"exercise doesn't help with weight loss"


(eat more) #1

this perplexes me…i keep reading it everywhere and it hurts my brain…

exercise (activity) depletes glycogen, muscle uses more energy (food or fat stores)…what am i missing?

is it just verbiage? “weight” (scale) vs fat (composition)?

please enlighten me :slightly_smiling_face:


Is there reduced fat loss while lifting?
Need feedback and help
(Bart) #2

read this…

http://nymag.com/news/sports/38001/


(đ૯αท ʍ૯ઽƬѳท) #3

I’ve heard this “exercise thing” called Keto in fast forward.

I think it helps to maintain good strong ketone production. But definitely not a sole tool in the quest for weight loss IMHO.


#4

I’ve heard a few sources say that exercise helps with maintaining weight (keeping weight off) and has other health benefits, but has been found to be at least of fairly minor effectiveness for weight loss compared to other factors like diet. I believe part of the explanation is that over the long term the body will otherwise adjust to the excercise expendature in various ways (reduce energy/metabolism so less of a workout is possible, reduce energy/metabolism outside of the workout, activate hunger and appetite to greater degrees, etc).

Dr. Fung has a multi-part series on the issue on his blog (and I believe touches on it in his lecture series on obesity):
The Myth about Exercise – Exercise Part I


(eat more) #5

that article implies exercise alone…i keep seeing the statement made in regards to keto…i just can’t wrap my brain around that exercise while following keto doesn’t make a difference…

the only way i can make it not twist my brain is if scale weight is the only goal

i know personally that exercise alone does not keep the pounds …scale or bf% away :joy:


(Jamie Hayes) #6

It’s a common belief that “If I’ve got a few pounds to lose, and join a gym, or start an exercise program that I’ll lose weight.”

Your body is so intelligently self-compensating, seeking homeostasis that it will do some smart things to avoid weight loss from exercise. It can stimulate the appetite causing compensatory eating. It can limit post exercise incidental movement (fidgeting) to conserve energy.

Use your keto diet to lose (fat) weight and use exercise to improve your health, strength, mobility and body tone.

My saying is “Where exercise does not lead to weight loss, the opposite is true - weight loss (through diet) leads to exercise. When and overweight/obese person loses weight, which typically involves changing their body’s energy pathways, and they improve their power-to-weight ratio, then they become more predisposed to exercise.”

However, the right types of exercise do provide some valuable weight loss aids.

High intensity resistance training (which can be safely done by any person at any age) provides the adaptive stimulus for lean muscle regeneration.

High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT (which can also be done safely by any person at any age) may help improve your body’s sugar regulation systems.

Too many people drop their exercise plans due to the incorrect goal of weight loss. Follow your keto plan to lose weight and use exercise for life for all its health benefits.


Beginner Here...Help
(Alex Dipego) #7

Not all exercise helps with weight loss. Some exercise helps with weight gain, others loss and some keeping you in a happy medium. The exercise needs purpose and can actually fulfill it.

You want to burn more energy without harming they body? More muscle does this.

The reason why runners are skinny isn’t because they burn more energy, it’s because it’s easier to move with less weight on their person. Of course the more you do something the easier it gets thus burns less energy.

So exercise based on movement alone does not increase weight loss. Strength and grow exercise can build muscle and cause weight gain but fat loss. Of course it can also cause weight loss but usually this statement is lost in ratios of fat vs lean mass.


(eat more) #8

ok it’s just completely my problem with verbiage when ppl literally say “exercise does not affect weight loss”…very loud bells go off in my head…given glycogen reduction and energy required to maintain muscle
i wish:
exercise ALONE does not affect weight loss
(which both links provided stated)

thanks for the replies!


(Stickin' with mammoth) #9

Exercise can boost metabolism and metabolism can affect weight loss…if your body is working correctly. Those of us with profound insulin resistance know that fairy tale is a horror story unless we fix our broken body systems. Keto on.


Did an hour of easy cardio this morning...ravenous tonight - connection?
(Karen Fricke) #10

Example of why exercise doesn’t help much with weight loss: 20+ years ago I ran across a formula to determine how many calories riding a bike burned. It factored in my weight, the bike’s weight, level of fitness, etc. The end result was I had to ride 100 miles to burn the calories in a pound. If I rode 10 miles a day, I could burn 3 pounds a month, but if I rode 10 miles every day, I was likely to eat that much more. Sometimes because I was hungrier, sometimes because I felt like I could afford to because I had exercised. Seriously, 100 miles for a pound is a lot of riding.


(betsy.rome) #11

@JamieHayes - I always appreciate your wisdom, esp. in regards to exercise.


(Alex Dipego) #12

As I said before cardio is the worst way to lose weight.

We get this anti-CICO attitude in the forum because that formula isn’t perfect and we know so much more is going on.

