3 Proven Truths About Exercise and Weight Loss
Everyone has an opinion about exercise and weight loss - but what does the vast body of research tell us? How effective is exercise, and is it necessary? Can we at last lay down some rules of thumb - a reality check as it were?
A researcher at the University of Colorado has pored over 70 different research papers and come up with some conclusions.
The key points:
Can I Only Exercise?
- Substantial weight loss can be achieved with physical activity alone - provided appropriate volume of exercise is maintained.
HOWEVER - for many overweight and obese individuals the volume of exercise required is difficult to achieve and sustain.
Do I Really Need to Exercise To Lose Weight?
- Dietary restriction and increased physical activity in combination have generally been found to modestly improve weight loss compared with diet alone.
HOWEVER - overweight and obese individuals can lose large amounts of weight with dietary restriction alone.
Do I Really Need to Keep on Exercising Once I've Reached Goal Weight?
- The addition of physical activity to a dietary intervention substantially increases the odds of successful long-term weight-loss maintenance.
NOTE: Exercise might be essential for most overweight and obese individuals to maintain weight loss.
Note that despite finding these patterns, the study authors note there is much discrepancy among papers - probably due to participants failing to adhere to exercise protocols.
It's important to note that here we are talking about exercise for weight loss. Remember that exercise itself has numerous health benefits (mental and physical) other than just weight loss.
Rule of Thumb
Get your diet right. Start learning to incorporate moderate exercise into your life; if you fail to do so during your weight loss phase - you will increase your chances of weight regain.
Source: Nat Clin Pract Endocrinol Metab. 2007; 3(7):518-529.
34 Comments
Add Your Comment
ADVERTISING
New
- FROM DIET BLOG
- Kellogg's Nailed Over "Immunity Supporting" Cereal
- How Obesity is Changing the Healthcare Industry
- Plus-Sized Nightclubs: Rattle and Rolls?
- Obesity Liver Damage Worse Than Alcohol?
- Is The Human Body Meant For Distance?
- FORUM
- Does Phase 2 of South Beach Stop Sugar Addiction?
- Awesome Chipotle Chicken Recipe
- HCG Diet Has Stopped Working
- Christelle's Blog
- 6 Months and Still going...
Categories
| Body Image Celebrities Diet Pills Diets Exercise |
Fast Food Funny Stuff Success Stories Teens and Kids Tips and Tools |
RSS Feed
Follow @DietBlog on Twitter
I love me some exercise.
I can't lose weight with exercise alone, though. Or I'd be skinny. :) (Unless 35+ miles a week of running plus some cycling plus weight training isn't an appropriate amount.) I can stop from gaining weight and being huge, which I would be (and thankfully have never been) without exercise based on the trends in my preteens before I started exercising. (From a size 5/6 to a size 15/16 in 3 years)
ReplyI definitely think it is possible to lose weight without exercise, but why would anyone want to? There are so many other benefits of exercise - keeping heart and lungs healthy, release of endorphins, staving off viceral fat, boosting metabolism - to name but a few.
Exercise should be an aspect of everyday life whether one is trying to lose weight or not.
ReplyMy experience supports these conclusions.
"Overweight and obese individuals can lose large amounts of weight with dietary restriction alone." Yep, that bit worked for me. I lost 70 pounds through diet alone, but had to work my butt off (so to speak) to lose the last 20.
"Exercise might be essential for most overweight and obese individuals to maintain weight loss." Yep, agree again. If I skip my workouts, that fat will come sneaking right back on.
You can change your weight and body composition (fat to muscle ratio) but you can't change your underlying metabolism. Or to put it another way - if you've always had a weight problem, you'll always have a weight problem.
ReplyI've been losing weight with only exercise for the past two years. I started out just walking long distances, then I started going to the gym for about three hours three times a week.
I've gone from a size 22 to a size 14/16. I probably could lose weight faster but I don't want to have to deal with loose skin and so far it hasn't been a problem.
I don't eat everything I want to, but I don't count calories either, and I eat things like quesadillas and roast beef as part of my regular diet.
