run 10k a day. My DH was a pretty good runner but on studying technique is now winning his age category in races.

Fit enough to cycle

Exercise is part of the equation to lose weight-particularly if you have never really exercised, meaning your metabolism is sluggish-even if you consume a tiny amount of calories with no kick up the backside to your metabolism you will not reach your weight goals, and even if you do as soon as you eat anything you will put the weight back on.

I'm sorry to hear you had cancer, but delighted you are recovering so well. 🙂

I think my running technique is okay. I've tried every which way but it was always a struggle. I think a lot of it is that I find running fast wholly unpleasant. Now I take it easy. I don't struggle with speed at other forms of cardio. It seems to be specific to running. For example, I can swim fast and don't find it unpleasant. But then, I love to swim, have been an enthusiastic water baby all my life. I think how much you enjoy it is a big factor.

This is bizarre. Why cut out wheat (unless the obvious coeliac disease/non gluten sensitivity) - posts like this cause more harm than good with little evidence to back up statements.

Why not encourage people to seek advice from Dietitians instead.

@XChrome,

I think my running technique is okay. I've tried every which way but it was always a struggle. I think a lot of it is that I find running fast wholly unpleasant.

Ah, I don't run particularly fast either. Although if you saw me you wouldn't think particularly slow either. A fast speed is just not my measure of success. Being able to keep on running is my measure of success and what it does for me - what it makes me feel like. I can lose myself in it. That feeling of flow. But you can get a good feeling from other sports. Whatever works for you.🙂

@Gwenhwyfar yes, my Fitbit knows my weight. (I'm not heavy now, low end of BMI). It's only a basic one though and works on steps. Might be affected by my technique, short steps, fast cadence, slow running. So I appreciate is approximate. But it has been enough for me to work out how to lose weight in the past and how to maintain now. You just have to look for patterns between exercise and eating and weight fluctuations.

I think you have a point here. As a yo-yo dieter I have lost weight on strict diets and each time put on more weight than I lost, even when exercising. Since I decided to eat only if I’m hungry, or a little of what I fancy and stopping when I’m no longer enjoying the taste I’ve lost almost 20kgs. Unfortunately due to extensive arthritis I don’t get to do energy burning exercise, but I think relearning to listen to your body and the point at which you feel you could eat a little more and also recognising that if you do you’ll ruin the enjoyment of the meal helps. It does take some explaining to your loved ones that leaving food does not mean a rejection of their lovingly prepared meals - I say at the start that my appetite is very small and not eating it all is just means that I become full very quickly.

I think the relatively wide indications that UPFs leave your body feeling unsatisfied has a great deal to do with the obesity crisis and exercise will not not address that problem by itself.

@Coco1379 I just cut my portion down before eating and freeze the rest for lunch! 😉DH has been quite jealous before of my hot lunches! 😁

So why do I lose weight when I work out at the gym?

Yep you are absolutely right… But most people will probably not want to agree with you as they’re in denial and want to keep eating their huge portion sizes (not that they even realise how oversized their portion sizes are), high saturated fat/sugar/salt diet, lack of fresh fruit/veg, unhealthy snacking, and alcohol/unhealthy drinks. Exercise is fantastic for strength, endurance, and 1M other things - but if people actually want to start losing weight and maintain a healthy size, they need to take a good look at what they’re fuelling their body with. Most people actually don’t even realise how terrible their diets are; they genuinely believe they fuel their bodies in a normal/healthy way but unless they have a genuine medical reason (rare), then the reason they’re not a healthy weight is entirely down to diet.

That sounds about right - at least not wildly wrong. Isn't it about 100 cals per mile?

@CharlotteBog yeah, I sort of think there or thereabouts.