There is a common paradigm in our society: in order to lose weight, you need to exercise.
Countless fitness and bodybuilding gurus, celebrities, doctors, YouTube bloggers and even representatives of unhealthy food and drink companies insistently say, “If you want to lose weight, exercise.”
The situation is reminiscent of that in science when scientists, being unable to explain certain facts, find a scapegoat in the form of “hundreds of millions of years” with which they can explain everything.
Same with weight loss. Sport is certainly useful, but it is naive to try to plug all the holes with something useful.
The fact remains: it is believed that it is impossible to lose weight without sports .
The axiom of the importance of exercise for weight loss today sells countless numbers of gym memberships, fitness trackers, sports drinks, workout videos...
But how many can boast of the result?
Below we will introduce you to interesting scientific research on the issue of obesity. You will learn: what is the main cause of obesity, what is the mechanism of obesity/weight loss, how to lose weight correctly, why getting rid of extra pounds without doing sports is not only realistic, but may even be easier...
Main thoughts:
African hunter-gatherer tribes burn about the same number of calories per day as the average sedentary European/American
Africans don't overeat, which is why they aren't obese.
Exercise is absolutely BENEFICIAL for your health.
Exercise is virtually USELESS for weight loss
The largest share of energy consumption every day is to ensure the internal processes of the body (metabolism) - 60-80%
Physical activity accounts for only 10-30% of daily energy expenditure
The more you exercise in the hope of losing weight, the greater your appetite and desire to rest. This compensation mechanism explains why, to some extent, it may be more difficult to lose weight by exercising.
Most likely there is an upper limit to energy expenditure: the rule “the more you exercise, the more you burn” does not work
The relationship between calories burned is stronger at moderate activity levels. During high physical activity, the body uses calories sparingly
Many food companies promote active lifestyles in order to divert customers' attention away from the harmful products they produce and create an image in their minds of a "caring" brand.
We're losing the battle against global obesity simply because we eat so much
The biggest mistake is to conflate the role of diet and exercise in the fight against excess weight.
The opinion of all famous scientists and nutritionists on the question of what you need to do to lose weight comes down to one thing: you need to limit the number of calories you eat and eat healthy foods.
What do we know about the relationship between weight loss and sports?
In general terms, the current state of affairs in science in understanding the causes of obesity, the relationship between weight loss and exercise can be described as follows:
Fact 1 Despite the apparent logic and familiarity of the statement, exercise for weight loss is to some extent useless : while 100% of energy comes from food, only 10-30% is burned during physical activity every day...
Fact 2 Exercise triggers a number of processes in the body that determine our appetite , how much food (= calories) we eat, how many calories we burn and, as a result, how much we weigh. How these effects vary from person to person is not clear.
The following conclusions follow from this:
Conclusion 1 Do not be fooled by the hope that only sports will help you lose weight. Exercise is very important for health, but much more important is diet and, above all, the total caloric content of food eaten every day.
Conclusion 2 The problem of obesity in a perfect society really exists. It is a fact. But, contrary to popular belief, its cause is not only a lack of understanding of the relationship between calories consumed and the size of fat stores in the body, but also a misunderstanding of the importance of sports for losing weight .
Based on this, let's formulate the main principle of proper weight loss and then we will understand why everything is exactly like this: when losing weight, the priority is to combat the excessive consumption of low-quality food and excess calorie content and, only after that, instilling the habit of playing sports.
We recommend : How to lose weight in the gym or The best exercises to lose weight. Scientific research
Common mistakes when losing weight
A meta-analysis of studies on the effect of physical activity on the process of losing weight shows that exercise itself does not determine success and here's why1. Why?
Miscalculation of calories and undeserved reward
It's easy to overestimate the number of calories you burn at the gym. The machine only gives simplified calculations and often shows that we have burned more calories than we actually have. After training, you can, with a clear conscience, allow yourself an additional “yummy” as a reward, for example, a fragrant cappuccino on the way home. We allow ourselves to eat an extra 300 kcal, thinking that we burned 600 kcal, while we only lost 200 kcal. Thus, the energy balance remains positive and we do not lose weight.
Activity only in the gym
After training, we rest for the rest of the day, our activity decreases significantly. The training is over, your duty to yourself is fulfilled, you can lie on the couch all evening.
Calorie Burn Limit
It turns out that the body has limited ability to burn calories. Once the exercise limit is exceeded, energy expenditure no longer increases. This dependence is perfectly illustrated by the study of Herman Pontzer. He compared the number of calories burned among three groups of people: very physically active, moderately active and sedentary. The study results show that people with moderate physical activity burn 200 kcal more than people who prefer a sedentary lifestyle, and increasing exercise intensity does not affect energy expenditure.
Why is this happening? The answer must be sought in the distant past, when access to food was not as obvious as it is today, and the body protected itself from excessive loss of energy. Metabolic changes are also important.
The main cause of obesity
— If energy consumption is approximately the same, how can we explain the difference in weight between Europeans/Americans and the Hadza?
“The Hadza burn as many calories as Westerners, but they are not obese,” says Pontzer. - “Reason: they don’t overeat , so they don’t get fat.”
The main cause of obesity is overeating. Africans, unlike Europeans, do not overeat and therefore do not gain weight
This fundamental, obvious reason explains a phenomenon that scientists have observed for many years: it is incredibly difficult for obese people to lose weight, no matter what kind of sport they do ... if everything is limited to it.
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Losing weight - where to start?
