A couple of years ago the Cardio Free Diet introduced popular culture to the concept that exercise and weight loss were incompatible. Recently we learned that exercise doesn't boost fat-burning. Now Time magazine's new cover story investigates the seemingly detrimental relationship even further. A thumbnail sketch of the article: exercise makes you hungry, so you eat more and don't lose weight.
Should you give up the treadmill forever? Learn more.
To lose weight, we know we need a net loss of calories at the end of the day. Scientists refer to this as the energy gap, and with the obesity epidemic growing, the medical community is trying to learn how to broaden that gap. The Time article highlights a couple of studies that found exercise didn't help overweight women lose weight. The article explains three possible reasons for this. One, after working out, people tend to move around less in their daily lives so their energy gap is the same with or without exercise. Another reason is that burning calories with moderately intense exercise makes people hungrier and they eat more, or even reward themselves with a highly caloric post-workout snack. Lastly, taxing your will power to stay on the treadmill for 60 minutes depletes your sense of self control for the next challenging encounter, which quite possibly will involve food choices — so you opt for an ice cream sundae instead of an apple.
Is this the end of exercise? No way. There are countless health benefits to working out. It lowers the risk for cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, and type 2 diabetes. Exercise, specifically intervals, promotes fat loss in the abdominal region — which is particularly dangerous. Other studies not mentioned in Time's article have found that exercise, both cardio and cardio combined with weight training, increases hormones that decrease appetite.
Compared to other species, humans are not designed to lose weight. We evolved to hold onto fat and calories should a famine arise, which used to be quite common. Being sedentary and just counting calories is no way to lose weight. Here is some uplifting news on exercise and weight loss from Time:
Many obesity researchers now believe that very frequent, low-level physical activity — the kind humans did for tens of thousands of years before the leaf blower was invented — may actually work better for us than the occasional bouts of exercise you get as a gym rat. "You cannot sit still all day long and then have 30 minutes of exercise without producing stress on the muscles," says Hans-Rudolf Berthoud, a neurobiologist at LSU's Pennington Biomedical Research Center who has studied nutrition for 20 years. "The muscles will ache, and you may not want to move after. But to burn calories, the muscle movements don't have to be extreme. It would be better to distribute the movements throughout the day."
Next time you see a staircase, take it. Bike to your dinner destination. Take a walk at lunch and for your coffee breaks. Remember that regular exercise, which includes walking, helps the brain function and prevents cognitive decline. It also fights stress, the nemesis of weight loss. I will be setting my alarm for 6 a.m. tomorrow and running. Which I will follow with a sensible breakfast of complex carbs, protein, and fiber. Am I trying to lose weight? No. I am trying to hold it steady. How about you?
Francesco Biasia
melissa
Tibi
They were talking about this on the view today. Im so tired of always hearing contradictory information *sighs*
1If you work out you're going to lose weight if you're not eating the same amount of cals you just exercised off, Thats how it works for me it least.
2i used to be a chunky treadmill walker/jogger who just couldn't understand why she wasn't loosing weight . i mean, i spent hours on the treadmill! i only "splurged" on the weekends! what was wrong? then i got a job at UPS as a sorter and later went on to load trucks. they were both physically tiring jobs - literally moving non stop with weight up to 70lbs for anywhere from 2.5 to 4 hours and we only got a 10 minute break a day. the weight fell off. i ate whatever i wanted. whenever i wanted it. and i mean this to the extreme, especially during the summer ( i'm from the south, so on a cool day it was around 75degrees in the building and the fan just blew dust in your face ) and i never gained a pound and this was when i was between the ages of 21 to 23. i really was chunky before i started all of it and i lost a lot of fat and gained a great deal of muscle, without changing my bad habits so i'd say that exercise/being physical can make you loose weight, although i think what's really counting is weight bearing activity and resistance training mixed with cardio. and sweat, lots of sweat. adding muscle really does make a difference in your metabolism. when i stopped doing those jobs and was unable to exercise because i was in school, i still ate junk, didn't work out and never had any changes in my body shape nor did i gain any weight for about 2 years and trust me, i've never been thin or had some great metabolism or anything. i've made more positive changes in my health and life since i have more stability now, but those years really showed me something.
wear a weighted vest when you walk. do walking lunges. do circuit training. weights are to fat what a pick axe is to a mountaineer.
