Surely you have found out surfing the net, talking to a friend or even in your own gym: more and more people argue that exercise is not useful for losing weight .
For those who think that way, we, who constantly go to gyms, are victims of a great deception: exercising makes us eat more and no exercise makes us burn enough calories , is the essence of their approach, and they affirm that doing diet is much more productive. Are they right?
Like all controversial statements, this one too is surrounded by many myths and half-truths. If you want to exercise to lose weight effectively , it is best that we first review all these misconceptions, and then focus on the core: how much exercise to do to lose weight , and how it should be done.
3 myths about exercise to lose weight
1. “Exercise forces us to overeat”
Of all the myths about exercise and weight loss, this has always been the hardest to break because it is based on a seemingly logical argument:
- Exercise makes us burn calories.
- Calories are energy.
- Energy comes from food.
Said like this, exercise empties us of energy, which must be replaced with more calories, leaving us in the same place where we started.
The idea that more exercise requires more food is not new, and it certainly makes sense. Heavy workouts require more food. Let’s think about Michael Phelps. His daily intake was around 6,000-10000 calories a day, more than double that of the average person. But, of course, we are not Michael Phelps, and he trained about 6 hours a day to take advantage of all that.
In fact, many people end up using exercise as a license to overeat. And anyone who has trained for a long time knows well: it doesn’t matter if the calories you eat come from healthy sources; In the end, they are still calories, and if you consume more than you burn each day, you will end up maintaining the weight or, in the worst case, gaining weight.
Finally, it doesn’t hurt to listen to science. According to various studies, sports training makes us feel less hungry , since exercise helps regulate our levels of ghrelin, a hormone that controls our appetite. As it is, it is time to practice willpower and find ways to cut the calories we consume daily.
2. “Exercise only burns calories”
For many people, exercise only does one thing: burn calories. It is something that has happened to almost everyone when starting to train, especially those who have been overweight.
For them, if the exercise is not accompanied by tons of sweat, it simply does not work. The result, of course, is that many jump straight into cardio. However, paying too much attention to calorie loss has a clear effect, and that is that you forget the other goals you train for.
The real goal of training should not be to lose weight, but to reduce the concentration of fat in the body , which cannot be achieved simply by burning calories.
Intense strength training promotes weight loss, complementing it. They help us to improve the composition of our body, giving us a good muscle tone. This avoids that we end up seeing ourselves as those people who (without wanting to belittle them) have thin but flabby bodies, and generate the sensation of being thin and fat at the same time.
3. “The calories we burn with exercise are not enough to lose weight”
That exercise and weight loss are slow processes is a reality that we all understand. However, critics of exercise use this slowness to say that the calories that can be burned with exercise are not enough to lead to effective weight loss.
It is true that exercise does not burn as many calories as many think. Most of our daily calorie expenditure comes from basal metabolism (60-80%, depending on our routine) and what we burn when digesting food or doing non-exercise related activities, such as walking, moving our arms or simply stand.
Moderate exercise actually tends to raise our daily caloric expenditure by 10%. Now, this reality has a hidden face: the ability of our body to adapt.
In short, our body is used to spending a constant number of calories, and at first it is reluctant to change. One of your strategies to maintain the “status quo” is to reduce calorie expenditure from other activities outside of exercise. Does this mean that exercise is a waste of time? Absolutely.
Studies on this phenomenon indicate that, despite the slow balance, exercise has the ability to make us lose weight in the long term, which is accompanied by several benefits: increased strength, improved muscle tone and regulation of appetite. Improving these results, on the other hand, depends on our initiative, and that is where the correct diet, the selection of exercises and keeping ourselves occupied in activities not related to the exercise will make the process faster and more effective.
How much exercise do we need to lose weight?
At this point, it’s easy to see that the relationship between exercise and weight loss is more a question of quality and balance than just quantity. We can summarize the problem in that without adequate exercises and without the right and necessary diet, no amount of exercise will make us lose weight as we want. Therefore, we must give our weight loss training a comprehensive approach, reducing the margin of error to a minimum. To achieve this, it is useful to have a well-established plan of action.
1. Follow an eating plan
It’s easy to overeat when you start training. The lack of energy that is experienced in the beginning and the old habits of eating lead many newbies to overdo the amount of food they eat daily. To beat this cycle, it is best not to leave anything to chance and establish rules.
Following an eating plan is the best option for anyone who wants to lose weight. Not only does it prevent us from straying from the goal, but it also puts us in control of our weight loss, as it guarantees us to know the approximate – although not exact – amount of calories that our body handles. From there you can establish an action plan, looking for the controlled deficit to lose weight in a healthy way, or looking for a balance that allows us to maintain the weight when we reach the desired point.
2. Do intense strength exercises
Strength training is critical to transforming our bodies, which is what many unknowingly want when they think about losing weight. We have already established all this, and now it is fair to talk about quantity: how much strength exercise do you do to lose weight in a satisfactory way?
Although the requirements may vary according to the individual’s training time, we can confidently say that 3-5 hours per week is sufficient for strength training to take effect. We are talking, of course, about lifting heavy loads, which are between 70% -80% of the personal 1RM.
3. Reduce cardio to a minimum
It is possible that with what has been said so far, it is thought that we have a poor image of cardio: nothing is further from the truth. Cardio is helpful and necessary, and it works great as a supplement to strength training. However, excess cardio can throw us off balance, sapping energy for strength training.
It is best if you do an intense type of cardio, but brief; Enough to wake up your systems, but not enough to deplete your reserves. In this sense, HIIT routines are a great option to do twice a week: they will help you perform better in your strength training and, for your peace of mind, you can be sure that they will make you sweat and gain strength at the same time.
Reference
- Legge, A. How Much Does Exercise Help with Weight Loss? (What 30 Studies Say). For Muscle for Life. [Revised June 2018].