I'm not going for a skinny look, I'm going for muscular and curvy and I'm doing really well with that.
Mostly I think people are very different biologically and what works for one person will not work for everyone. I tend to ignore studies, you never know what biases are in them and who paid for them. I found out what works for me and I'm sticking to it.
ReplyThe last paragraph, the "Rule of Thumb", truly says it all. Reduce portion size, reduce sugar, avoid processed foods and get moving -- these were the keys to my weight loss.
Brian
ReplyTotally agree with you there, Croc. There are so many more benefits to exercise than merely weight loss.
Besides, exercise is fun, and challenging. As much as we might say that obesity is genetic or the fault of society, promoting weight loss as purely dietary avoids a certain issue in our culture, laziness. As much as it is about cutting back on bad foods, it's about getting off your a$$.
ReplyI definitely need both. Counting points alone only works so far. I lose at a faster clip when I've exercised as well!
ReplyI'm with fitfiend and croc. Exercise is a great tool for weight loss but in reality, weight loss should end up being the happy side effect that results when someone starts up a program.
I'm a firm believer that when people stop obsessing about their weight loss and start focusing on how they *feel* and how they want to *feel*, the good habits and behavioral shifts that lead to long time maintenance will begin to line up.
ReplyWe could put the diet book industry out of business! All people need to do is print out this post, tack it to the fridge, and read it once a day. Voila! Health, fitness, and good eating habits for all.
ReplyHi name is will soto (AKA jessica ashley soto )and iam new To place so please dont get mad me. I whould like to go on a weight loss and I am happy with the why I look. My husband and i whould like to know more about this weight loss program.
ReplyI'm not in great shape (but getting better) and I've always found exercise very effective compared to explicitly dieting. I have found eating better, rather than going through self-denial, to be pretty useful too though.
ReplyI think if people just take in the right nutrients, get good sleep, drinks lot of water, oxygen, sunlight, and excercise, they will achieve their weight loss goals.
Replyexercise makes it easier to watch what I eat it seems to curb my cravings for junk food and make me look at my food as fuel
ReplyPersonally, I've found that if I do too much cardio in a week (that's alongside 4 days of heavy weight training), my muscle growth suffers for it. On the flip side, fat loss IS quicker with cardio (even if you are weight training). So, there's a lot of experimentation and patience involved!
ReplyI started losing weight by changing my diet first. I did lose about 40 lbs just by diet change alone, but once I started running too, I lost the rest of the extra weight very quickly. I will admit though, even though I run about 70 miles a week, I have to watch my diet too. I don't just eat everything in sight. I find that eating fairly clean and working out regularly keeps me from gaining weight. I think I'm one of those people that will always have to work out though...that's just the way it's going to be.
ReplyMy apologies, but that's totally untrue. You can indeed change your underlying metabolism and you can indeed stop having a weight problem. Unless someone is forcing you to overeat and underexercise then your weight is your choice.
Gal
ReplyHmm.. I do not agree that much on those... Exercise and diet are the key to weight loss... and, it is free.... looks like those researches are trying to sell you some diet pill or something...
This is simple math CALORIES IN (-) CALORIES OUT
ReplyActually, you can change your metabolism, and probably already have. Increased muscle mass causes an increased basal metabolic rate. You burn more calories a day, just by sitting there and being well-muscled.
Then there are the macronutrient metabolisms. A big part of Atkins, for example, is to improve the body's fat metabolism (the ability to burn fat for fuel). Depending on which macronutrients you eat, your body will become more adept at burning carbs, fats or even protein.
And the worst might actually be to become adept at burning protein (by eating too much protein, and few fats or carbs). Because then the body might go looking for fuel stores in the muscles, breaking them down, rather than working on the stored carbs (glycogen) or stored fats (the jiggly stuff).