3Ugh. Not a fan of these "studies." I, personally, can not lose weight by just changing my diet alone. I've worked out consistently for over 2 years and changed to a healthy eating lifestyle to lose 85 pounds, plain and simple. I hate articles like these because they lend themselves to heavy misinterpretation by people who are desperate to lose weight, but don't want to put forth any physical effort. I know everyone is different, but it's not the fault of exercise if someone runs for an hour and then eats a pint of Ben & Jerry's. People are responsible for every bite of food that goes into their mouth and some are more disciplined than others. It's all about making better choices for yourself, bottom line.
4Well of course if you eat more after working out you won't lose weight, that seems like common sense to me. But in general the diets of Americans are horrible and people need to be more aware of what they are consuimg whether or not they are exercising.
5What was the sample size of this study anyway and what kind of exercise were they doing?
In my experience, I think a lot of the whole "exercise doesn't make you lose weight" thing is overcompensation. I know a few people who sweat it out for 45 minutes at the gym and then go out and binge drink on weekends or eat a huge ice cream sundae. You have to use exercise as a tool to help you create your calorie deficit; you still have to eat a healthy diet.
I will say that I think moderate, longer workouts are probably better for weight loss than short, super-intense ones...you don't feel like you're working quite as hard, so you're less inclined to feel starving afterward and want to eat a lot of junk.
6I like to run 3 times a week for an hour, and it is true in my case that i eat more on these 3 days after the runs. but i make sure to still count my calories so i dont go too far. the study sounds right, you can burn 800 calories at the gym, and eat those extra calories very easily if you dont have a food journal or dont keep count of your calories.
7if your intaking more calories than your burning than you wont lose weight. Its easy math. Less calories equals weight loss (in most cases)
8It seems like there's a threshold for me. If I burn over 2,000 calories/week from exercise, then I lose weight. But if I don't reach that number, I'll gain.
9Well, of course, if you eat crazily afterwards, then, yeah, you won't lose weight!
10This is one of the worst articles I have ever read. It is such a joke I don't even know where to begin to make fun of it. Everyone on the view is also fat so whatever they do clearly works well for them. I work in the fitness industry as a personal trainer and group exercise instructor and almost choked on my cereal with laughter when I read this. Oh and I eat 4,000 calories a day and somehow manage to maintain 6% bodyfat... And no NOT genetically. I'll let you use your imagination as to how.
As a matter of fact, I can't believe I even commented on such nonsense! Good day!
11Great, just what North America needs to hear - exercise doesn't help you lose weight? It will give more people reason to be sedentary. I don't feel like this article is going to benefit anyone.
12I Will Never Stop Exercising! Every Day 100 Minutes - Do Not Listen To This Article - It's Worthless There Are Other Benefits To Exercise BESIDES Fat Loss!
13To a certain degree, I agree with this article, but really, the issue is not whether exercise is conducive to weight loss or gain or whatnot- it's our obsession with body image, and that everything we put into our mouths and the effort we put out should be reflected in a smaller, less fatty, more toned self. What exercise does to your body is dependent on soooooo many variables- age, gender, hormonal composition (I've got more than my fair share to testosterone for a chick haha) maybe even ethnicity/ race, I could go on! So to have an expectation that your results will be the same as the next person's is just ridiculous, UNLESS your motivation is simply to stay healthy, and you allow your body to otherwise take care of the rest, like your body shape, your natural, healthy weight, your appetite.
14i'm a little confused as to why time would want to confuse people. the simple fact is: exercise and eat less= weight loss. obviously there are countless scientific studies showing that exercise not only leads to weight loss but that there are many physiological and psychological advantages. Don't stop exercising!!
15Oh jeez, not this argument again. I love it and have to laugh every time I hear it, especially from the overweight woman I sit next to at work who is boasting about her carb-free diet everyday. Yes she has lost weight, but guess what? She doesn't exercise AT ALL. She believes you can just lose weight through dieting alone. Well good luck, that's probably why she still has rolls of fat on her stomach and bum because while she's slimming down, she's not burning off any fat so she'll always remain with the same fleshy rolls all over her body.
16Way to give people another excuse not to exercise, Time. And I'm sorry, but the whole willpower deficit argument is BS. I just don't buy it.
17My mom is overweight and is in the exercise makes me bigger, starving myself makes me thinner group. It drives me crazy! She only eats a meal when my dad is home (and he's a truck driver so he's not home every day) and other than that she snacks on cheez-its while watching 3-4 hours of soaps a day. She gets no exercise whatsoever and doesn't really eat much of anything outside of cheez-its. Guess what - she's not losing weight, even with starving herself.