Scientific research confirms that proper diet is the basis in the process of losing weight, so you need to focus on it. Crash diets should be avoided because they only work for a short time and also increase the risk of the yo-yo effect.
The ideal option is the recommendations of a nutritionist who, based on your weight, lifestyle and body composition analysis, will create an individual nutrition plan.
In order for the weight loss process to be safe and guarantee a long-term effect, certain conditions must be met:
- you need to constantly change your eating habits and learn to choose the right foods, following the menu developed by a nutritionist;
- you cannot lose more than a kilogram per week; Too intense a weight loss process can lead to excessive loss of muscle mass relative to fat tissue.
Here are the basic recommendations for reducing caloric intake:
- eat as many vegetables as possible , preferably raw, choose mostly green vegetables, they are low in calories and contain many valuable antioxidants, vitamins and minerals;
- remember fruits , but eat them much less than vegetables - a good ratio is 1: 4;
- don’t forget about water - 1.5 liters of water per day is the minimum, and during physical activity you should drink 2 - 2.5 liters. Adequate hydration of the body is essential for its functioning. Losing just 1% of water leads to the fact that the body's endurance during physical activity decreases by almost 10%;
- choose whole grain products . They are rich in vitamins and minerals, as well as dietary fiber, which regulate intestinal function, as well as lower cholesterol and help control glycemia;
- Protein in the diet is important. Its sources are eggs, fish, meat, dairy products, legumes;
- provide the body with omega-3 fats , the sources of which are: sea fish, fatty acids, flaxseed oil, flaxseed, chia seeds.
What to remove from your diet?
Sausages, sausages, sugary cereals, sweets, salty snacks (chips, crackers), sugary carbonated drinks, foods rich in saturated fats and simple sugars (fast food, confectionery).
Exercise causes physiological changes that interfere with weight loss
Scientists call this phenomenon “metabolic compensation.” According to Lara Dugas, a physiologist at Loyola University, when a person puts stress on the body, physiological changes occur depending on the level of training.
This is part of our survival mechanism: the body can conserve energy to retain stored fat for future energy expenditure. Scientists still don't know why this happens and how long this effect lasts.
On this topic, you can read an interesting study from 1994: seven pairs of sedentary twins began to exercise on an exercise bike for two hours a day and eat under the supervision of nutritionists, but as a result they spent 22% fewer calories than expected. At the same time, each of the twins lost weight differently: the losses ranged from one to seven kilograms of weight.
Governments and food industry give unscientific advice
Since 1980, the number of obese people has doubled. Today, according to WHO, this is 13% of the total world population. In the United States, about 70% of the population is overweight in one way or another.
The cause of global obesity lies in lack of exercise and excessive consumption. Since the 50s, there has been a campaign to prevent obesity in the United States. Dozens of US government departments and organizations in their campaigns advise devoting more time to sports in order to stop the process of “obesity of the nation.”
But, unfortunately, the situation is getting worse every day, because people are eating more than ever. And the myth about physical activity is still spread by food industry market participants, who continue to increase the production of unhealthy products.
“Physical activity is vital to consumer health and well-being,” says The Coca-Cola Company. The company has been loudly proclaiming a healthy lifestyle since the 20s of the last century. But recently, the New York Times exposed Coca-Cola for funding research into obesity problems, citing their cause as insufficient physical activity.
Exercise and diet shouldn't be on the same scale when it comes to obesity issues
“Most often, this is simply lobbying the interests of industrial food giants,” says Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition at New York University.
But people ignore the fact that the problem of obesity actually lies in overeating.
“Exercising is good for your health. But if you are struggling with excess weight, I would look for the biggest problem in food. “We need to reduce the amount of food we consume,” says Diana Thomas from the city University of Moclair.
Exercising burns only a small portion of calories
One of the most underappreciated facts about exercise is that even the calories you burn during exercise are a tiny part of your daily energy expenditure.
“In fact,” says Alexai Kravitz, a neuroscientist who studies obesity at the National Institutes of Health, “only 10 to 30 percent of daily energy intake varies by person. This does not apply to professional athletes, for whom sports are a full-time job.”
There are three main components of energy consumption:
- basal metabolism, or the energy needed for basic functioning of the body during rest;
- energy used to digest food;
- energy allocated for physical activity.
We have the least control over our basal metabolism, which consumes the most energy. Most people require 60–80% of their total energy for basic metabolism, and about 10% is needed to digest food.
Thus, physical activity accounts for only 10 to 30%, where training is only a variation of it (,).
Yes, exercise is good for your health.
Scientists have found that exercise helps achieve only small weight loss. At the same time, study participants who exercised more than others (even without changing their diet) showed a decrease in blood pressure and lower triglycerides in the blood. Regular exercise also reduces your chances of developing type 2 diabetes, stroke or heart attack.
A number of other studies have shown that those who exercise are less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease, dementia, and they also show high results in cognitive tests.
If you've lost weight, working out will help you maintain your weight and monitor your calorie intake.
In short, sport is a universal miracle cure.
It's difficult to create a significant calorie deficit through exercise.
National Body Weight Planning Institute mathematician and scientist Kevin Hall has created a model that gives a more realistic prediction of weight loss than the old 3,500-calorie rule.
“If a person with a conditional weight of 90 kg starts running for an hour four times a week (even though calorie intake does not change) - in a month he will lose 2.26 kg. If the same person ate more or decided to skip a workout, the effect would be even smaller,” adds Hall.
So for an overweight person who decided to lose ten kilograms, it would take an incredible amount of time, willpower and effort to achieve a significant result only through training.