ReplyI was skinny most of my life. I put on some major pounds after 3 yrs of no exercise and eating fast food. I deserved it. But now, after years of trying to get the weight off, I'm quite tired of people saying something as ignorant as weight loss is a matter of what goes in minus what goes out. I have more willpower than most. I quit smoking after 14 yrs cold turkey - no patches, no gum. It's now almost two years later. I once went to the gym 4 days a week, 1.5 hour of cardio/interval training/weights; ate between 1200 and 1400 cals a day and had a 3 pound weight loss to show for it 4 months later. And it wasn't soeley because I was gaining muscle mass. I didn't even go down a dress size. For the past 5 months I've alternated between weight training and aerobics and walking/jogging 5 miles a day, 6 days a week with a moderate caloric intake and have managed to lose 17 pounds. I understand how proteins/carbs/fats play into diet. I realize that eating a salad drenched in most dressings is NOT HEALTHY. I'm not a moron who does not realize what she is putting into her mouth. But healthy weight loss is 2 pounds/week. I'm glad I lost some weight (which will creep back on if I only exercise 3X a week) but I should have lost 40 pounds by any standard. I hear people talking about plateaus, and I get envious. I'd just like to be able 2 lose more than 20 lbs. It's frustrating 2 be 1 of the few who's willing 2 do the work but still doesn't see the results.
ReplyWe're pulling for you to be successful! Look at that big diet study where the average success lost only 10 pounds after a year! You are doing much better than that! Maybe a little fine tuning of your diet and small increases in the intensity of your cardio will be helpful. Also you may have needed some time after quitting smoking to balance out it's effect on increased metabolic rate. Keep focused and you can do it!
ReplyMy fear, after losing weight a few times with diet and exercise and then burning out on the exercise and gaining weight again, is that I overdo the exercise part. I am determined, this time around, to only add as much exercise to my life as I am willing to keep up for the long haul.
If I do an hour of aerobics (i.e. spinning or running) six days a week plus a half hour of weight lifting three days a week, that will help me lose weight (it has before), but I will not be able to keep it up.
Right now I'm getting in a lot of moderate walking every day, doing something that gets my heart rate up more than walking a minimum of a half hour three times a week, and doing some resistance work that I enjoy (right now it's pilates) three times a week. This is feeling good to me, and I think I can maintain variation of this for the rest of my life.
It remains to be seen whether this will work for me, but I do think it's important to only add what you can keep up.
ReplyI agree with the conclusion that regular exercise and diet is one of the most effective ways of losing weight. However, for most obese people, I also believe that weight loss due to exercise is hard to achieve.
ReplyGreat post! I love stripping away all the mumbo-jumbo around weight loss and dieting, and just getting down the raw basics. In my journey so far, having lost 206 pounds over the last 16 years all the "wisdom" I can express about fitness and weight loss is - Drink water, eat less, move more.
ReplyNo matter if we`re talking about obese or non-obese people, we all need to stay physically active. Working out means burning calories, having fun, and improving our lifestyle and self-esteem. For those who need to lose the extra pounds, a healthier diet along with a physical workout are the key to success.
ReplyThere's no doubt about exercise and diet as a good way of losing weight. The results are based on our own performance and doesn't have to include other facts such as age and weight.
ReplyMy scale weight has moved down very little since I started exercising 2 times a day, 30 minutes per session. However, I've gone down two dress sizes, look much better in a swimsuit, and my clothes fit better. My cardiovascular health is through the roof - and it keeps getting better and better. I can do more things for a longer period of time. Exercise in the morning gives me a great boost to the start of my day, and exercise after work lets me wind down the stress. There's so many more benefits to exercise than just weight loss.
ReplyWhat is posted is absolutely true.
If we exercise without a proper and healthy diet, it'll be very tiring. It's because vegetables, fruits and meat have the vitamins, minerals and amino acids that allow us to burn fats.
If we lack of these ingredients, we will not burn lots of fats even we exercise hard. I totally agree the combination of diet and exercise to lose weight!
ReplyI once exercised vigorously everyday for over two months and didn't lose one ounce. But everytime I change my diet with or without exercising the weight comes off within one week. So I definitely think that exercise is overrated in terms of weight loss, but do believe it is an important component in weight management. Afterall, I didn't gain any weight during that two months of vigorous exercising.
