Is it possible to lose weight exercising

More and more research in both the UK and the US is emerging to show that exercise has a negligible impact on weight loss. That tri-weekly commitment to aerobics class? Almost worthless, as far as fitting into your bikini is concerned. The Mayo Clinic , a not-for-profit medical research establishment in the US, reports that, in general, studies "have demonstrated no or modest weight loss with exercise alone" and that "an exercise regimen… is unlikely to result in short-term weight loss beyond what is achieved with dietary change.

It sounds faintly heretical, if not downright facetious. And it's a scientific discovery that most health professionals are, naturally, keen to downplay. After all, exercise is still good for us. It's just that, in defiance of decades of New Year resolutions, it's unlikely to make us slim. Most of us have a grasp of the rudiments of weight gain and loss: you put energy calories into your body through food, you expend them through movement, and any that don't get burned off are stored in your body as fat.

Unfortunately, the maths isn't in our favour. To burn off an extra calories is typically an extra two hours of cycling. And that's about two doughnuts. From a practical perspective, then, exercise is never going to be an effective way of slimming, unless you have the training schedule — and the willpower — of an Olympic athlete. But Gately sums it up: "Most people, offered the choice, are going to go for the diet, because it's easier to achieve. There's another, more insidious, problem with pinning all your hopes for a holiday bod on exercise.

In what has become a defining experiment at the University of Louisiana, led by Dr Timothy Church, hundreds of overweight women were put on exercise regimes for a six-month period. Some worked out for 72 minutes each week, some for minutes, and some for A fourth group kept to their normal daily routine with no additional exercise. Against all the laws of natural justice, at the end of the study , there was no significant difference in weight loss between those who had exercised — some of them for several days a week — and those who hadn't.

Church doesn't record whether he told the women who he'd had training for three and half hours a week, or whether he was wearing protective clothing when he did.

Some of the women even gained weight. Church identified the problem and called it "compensation": those who exercised cancelled out the calories they had burned by eating more, generally as a form of self-reward. The post-workout pastry to celebrate a job well done — or even a few pieces of fruit to satisfy their stimulated appetites — undid their good work.

In some cases, they were less physically active in their daily life as well. His findings are backed up by a paper on childhood obesity published in by Boston academics Steven Gortmaker and Kendrin Sonneville.

In an month study investigating what they call "the energy gap" — the daily imbalance between energy intake and expenditure — the pair showed that when the children in their experiment exercised, they ended up eating more than the calories they had just burned, sometimes 10 or 20 times as many.

In the s, the celebrated French-American nutritionist Jean Mayer was the first to introduce a link between exercise and weight reduction. Until then, the notion that physical activity might help you lose weight was actually rather unfashionable in the scientific community — in the s, a leading specialist had persuasively argued that it was more effective to keep patients on bed rest.

Over the course of his career, Mayer's pioneering studies — on rats, babies and schoolgirls — demonstrated that the less active someone was, the more likely they were to be fat. Mayer himself, the son of two eminent physiologists, and a Second World War hero to boot, became one of the world's leading figures in nutrition and most influential voices in the sphere of public health. Eating calories fewer each day than you use can lead to a 5-lb drop in weight over 6 months, the NHLBI add.

A doctor or dietitian can help individuals decide how far to drop their calorie intake if they need to lose weight. This will vary between individuals. Eating too few calories can be as harmful as eating too many. Learn more here about how many calories a person needs and how an awareness of calories can help in weight management.

As well as reducing calories in the diet, people can burn more calories by increasing their activity levels. According to the CDC , a person weighing lb can burn approximately the following calories during 30 minutes of physical activity:. Regular exercise is vital for maintaining good health and muscle tone during weight loss.

It can also help lose weight and prevent future weight gain. Here, learn more about calculating your calorie needs. A combination of aerobic exercise and resistance training can contribute to effective, long-term weight loss.

Often called cardio exercise, this includes brisk exercise that promotes the circulation of oxygen through the blood and raises the heartbeat. It is not necessary to use heavy weights. A person can benefit from starting with lighter weights and building up over time.

Before starting resistance training, seek advice from an expert. Exercising too much, too soon, and in the wrong way can lead to injury. Resistance training helps maintain muscle mass, and people with more muscle burn more calories per minute, even while resting. Experts recommend combining both types. A study points out that combining both types with a weight loss diet can help reduce frailty, improve physical function, and maintain muscle mass in older adults.

There is no best diet for weight loss. The most effective strategy is to choose healthful lifestyle habits. Some commercial diet plans can be effective but expensive to follow and hard to maintain. When a person quits the diet, they often regain the weight. A Mediterranean diet may be a good option. There is no specific diet plan, but the diet involves:.

At least one review found it helped people with overweight or obesity to lose weight over 12 months. A study showed that different diet types might have different effects on metabolic rate. In fact, most successful weight loss maintainers listed in the National Weight Control Registry, who have lost at least 30 pounds 14 kg and kept it off for at least 1 year, report exercising for at least 1 hour per day The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans outline ideal exercise amounts for all ages to help optimize health.

For adults, they are 20 :. However, if your goal is weight loss, you should prioritize diet over exercise because it will have a much larger impact.

If your time is limited, consider resistance training rather than cardio to help maintain your muscle mass and metabolic rate or HIIT to help you achieve a similar calorie burn as cardio in less time Consider taking your measurements as well, and keep track of how your clothes fit.

These are much better indicators of fat loss than weight alone. Exercise is important for overall health, and different types of exercise may offer different advantages when it comes to weight loss.

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