Why Exercise Doesn't Help With Weight Loss
One of the most common questions I get asked from clients is why they aren't losing weight from exercise.
Here's the simple answer: diet (or WHAT you're eating) is far more important than exercising!
While I believe exercise is important for overall health, it's not required for weight loss and can often get in the way of your efforts.
Why?
Exercise requires more of a juggling act and guesswork than if you try to lose based on diet alone.
For starters, exercising creates a lot of additional variables within your body. You have to make sure you're eating enough calories to combat exercise and you also have to be careful not to deplete your glycogen, which can happen pretty easily if you're exercising and restricting your calories.
Add in the factors that most workout machines and fitness apps aren't accurate (even the expensive ones), and that we humans are generally bad guessers, especially when it comes to estimating how many calories we've burned... and it becomes a big guessing game.
Exercise is also a rather ineffective as a weight-loss tool. It's much easier to just not eat a bag of chips than to spend one hour or longer on an eliptical to burn those same calories). No matter how hard I used to try, I never quite could run off that jelly doughnut. Controlling what goes in the mouth is a much easier and effective approach to weight-loss.
There's also our mindset -- the biggest monkey wrentch of all.
I was just reading a study where they divided two groups of people (the subjects did not know they were being monitored or studied). Group A was told they were going on a nature walk before lunch, and they were given a guide who pointed out different flowers and birds for a mile, before leading the group into the cafeteria.
The other group, Group B, was told they were going on an exercise walk before lunch, and they were given a trainer who peridically noted how far they walked, how many calories they burned, etc.
Group A and Group B walked the exact same path at the exact same rate, but B group served themselves a lot more food, particularly with the free pudding. There was a control group who didn't go on a walk at all, and group A served themselves the same or less than that group.
The researchers found this interesting and repeated the study and similar ones over and over and over, finding that people "reward" themselves, even if they don't think they are--say, it's not a conscious thought a la "I worked out! Imma treat myself!". It was subconscious with most people. They just served themselves more.
For me personally, I know exercise makes ME overeat, subconsciously and consciously. Any time I'm active or I "work out," I eat more, and way more calories than whatever I actually burned for that activity. This study helped me understand why.
That's not to say I don't exercise, I love doing yoga and going for long walks with my dogs... I just don't think of either activity as exercise. Plus it's important to remember that exercise is not only something that happens in Nikes or at the gym. Cleaning your house, washing your car, playing with your kids--that's all exercise... It's the gym "workout" mindset that causes the compensation.
Just something to think about! Literally!
If you want to lose weight, follow the meal plans and reconsider your "workouts".
The 7-day meal plans take out all the guess work and I'm thrilled to have so many success stories.
For those looking to lose weight, stick to the meal plan as close as possible and choose the lower fat options!