You have to be smart about working out and eating healthy. I often want to eat a meal right after I workout (I workout for an 60-90 minutes at a time) and I make myself shower and take about a half hour before I decide do I really want to eat. Usually by then the hunger urge has left. Neither exercise nor diet alone will make you lose weight permanently. You have to work at both and it's a lifelong effort, not a 6 weeks before bikini season effort.
I think we need to stop stressing weight and start stressing fitness in this country.
18I have worked in a physically demanding job since I've been able to work, serving tables and being on my feet for 8 to 10 hours at a time. Well I still gained weight or else never took it off. It wasn't until I started exercising and changed my diet that I started to look and feel better. I was never fat just flabby, but still I could walk and carry things all day long and nothing happens.
19I think the point of the article (if you read it), wasn't to BASH exercise - but rather HOW we're doing it.
It all comes down to the fact that before we became a nation of gym rats, people used to move more during the day - whether it was walking/biking to work, or for leisure or whatever the case may be (this, certainly, is true of my parent's generation).
You can still see the example being set in most of Europe as well as in more third world countries (think Africa) - where people still do a lot more walking and low-level activity all through the day.
Instead of 1 hour "sessions" in the gym being literally the only activity you get, why not walk to and from work?
Anyway, makes complete sense to me.
20You don't need to exercise to lose weight, per se...but it helps with burning fat, boosting your metabolism, and in general making you healthier. My brother, for instance, lost like 100 lbs without exercise, just diet. No loose skin or anything, and it was awesome. For some people, exercise seems to help them shed faster. Exercise is not what makes you lose all that weight (unless you ate the way you do now, and create a deficit by exercise)...Diet is like 95%. Exercise because it improves your health. Not because it's the key to weight loss.
21I think it's misleading to say that exercise could make you gain weight. I would say that it's not the exercise that's the problem but WHAT and HOW MUCH you are choosing to eat afterwards, and I wish they had stressed this more. Of course a workout is going to make you hungry afterwards. But that doesn't mean you get to eat fries and pizza. Eat a banana, an apple, yogurt. You can't expect to keep all those unhealthy habits and lose weight, even if you are getting exercise.
I do think there is plenty of merit to the idea that being more regularly active during the day (biking/walking to work, taking stairs, etc) helps you to lose weight and be more healthy overall. But jogging, treadmill, elliptical, and vigorous workouts are not a problem. It's keeping all of the other unhealthy habits and thinking that exercise alone is going to work.
And just as a side note, I for one am not craving pizza or fries after a work out. If anything, a nice jog or cardio session makes me want to eat healthier. It reinforces the OTHER healthy habits that I've had to take on in order to lose 25 lbs.
22Since beginning a pretty solid and regular workout regimen about a year ago, I do feel that my appetite has been absoluteley ravenous. I agree with the part that exercise can tax your willpower, making you more susceptible to overeating. I'm going to try and do some lighter, more enjoyable workouts, like yoga and walking, rather than forcing myself to run (which I despise). I have gained about 10 lbs. since I started exercising, mostly fat. I'm NOT happy about it. I was so thin before, and completely in control of my appetite. Interesting.... I do want to continue to be active however, for the benefits other then weightloss.
23I have to admit I totally agree. I made a healthy change a few years ago and started primarily with working out for an hour a day, and my weight budged like only 3 pounds the whole month even though people commented on my posture and said I looked good. But when I had my diet analyzed and shaved about 600 calories a day off of my average, my weight began to plumment like 2 pounds a week until I lost about 30 pounds in three months then it plateaued. Exercise makes you feel good and fit, but food is the biggest factor in weight, without a doubt.
I actually hope this article motivates people -- it's easy to drop like 250 calories on average by switching from like beef to chicken now and then, or having the grilled chicken burger at a fast food joint. If they know it's that easy, even the least motivated people might make positive changes, which is better than nothing, and they're a whole lot likelier to comply than if you ask them to spend time at the gym to burn those calories.
24This article says nothing new or surprising, but they say it in a bad, negative, and unhelpful way. Obviously, calories in is easier than calories out, so it's more essential to weight loss. Both parts are still essential to good health, though.
25I will just say the biggest changes I have seen in my body and also in how I feel has been by eating clean and lifting weights. Doing cardio is like "icing" on the fat loss cake (bad analogy I know). It shouldn't be used as the sole means for fat loss and I think that is the major point of this article.