ReplyHmm... I see I didn't express myself very clearly.
When I said "you can't change your underlying metabolism. Or to put it another way - if you've always had a weight problem, you'll always have a weight problem", I meant, if you have always had a tendency to gain weight and you then lose weight, you will always have to watch your diet and exercise. You can't assume you've magically become one of those rare people who can eat whatever they want, never work out, and never gain an ounce.
Many people wonder why I work out so much and am so careful about what I eat. I'm slim and fit - surely I can eat anything I want? That's the "diet" mentality speaking, where people think that once they lose weight, they can go back to eating the way they did before and not regain.
And yes, I'm carrying a lot of muscle so I have indeed increased my metabolism. I now maintain my weight on far more calories than I used to eat when I had no muscle to speak of. But I still can't afford to slack off, or I will quickly regain weight.
ReplyTo the people that lost weight through diet alone, could you post your dietary menu or intake here? What did you eat, when did you eat and how much you ate for example and what you avoided, what you gorged on?
I want to know what diet takes the weight off in the start?
Replyi lost weight in the past by excersising alone. i worked out 5 days a week and was in awesome shape but i ate like a pig. i don't know why i was able to do this but it worked for me at that time. i stopped working out and started gaining an average of 1o pounds a year. and recently i got diagnosed with fibromyalgia and now my metabolism is at an all time low. so i've found that i have to limit calories and excercise in order to lose weight. and to alagirl i think you should ask your doctor if you have maybe an underlying reason causing your low metabolism cause it definetly sounds like you should be loosing more weight than that. and trust me i know how frustrating it can be. for me, it's a little differnt. for me, its hard to excercise when my whole body hurts. it takes alotta will power to workout when my body already aches from head to toe. but i know how beneificial it is not just to loose weight but to give me more energy and help alleviate pain. any one who has fibromyalgia or any other chronic pain knows what im talking about.
ReplyDiet alone may help you lose weight in the short term, but studies are showing that for LONG TERM success, exercise is the key.
http://www.reuters.com/article/gc08/idUSN3036700020070402?sp=true
ReplyIf you can't maintain your habit...be it exercise or diet you need to really rethink your approach. For me, I love food. I can handle not over indulging and then indulging from time to time...I can live like that. I can workout at least 3 times a week for 30 mins...I can live like that. If I work out 6 times a weeks for 1 hour a day I will loose the weight because of the calorie deficit. Once I loose what I need to I will then do less while watching my weight...and if I go up at all I will up my exercise for awhile or maybe be a bit more focused on diet... This is my approach.
ReplyOk... I am clasified as obese at 5'5" tall and 191 lbs (now 201) even though I wear a size 14. I have a lot of muscle for a female. Here's my story and finding that diet AND exercise are not working for me.
I decided to quit smoking and knowing beforehand that this usually leads to an increase in weight with the metabolism slowdown I took proactive measures. I began walking twice a day (after a VERY sedentary lifestyle) 30 mins in the morning and one hour after dinner. This isn't a leisurely stroll either.. I live on a walkng path with hills with nicknames like 'Big Bertha' and our walks are at a fast pace. I gradually increased this to include 30 mins running in the morning and 1 hour walk in the afternoons so far.
The exercise alone seems to work well as an appetite suppressant for me and since I have always been a healthy eater I chalked up my weight to being tied to a desk all day. I also eat muc less than I did before. Where a salad would never satisfy me for dinner before I find now that if I eat the equivalent of a side salad before I meal I skip the meal. No snaking either.
So I stopped smoking. Thoroughly convinced that my new exercise and caloric restriction would at least PREVENT me from gaining weight, if not help shed a few pounds, I was APPALLLED to find out that since quitting two months ago I have gained 10 pounds!!!!
This is not an issue of more calories in than calories out I guarantee you. I am in better physical shape as I can now punk my teen on our long afternoon walks and still run up the stairs at the end of the walk. But my scale is going the wrong way!!!
Reply