How Does Exercise Relate to Weight Loss?

Almost everyone who has ever tried to lose weight has experienced the disappointment of trying to exercise and not seeing the scale budge.  Or worse yet – the number keeps going up!  We have been told for years that the way to lose weight is to exercise and burn more calories.  Society has a stigma that people who are overweight are lazy and just don’t exercise.  Yet we have all seen overweight people out exercising, or we have been those people ourselves and have not lost weight.  How can this be? 

Personally, I have always been fairly active, exercising on a regular basis.  After having kids and getting into my late 30’s I was gaining weight.  Naturally, I thought the answer was to increase the amount I was exercising.  I ran several half marathons, and finally a whole marathon (mainly a bucket list event!) but ended up actually gaining weight during that time. I was incredulous – running for 1-3 hrs per day for several months and I managed to gain 10 lbs?  As my weight continued to creep up, I tried other exercise such as weight lifting, and intense cycling classes.  I would get up at 4:30am some days just to make sure I did not miss my hour long workout because I wanted to keep the weight off.  It did not work, and the number on the scale continued to rise.   I was trying so hard, and constantly felt defeated.

You Can’t Outrun a Bad Diet

Undoubtedly you have heard the saying “you can’t outrun a bad diet.”  When you stop to think about it, this actually does make sense and explains why exercising does not generally result in weight loss alone.  Let’s take the example of running or walking a mile.  In general, this burns about 100 calories in the average sized person.   The average calorie count of a single slice of pepperoni pizza is 300 calories.  As you know, I generally do not recommend counting calories, but for the sake of this example, you can see that you would need to run three miles in order to eat a single piece of pizza.  The problem is after hard exercise you often have increased hunger and could easily eat 3 slices! 

A couple of additional factors are at work with hard exercise that can derail your weight loss efforts.  Stressful, difficult exercise can raise your cortisol levels (stress hormone) which can make it harder to lose weight.  Another phenomenon is that after a long hard workout, the body naturally tries to conserve energy the rest of the day.   Think of the last workout you did that was either long, or harder than usual.  How much did you move the rest of the day?  Did you feel exhausted and mainly watch Netflix? This is the body trying to stay in homeostasis, keeping overall energy expenditure roughly the same.  So, while you are congratulating yourself on your workout, and telling yourself you “deserve” an extra treat for working out, your body is conserving energy and you haven’t really burned that much extra.  It’s a frustrating cycle that leads many people to give up.

Decouple Exercise From Weight Loss

So far I have painted a very negative picture of exercise as a weight loss tool.  This is exactly the point that I am making – do NOT view exercise as a tool for weight loss.  For success in your weight loss program, you need to completely decouple exercise from your weight loss efforts.  Your weight loss comes from decreasing your overdesire for food, eating the proper foods, and using your body’s hormones to your advantage.  The calories in = calories out model is outdated and does not serve our goals.

So Why Exercise?

When I work with clients, and talk about exercise, I ask them to picture someone who is in their 80’s and is a role model of how they want to be when they reach that age.  Chances are good that you have pictured someone who is active, independent, and is out and about in the community.  Without fail, this role model generally continues some form of exercise, even if only a daily walk.  They are getting around on their own, and continuing to have a productive life.  Women start to lose approximately ½ pound of muscle every year in their 30’s.  If not counteracted with physical movement and some resistance training, this can lead to deconditioning and loss of being able to perform basic functions as we age. 

There are numerous other benefits to exercise that contribute to your overall well-being.  We know that regular exercise improves your overall mood through natural endorphins.  This is true of exercise done on your own, but increases even more when you exercise with friends and have a sense of community and connection added to the exercise.  Resistance training has been shown to be most effective in preventing osteoporosis as we age.  Mental alertness and memory are both improved with regular exercise.  In fact, studies show that employees are more productive at work after exercise, and kids even do better in school after a morning exercise program.  Exercise improves the quality of your sleep, and has been even shown to decrease rates of cancer and some chronic diseases. 

Develop A Healthy Mindset as Well as a Healthy Body

In summary, exercise is wonderful for your body, but less effective for weight loss.  Shows like “The Biggest Loser” and many others have ingrained in us that we can sweat off weight at the gym, but this is just not the case.  Focus on exercise as a form of self-care, and focus on what and when you are eating in order to lose weight.  Both have a role in your overall well-being, but should be kept separate.  Otherwise you will be disappointed and end up quitting your exercise program, your food protocol, or both. 

Do you have a negative mindset around exercise and dread the thought of doing it?  For most of us this lies in how we are approaching exercise, and how we are thinking about it in general. I work with clients to develop a healthy mindset, and create a program that results in weight loss, as well as a healthy body.  If you are interested in learning more, please book a free strategy session and see how you can get the results you want.