The global fitness industry Over $80 billion in revenue Estimates are for 2023.And given the many excellent ones, why not reason to exercise?Improving cardiovascular health, lowering the risk of type 2 diabetes, strengthening the immune system and the list goes on.?
One of the biggest reasons many people choose to exercise is lose weight.As behavioral scientistI study the links between behavior and health and listen to the age-old advice that losing weight requires eating less and exercising more. but, recent discussion It highlights growing suspicion in the scientific community that the “exercise more” part of this advice is wrong.
At the center of the discussion is the constrained total energy consumption hypothesisThis argues that exercise doesn’t help you burn more calories overall because your body compensates by burning fewer calories after exercise. Exercise, therefore, does not help you lose weight, even if it benefits your health in a myriad of other ways.
obesity researcher cause problems with this Because it is based on observational studies, not randomized controlled trials (RCTs), the gold standard of scientific evidence. In RCTs, participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, allowing researchers to determine whether a treatment causes an effect. Randomized controlled trials have shown that exercise causes weight loss.
The verdict is actually more complicated when you consider all the gold standard evidence available.
what the evidence says
Those who observe this hypothesis stressed the importance To systematically review the evidence from all gold standard trials. They pointed to a 2021 review of more than 100 exercise studies that examined the effects of aerobic, resistance, or high-intensity interval training, combined or alone, on weight loss in adults. The review concluded that supervised exercise regimens: cause weight losseven if it’s a small amount.
So the discussion is settled, right? If you eat too many desserts, why not run extra to burn extra calories?
Well, not exactly.
If the extra exercise burns extra calories overall, it can also prevent weight rebound after a low-calorie diet. However, maintaining the weight lost after dieting is a common challenge.of Same 2021 review includes several randomized controlled trials that have addressed the question of whether exercise promotes weight maintenance. However, the results were not as good as weight loss. The researchers found that six to 12 months of cardio, strength training, or both after dieting did not interfere with weight regain in adults.
ensure compliance
But what about compliance? Did all the people who participated in these studies actually exercise regularly?
The 2021 review found only one randomized controlled trial of weight maintenance. reported objective adherence rates, that is, each exercise session was supervised by a trainer. It indicates the percentage of time study participants actually exercised as prescribed.
In that study, compliance was only 64% among 25 postmenopausal women who completed a strength training program after dietary weight loss. This was for a plan that required the participant to continue her exercise two to three times a week for her one year. In terms of sticking with the program for this long, it doesn’t seem that bad to do so 64% of the time.
However, they still regained as much weight as the 29 women in the control group who did not participate in the exercise program.
energy balance
Many people would say it’s all about the balance between the energy you get from food and the energy you get out of exercise. If exercise doesn’t help you lose weight, you may need more exercise.
The American College of Sports Medicine highlighted the issue of exercise in it. Position Statement 2009 Regarding physical activity for weight maintenance, they state that the amount of physical activity required to maintain weight after weight loss is unknown. Furthermore, he said there is a lack of randomized controlled trials in the field that use state-of-the-art techniques to monitor participants’ energy balance.
Fortunately, some of the authors of this position statement have continued to use state-of-the-art technology to monitor energy balance in their own randomized controlled trials. In 2015, they enrolled overweight adults in a 10-month aerobic exercise program and compared the energy intake of those who lost weight during the program with those who did not. They found that those who didn’t lose weight certainly did. eat more calories.
Mystery of disappearing calories
But a 2015 study included another energy measurement That’s very interesting. By the end of the study, the total number of calories consumed per day by those who exercised did not differ significantly from those consumed by those who did not exercise. And this was despite the fact that trainers found that exercisers were consuming an additional 400-600 calories per session in their nearly daily exercise sessions. Why don’t these extra exercise calories show up in his total daily calories burned?
The answer to that question may help explain why exercise doesn’t always help you lose weight. When you’re not exercising, your metabolism responds to regular exercise by burning fewer calories. according to it, constrained total energy consumption hypothesis That spurred the current debate.
Researchers recently tested the hypothesis by measuring non-exercise calorie expenditure in 29 obese adults for nearly 24 hours before and after a six-month exercise program. They burned calories when not exercising Decreases after months of regular exercise – However, only those prescribed the higher of two different amounts of exercise.
Those who exercised at low doses for general health, ie, those who consumed an extra 800 to 1,000 calories per week, showed no change in metabolic rate. However, those who exercised at higher doses to lose weight or maintain weight loss, consuming an extra 2,000 to 2,500 calories per week, had a lower metabolic rate by the end of the study.
exercise for health
Perhaps both sides of the argument are correct. If you want to lose a moderate amount of weight, a new exercise routine may help you reach that goal.
But like others have said, don’t assume you can.overcome bad eating habitsSimply increase your exercise. The marginal benefits of exercise are decreasing, and additional exercise ultimately leads to less weight loss.
But even if extra exercise doesn’t help you lose and maintain weight, there are still great ways to do it. Dividends for health Regular exercise helps.
This article was first published on conversation.