26I am with y'all! I will never stop exercising. The benefits of stress relief and endorphins make up for whatever my impulse control can't. It's all math.
27*sundaygreen*
Walking to and from work is very unrealistic to a lot of Americans. I am working on trying to get relocated to a city where I won't need a car and can walk everywhere.
28i read about this article a few days ago and i just think it's ridiculous. what kind of message is it trying to send to a nation of people of whom two thirds are overweight or obese?? if you're trying to lose weight, you have to have the self control to eat properly even when you are doing tough workouts. a workout should be an ADDITION to a normal, healthy routine, it shouldn't change how much you move or how much you eat. exercise is good for you, and while it may be easier to control weight through diet, there is absolutely no substitute for the health benefits of exercise.
29I think the only part I agree with is that sustained moderate exercise is better than short bursts of intense workouts.
30And that if you binge after exercising, you will not lose weight.
But I didn't need a study to tell me this.
the sensationalised headline is really irresponsible, but behind the sensation the message of the article is - Don't Binge, neither binge excercising in a lifestyle that's otherwise completely sedentary nor binge eating to reward the binge excercise. We've evolved moving around all day and running on a treadmill a few times a week is no substitute for that.
I try to follow a evolutionary approach to excercise: walking everywhere, occassionally sprinting (as our ancestors did to escape predaters) and lifting heavy things. It sounds simplistic, but works. I live in a town where it's possible to walk to and from work and everywhere else I go - I understand most people in the US don't and that's a major factor in the obesity epidemic i think
31i believe in this article.
32It's true that eating right is the sine qua non of weight loss. However, exercise is good for overall health and can end up helping with weight loss. Like Fit said, exercise helps reduce stress, which in turn can help you lose weight.
33Well said.
34Exercising is not just for weight loss but for helping the body's organs to function properly. I can't imagine that one doesn't lose weight by burning calories by exercising thought.
35I have to agree with this article. If you exercise it CAN make you hungry, due to the fact that you are burning calories away. But it's also speaking on the way you SHOULD work out. If you lost a lot of weight, and want to get rid of the remainder, per se, then you'll have to raise your caloric intake so you'll burn the remainder away. It's the truth, you don't want to be yo-yo'ing with your weight.
36For me, I've never been able to lose weight w/o exercise. I need to exercise, and exercise a lot to lose weight. Unfortunately, as you get to be an adult, you have less time to dedicate to working out. So now I do about an hour a day. Makes me feel better, makes my legs look better & wakes me up in the AM.
37I think that this article could be harmful for some overweight people who are looking for an excuse not to exercise (well Time magazine told me not to...). It's benefits far "outweigh" - pardon the pun - the notes sighted in this article. If you want to lose weight, you have to have will power. Last week I was confronted with Apple Pie, Brownies, Cakes about 6 times. You just have to say no. I worked out, but I didn't let myself splurge. I splurge on Fridays, but I work out more on Fridays. It balances out. Plus I keep a food and exercise journal, so I know that I'm not overdoing it.
It's amazing that the weight loss industry continues to churn away how it does. It's just calories in vs. calories out.
38I just got over a reinjury to my neck and bad flu. I hadn't worked out in 2 months and ate hugely. I only gained 3 pounds. Muscles are gone, but I had to heal my injury. Moral of the story? PEOPLE ARE ALL DIFFERENT. Know yourself. Now that I'm well, I can go back to being in good shape and happy by my own exercise routine and diet that I like and know that will keep me healthy. Only advice we should get is from our personal doctor.
I'd like to know when the truth come out. The only study I'd like to see is that diet and exercise is different for everyone and everyone needs to pay attention to themselves first if they want to be healthy. Some people are stalky, short, lanky, tall, skinny etc...it goes on. These "grouping type articles are getting old and doesn't help anyone.
39exercise makes me feel good so i will not stop. but my biggest problem is food. i really really need to keep track of what i eat. the calorie equation works for me just fine.
40Yeah OK Time, I am going to eat cupcakes for dinner b/c I went for a run. So stupid. You can be thin if you have a strict diet, but you will also have a flat butt and no tone. Working out changes your body completely-everyone knows that.
41The fact is this:
Losing weight is 80% diet and 20% exercise.
I read that in a health magazine a few years ago and I have lost 25 pounds since then.
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