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.

Sorry OP, Maybe that's true for you, but for me, when I exercise I lose my winter flab.

When spring arrives and I can go running (10k a week, not a day), I usually drop 12-14 lbs in the following three months.

Then it's November, I have no desire to run in the frost or rain, and my winter flab goes back on again. Every year without fail.

By your logic OP the fact I eat almost 1,000 calories a day more now than I did 10 years ago means that I should be heavier.....

But I'm not. I'm 4.5 stone lighter.

Because I do A LOT more exercise.

Not true for me. When I was running 10k 3 times a week I couldn't keep weight on. I lost loads, as soon as I stopped I put it back on.

But you're completely wrong! Tonnes of research makes very clear that exercise leads to fat loss. There's a direct positive correlation. I have a master's degree in exercise physiology, have done many biology courses and I've been a PT for 20 years. This is exercise 101.

I appreciate you have good intentions in posting. While I wish these strange ideas weren't always pinging around, I'll be completely honest in that ongoing strange ideas, and subsequent failure to lose fat or achieve any fat loss goals, is what keeps a lot of PTs in full time work.

I never knew this! Thank you x

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy_vcL1cpP8
Professor Yeo

So explain to me how I managed to lose over a stone and 30 odd inches in body measurements through a weight lifting programme. Of course it’s connected although exercise alone won’t shift the weight.

A lot of the 'exercise doesn't make you lose weight' comes from people who HUGELY overestimate how many calories they use when exercising. I run a fair bit, (around 8-10k a day, 5 days a week) and it did take me a while to work out that, if I came back and ate an iced bun, I'd completely undone any good that the run might have done. You have to do quite a lot of active exercise to burn a significant number of calories.

We all need to look to our diets, however active we might be.

I disagree. When I had an active job, on my feet most of the day plus walking two miles there and two miles back, I found it very easy to maintain a healthy weight.

Since starting an office job and having to commute on bus or tube, I have put on weight.

I don't think I am eating more. I didn't used to have to think about what I ate. But now I do, with the lack of walking. So I'm taking steps (haha) to increase the exercise again.

Perhaps this is quite individual and not everyone's body works the same?

The OP sounds like a Slimming World representative 🙄 always the same bullshit. Ah don't bother exercising, just pay weekly to follow a shit diet where the minute you eat a slice of bread or drink an extra drop off skimmed milk the weight goes back on.

2 years ago I went from a sedentary desk job to a very active on my feet job with lots of heavy lifting and I thought "great, maybe I'll lose some weight!" But nothing has happened. I weigh exactly the same as when I started and I can easily log 10k steps per shift 😭I think the whole picture is import, calories, types of food and exercise

I had severe sciatica and lost 5kg, because I was in too much pain to go up and down the stairs to make food for myself. No exercise was possible but lack of food meant the weight dropped off.

I have recently remodelled the garden. It’s not exactly a work out but pottering about for hours means that I haven’t been picking at food. Too much hassle removing gloves, washing hands etc. Also I like to finish a job before taking a break. I’ve lost well over 3kg.

Also following the eat when you feel hungry is a good way of maintaining weight. I quite often miss lunch if I’m not hungry but then have early dinner.

I find exercise VERY good at keeping my bodyfat down, running especially melts the fat away

I voted UANBU, but I'm not sure. I haven't read any of the research you mention (could you link some here, I don't think I'll order the book).

My experience as someone slightly overweight who used to be easily slim. If you're relatively active already, I don't think 1-2 spin classes or runs a week will make much difference. On a bike I burn about 200 calories in 20 minutes - if we look at the calories in a Mars bar, that isn't going to touch the sides of a bad diet. If you're already active and have a bad diet, then a couple of exercise classes won't fix weight gain.

However, if a person goes from completely sedentary, not even walking 2000 steps a day (e.g. due to working from home), to doing: 5 days of weights, plus 10,000 steps a day, plus 4 days heavy cardio (run, spin), then I think it will make a huge difference. For example, to someone who is slowly adding lbs over the years.

Right now my diet is OK, not great, not terrible. I've been putting on 1kg a year for the past 10 years. I'm 5 foot 10. My biggest problem is being completely sedentary and too much wine and cake on the weekend. I think if I was still sedentary and cut the wine and cake then I wouldn't lose weight, or would lose very slowly. If I cut the wine/cake and really went for it at the gym then it would fall off.

Not to mention, I think shape, size and "tone" (how I look) is much more important than how much I weigh on the scales.

Just my 2 cents. I feel like there is something in what you're saying, but I want to see all the facts without reading a whole book.

I’m not sure.

i agree you can’t outrun a bad diet and the danger is if you’ve done an exercise class or gone for a run some people over estimate how many calories they burnt and treat themselves by eating chock, etc and won’t lose weight.

when I changed job and had to bike 5 miles a day and walk more at work I lost weight and my diet hadn’t changed.

when I changed job again and biked 14 miles a day I lost more weight. When Covid happened and I worked from home I put on weight.

dh eats more than I do, he runs ultra marathons , he runs most days training and is stick thin. I eat less than he does, do an exercise class a day, walk the dog and cycle and I really have to watch my weight.

I think OP may have misunderstood the science a bit.

If you exercise regularly your body becomes more efficient at that type of exercise/movement and thus burns less calories doing it than you did initially, however, your BMR doesn't change. You still burn more calories than you would if you weren't moving.

BMR is literally the amount of calories your body needs to use to keep you alive. We're already pretty efficient at breathing, digesting food etc. so there is no way for the body to use less energy to keep us alive.

This is nonsense 😂 I lost five stone by walking. I put on ten pounds when I stopped my physical job.

Well I think it goes without saying that not eating will make you lose weight. I hope your sciatica is much better, that sounds awful.

Not true for me.

I eat exactly the same as when I was doing 90 minutes of ashtanga yoga per day. I was 9 stone then. I'm 13 stone now!

@allmyown

What people do is exercise but eat more, then wonder why they don't lose weight.
See it all the time, someone does a 10k or a 1k swim, then tucks into a cake and a creamy coffee, then moans "i'm still fat"

If you exercise xx hours per week but keep your diet the same as before you started to exercise, the weight will come off.

Obviously what you eat matters but with a balanced diet and few processed foods, the weight comes off IF you don't eat more.

How can it not?

The NHS disagrees that exercise doesn't help you lose weight.
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/managing-your-weight/tips-to-help-you-lose-weight/

So does nearly every other medical site that came up when I googled it.

Although a lot of what you stated is true, exercise helps because it can suppress appetite.Also when you are exercising you aren’t eating!

Seriously can we get over this obsession with weight. Move for joy. Eat because it’s enjoyable and / or because it is necessary for your survival. Calories in/out is long debunked.

So you're saying BMR isn't a constant, it adapts itself depending on how much exercise you've done that day? Never heard that before, I thought it was pretty much constant?

So if my BMR is 1500, on a lazy day I'll only burn another 300 on top, so 1800 total. But the next day I go for a run which would burn another 600 calories, then that day my BMR drops to 900 to compensate? That surprises me.

Also, the flipside of what you're saying is that if someone consumes more calories than they need, then your BMR will just increase to soak them up. If that were the case then no one would ever get obese.

Thank you - yes, I know this is well and widely known and understood, but I still see misconceptions about it on MN every day, and people who think that scientific facts are something they can opinion away, as well.