A one-week study of 300 men and women, published in Current Biology states “….that people who exercise a lot don’t burn extra calories for their efforts beyond a certain point.” Those who are classified as having a moderate activity level, like someone walking two-to three miles a day or biking to and from work, burned about 200 calories with extra exercise. Strangely enough, “…those who exercised beyond the moderate activity level saw no effect of their extra effort as far as how many calories they burned” (1).
Not only have I found this to be true in my own experience, I also see it every time I go to the gym. I, too, thought that more exercise would mean that I would burn more calories, so I was exercising 3 hours a day, yet I wasn’t losing any weight. I see the same people at the gym; they are working with a trainer and lifting weights, and do their cardio on a bike or on the treadmill. That’s great, but these same people are still overweight and haven’t gotten any slimmer.
The “lead researcher, Herman Pontzer, PhD, a professor of anthropology at City University of New York” explains, “We hit an energy expenditure plateau…that may be why many find it so hard to lose weight” (1).
You still want to go to the gym and do your cardio and lift weights, but the way to get that fat loss to take effect, is to lower daily calorie intake. If you want that belly to go bye-bye, you also need to say goodbye to chips, candy, and fast food.