Science proves exercise alone won't help you lose much weight

We are at that time of year where everyone is busy making New Years’ resolution. Sometimes, it’s the same resolution as last year, and the year before … Year after year, we consume too much food and drinks over the holidays, and we want to shed those excess pounds we gained and get into shape.

But before you sign up for another gym membership promotion, hoping that this year you can lose weight and get in shape by working out regularly, let me ask you this:

How did that work out for you last year? Or the year before that? Do you think this year will be any different?

You may be very enthusiastic at first, going to the gym every day, taking as many fitness classes as you can, lifting weights, doing spin classes, kick boxing, etc…

Your enthusiasm may last about 30 days, maybe even up to 2 months. We notice this because, the parking lot at the gym is always full the first 2 months of the year. And then, it gets emptier and emptier.

You burn out, because your body was never conditioned to work like this and you are discouraged. Not only do you not have a six pack. Most of you may barely have lost more than a few pounds! Definitely not the 30 pounds that you were hoping to lose in 2 months.

In some cases you may have actually gained weight? How is that possible? Are you not working out hard enough? Are you not running enough miles?

What’s the point of exercising if not to lose weight?

 Exercise is essential for your health. It improves your blood pressure, lowers your cholesterol and sugar levels, helps you get a restful sleep, increases focus and attention, bumps up your energy and mood and may even help to prevent degenerative diseases such as cancer and heart disease.

 However exercising alone is just not enough to lose weight. 

 Before you call me crazy, let me show you the Science.

 Weight balance is all about energy balance, energy in is from the foods you eat and energy out is how your body burns that energy. Energy is measured in calories.

• To lose weight, energy in < energy out. 
• To maintain weight, energy in =  energy out.
• To gain weight, energy in > energy out.

So to lose weight, all you have to do is exercise to burn more energy then you are eating. Easy peasy right?

If you exercise more you can continue to indulge yourself afterwards as a reward.  That is so far from the truth but it is is what the gyms and the food industries want you to believe.

The problem with this thinking is that Exercise accounts only for a small portion of your daily burn.

Here is a chart of the total energy expenditure for an average adult male and female.

As you can see from this chart, energy consumption varies between someone who has low physical activity and someone who is physically active.

A sedentary person is one that does very little exercise while a Physically active person exercises daily.

• The BMR is the minimum level of energy expenditure needed to maintain vital functions. It represents the calories to sustain life without movement or digestive activity.
• The TEF (Thermal effect of feeding) is the energy used to digest and absorb (break down) the foods you eat. This changes very little depending on the types of food you eat.
• Physical activity-energy used to perform Purposeful exercise and your daily chores such as house cleaning, moving around office. Fidgeting, walking stairs, caring for children and pets, going to market, cooking, etc.

 Do you see the problem?  Your food intake accounts for 100% of the the energy that goes into your body and Physical activity only burns 10-30% of it. So even if you exercise like crazy you are only burning at most 30% of what you take in.

For ease of calculation assuming you are on a daily 2000 calorie diet. When you exercise, you are only burning between 200-600 calories a day. 

What's worse is all those crazy exercise routines  tend to make you feel very tired and burned out, making you really hungry and wanting to reward yourself. All that hard work can be easily wiped out by eating afterwards. Fried rice, pizza or that mocha frappucinno will easily undo all the exercise you just done. In some cases you may take in more calories then you you burned off and rather than losing weight you are gaining weight.

 So is exercise important for losing weight? If you exercise you can burn up to 30% of your daily calories you take in, but in order to really lose weight you need to change your lifestyle to not only have the right forms of exercise for your body but to also fuel your body properly with the right foods and nutrition to be more efficient in the BMR and TEF stages.

To lose weight and be in the best shape of your life is not a sprint. It is not a short term fix. Obtaining a healthy weight that is also sustainable is like training for a marathon, that takes months.

Our Total Body Transformation Program helps you develop new habits on how to eat, what to eat and how to exercise to give you the lasting results of a lifetime. It is a long term process, and it SHOULD BE a long term process because it helps you develop good healthy habits, that are with you for life allowing you to enjoy good health for a very long time.

So if you want to get into the best shape of your life? Have more energy, look younger, sleep better, gain more focus, then check out our Total Body Transformation program.

If you join us now, you will get a 25% discount off our monthly and annual programs. But this offer will go away by the end of month so start soon. Enter Promo code FF25%.

Until next time, Love what you live, Live what you love.

 *The Foolish Couple, Andrew and Minna, are Success Coaches that specifically helps their followers achieve success in Health and Relationships.