more exercise doesn’t mean more fat loss
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.
100% agree.
I went through this myself.
So many people feel they don’t exercise enough, when really they eat too much. Exercise is great, for health. But for weight loss, it’s not always the best approach. And I think usually, the problem starts in the kitchen.
I wrote this post a while back, because I felt like so many people had it backwards: http://fatgirlsfitness.com/2016/01/31/whats-more-important-diet-or-exercise/
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks Dori! I just read your article…good stuff.
You are right! More exercise may not lead necessary to more weight loss. And in order to lose weight is indeed keep tracking of calories intake. There have to be a negative caloric balance these times of losing weight between caloric intake and burning.
I would like to add that on these times that we are trying to lose weight is really important to consider two things. One is to gain enough protein per day in order to conserve our muscle mass in order to keep our metabolism and also to make sure to lose as fat as possible instead of muscle mass. And two to be aware of changing our training methods regularly because a specific type of training can give us result for a specific period of time. After that it has to be changed in order to continuously giving us results.
Thanks for the article!