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I was shocked when I saw these tweets in my feed:
“Exercise is pretty useless for weight loss. Most people adapt by eating more. But it’s good for weight maintenance, and health.”
“Exercise is negligible when it comes to fat loss. It’s heartbreaking to see people doing endless cardio with no results.”
Why was I shocked? Because both tweets came from fitness coaches (“influencers”) with large followings who should have known these statements were half-truths at best. (Instant unsubscribe from both accounts for me. I don’t want to hear doom and gloom about how nothing works… “diets don’t work” some say, and now others swear that exercise doesn’t work).
In random scrolling, I also came across more tweets:
“Exercise is great for health, worthless for fat loss.”
“Exercise is good for you in so many ways, just not for weight loss.”
These two were even more shocking if you consider they were written by medical doctors.
Not even an M.D. credential in these social media days guarantees they’re giving accurate info. Some of the most egregious misinformation I’ve ever seen came from doctors (only topped by celebrity misinformation. The worst part is anyone can be a “celebrity” with social media today. And then there are “celebrity doctors”… Groan… that’s a whole other blog post).
Maybe I shouldn’t have been so taken aback. After all, I’ve heard the “cardio is a waste of time” and “exercise doesn’t work for fat loss” arguments for decades. Exercise trends come and go in popularity waves the same way diets come and go.
What really got my goat this time is that these tweets were only a handful in what I shortly realized was a new FLOOD of lies about the role of exercise for weight loss.
This latest tsunami of social media exercise misinformation came largely on the heels of one new study.
There’s a popular hypothesis that your energy expenditure is constrained or that you “compensate” for calories you burn. This means that when you exercise more, some of the increase in calories burned gets cancelled out.
When calories are cut in a weight loss diet, it’s a fact that metabolic adaptation occurs:
The Latest Science On Metabolic Adaptation: What It Is And What You Can Do About It
Since metabolism can slow down from dieting, the idea that metabolism could slow down from exercising seems plausible too, right?
To examine this hypothesis, an analysis was published earlier this year in the scientific journal Clinical Biology (Careau, Pontzer et al 2021). The main finding was that in normal, moderately active people, energy compensation DID happen. The average amount was 28% and it was assumed this came from a drop in BMR.
This is like for every 100 calories you burn through exercise, only 72 of them counted. That would kinda suck if true, but it’s not total compensation either.
When these results were published, the internet nearly imploded with videos, podcasts, articles, instagrams and tweets like the ones I shared.
The problem is, the results of this new study were taken at face value: “A portion of the calories you burn from exercise don’t count!” (possibly true)…
Or they were blown completely out of proportion: “Exercise is useless for weight loss!” (absolutely false).
It looks like most social media influencers are better at posting selfies of flexing biceps or barely covered glutes than interpreting research. I bet most of these trigger happy tweeters didn’t even read the full research paper.
When digging deeper, we find that there were limitations to this study, including that it was observational and can’t prove causation.
Most studies that can show cause and effect (randomized controlled trials) say the effect of exercise on BMR is either neutral or even positive (as in the case of lifting weights, which maintains muscle and BMR).
Now, here’s the real issue when you do exercise for weight loss purposes:
There’s evidence that some kind of compensation (or “adaptation”) really does happen when exercise is increased. We know this because in many weight loss exercise studies the actual weight lost almost doesn’t match what you’d predict based on the amount of exercise done.
The question is why?
There are four plausible reasons for compensation:
1. Increasing exercise causes a corresponding decrease in BMR, just like the new study hypothesizes.
2. Increasing exercise leads to an increase in food intake.
3. When you exercise (and or diet) and lose weight, you have a smaller body than you did before. Smaller bodies burn fewer calories.
4. Increasing exercise, especially exhausting exercise, may result in a drop in non-exercise activity (NEAT) later.
Exercise For Weight Loss: A NEAT Explanation For Why It Fails
I won’t dismiss the possibility that future research may causally confirm that energy expenditure is compensated for and BMR drops. It’s feasible that when exercise expenditure goes up, other body functions (immunity, reproduction) might go down to conserve energy.
But the science so far suggests that number 2, 3, and 4 are the best explanations for most compensation that shows up as less than expected weight loss.
That’s why I don’t believe a drop in BMR after exercising is the type of compensation you should lose sleep over and this new study shouldn’t alarm you (and dumb tweets shouldn’t influence you).
The biggest type of calorie compensation to fear is that you could be putting a ton of effort into adding exercise, but if you exercise more and then eat more, you could compensate. And not just 28%, but 100% and then some! Yep, you could do a ton of exercise and get ZERO fat loss because you still don’t have a calorie deficit. That’s another way of saying, “You can’t out-train a bad diet.”
You Can’t Out-Train A Bad Diet (But That Doesn’t Mean Exercise For Weight Loss Is Useless)
Most people exercise more but then feel the urge to eat more, and that’s what cancels out some or all of the calorie deficit, not a drop in BMR. This may be due to an increase in physical hunger or it may be more of a psychological phenomenon (people exercise, then think they earned a tasty treat as a reward). It can also be an error in thinking about calorie math, assuming you should eat back calories burned (worst mistake ever).
How Tracking Your Workout Calories Burned Can Sabotage Your Fat Loss
We do have to concede that there are limitations to the use of exercise for weight loss. There are diminishing returns as you scale up exercise more and more, at least on a practical level. That’s because most people don’t burn as many calories from exercise as they think. Plus, it gets impractical to do hours of exercise daily, when you could simply eat half a sub sandwich instead of a whole one, switch a large soda to diet or water, and skip dessert to get the same results.
This is the main argument for why it’s important to control diet as the first priority for weight loss goals. THIS is the actual proper message that fitness professionals should be sending out, not a bunch of malarky about “exercise for weight loss doesn’t work.”
Last but not least, let us NEVER forget that exercise is vital for good health.
To see the full breakdown of this study, in the Burn the Fat Inner Circle science and research department, including my 7 strategies to protect against energy compensation, visit:
==> www.burnthefatinnercircle.com/members/Energy-compensation-controversy.cfm (members only)
Tom Venuto
Author, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle (BFFM)
Author, The BFFM Guide to Flexible Meal Planning For Fat Loss
Founder, Burn the Fat Inner Circle – The Support Community For No-BS body Transformation
PS. Questions or comments? What has YOUR experience been like using increased exercise for fat loss? Scroll down and post in the blog comments below, post on the Facebook page HERE, or send me an email HERE.
Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilding and fat loss expert. He is a former competitive bodybuilder and today works as a full-time fitness coach, writer, blogger, and author. In his spare time, he is an avid outdoor enthusiast and backpacker. His book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle is an international bestseller, first as an ebook and now as a hardcover and audiobook. The Body Fat Solution, Tom’s book about emotional eating and long-term weight maintenance, was an Oprah Magazine and Men’s Fitness Magazine pick. Tom is also the founder of Burn The Fat Inner Circle – a fitness support community with over 52,000 members worldwide since 2006. Click here for membership details
Scientific References
Careau V, Pontzer H, et al, Energy compensation and adiposity in humans, Current Biology, 31, pp1-8, October 2021.
The post Exercise For Weight Loss: Is It Useless? The Calorie Compensation Controversy appeared first on Burn The Fat Blog.
from Burn The Fat Blog https://www.burnthefatblog.com/exercise-for-weight-loss/