I dislike the argument, “I’m more active so I’ll have to eat more so then I won’t lose weight.” This isn’t necessarily true. When we’re talking about energy burn you tend to use glycogen depending on the activity and how hard it is. Walking is easy and tends to use FFAs rather than glycogen but a long ride or run will burn glycogen. 2-4hrs of this you’ll be depleted and the body is in a frenzy for energy. It’ll grab fat and such and if you have some BF to use it’ll take what it can. When you’re done you are technically in the negative.

Do you have to eat? Not necessarily but you may feel hungry. Feeling hungry and hunger are two different things and we all know this. The body wants electrolytes. It doesn’t need food just because you ran for 2hrs. At this point the body is going to try to refill your glycogen stores any way it can. If you used your accessible fat it’ll grab at excess proteins, lactic acid and glycerol. It’ll do what it can because without food it’s thinking it will need to be ready to do this again. What happens when you fast after an activity like that? The metabolism speeds up because your body wants to eat. It enters that “starvation” state where it gives you more energy and refills your glycogen so you can get up and find food. Extending this to a few days will cause an eventual slow down if you don’t have enough fat and protein.

But you don’t need to fast, you can just eat a regular meal and if you eat something that puts you in a positive intake depending on what you’re taking in you may maintain weight. Usually weight fluctuates 3-5lbs in a day due to glycogen storage. But say you burned 400 calories more than you expended, without lowering yourself from your normal life as in if you normally eat 2500 and you do so today but burned 2900cals then you lose 400cals and which is ounces of weight loss. If that cause it’s one day. Measuring day to day is not important the week, month, year is important. Patterning your days together to see the movement of weight. I know keep bday to Monday how my weight is because I know my pattern. I know if I run for 5mins 4x a week I’ll drop a lb on the scale. I’m still eating 200g+ of fat I’m not cutting, I’m just increasing output. Barely hit it adds up.


(eat more) #13

with more introspection…

i think all of the communities i’ve seen that are saying exercise makes no difference (to folks that are already paying attn to their eating) is a disservice…like giving ppl permission to not move and just chase the scale and CICO…

i was looking for holes in MY thinking lol

i have a friend that won’t lift because “it makes me hungry and tired ALLLL day” …but she’ll spend 45 min on the treadmill and eat subway and regular coke for lunch…she still looks the same… (yes i’ve tried…no peanut butter is not a “protein”)

it’s not the way i workout or eat but i still wouldn’t tell her that exercise doesn’t matter…which in her and other ppl that aren’t paying attn to their eating habits it doesn’t…but i’m seeing this statement in keto communities.

i just don’t like it lol

i lift heavy (for me) things and eat :bacon:

keto on fine ppl :blush:


(Alex Dipego) #14

Squatters high is the only life for me :grin:


(Stickin' with mammoth) #15

I should add that regular aerobic exercise dampens my appetite, big time. I only want a little food after hiking but if I go several days without getting outside, this is me:


(eat more) #16

pre keto i would sometimes leave the gym because i was convinced i was starving and gonna die…now i’m less hungry during and after training…yep i miss my “anabolic window” everyday now LOL


(Patrick B.) #17

So in all the different weight-loss communities I’ve participated in, I’ve really not seen people say that exercise doesn’t affect weight loss. If it is said like that, I take it more as the old adage, “you can’t out-run your fork”. In the Loseit reddit forum, weight loss is viewed as a healthful benefit but you get more out of not eating a brownie than you do trying to burn that brownie off. The majority there do follow a CICO diet but there are a bunch of KETO people there as well.

I have seen some KETO people talk about not needing to exercise to lose weight, which is not what you said, but is true.


(eat more) #18

i completely agree that you can’t outrun your diet…what i’m talking about seeing was literally that exercise doesn’t affect weight loss at all and if someone mentioned exercise they’d point them at a different community…
i don’t go there anymore LOL


(Karen Parrott) #19

Just entered 5+ years of long term weight maintenance after 40 years of yo-yo and morbid obesity. Maintaining 70+ pounds, LCHF/Keto/Paleo/Modified AIP

I also know that I have a double copy of the “sprinter” genes, so the chronic cardio adds an inter-tube like layer of body fat around my middle. Moderate walking 60+ mins activity on my fitbit, with my camera- read stopping sometimes to photograph works well.

For others in long term weight maintenance (Refuse to Regain book author and lower carb champion Barbara Berkeley, MD) she needs more aerobic activity to maintain her weight loss.

So I do rowing Tabbata sprints on a concept 2 rower, weights 2 X per week, push-ups at home every day, and 5+ miles with 60 active mins per day. I take a rest walking day ever 10-20 days with no problems.

I sometimes hike in the mountains, kayak in lagoons and oceans, and play light tennis, snorkel a few days a year. All that activity means I eat more, but in my Keto food template. I don’t eat junk carbs due to being in food addiction remission 6+ years.

If I do no walking over 5 days just because I want to go back to my old ways, then I do start a slow, but steady regain.

Do some n=1 for weight maintenance- IMO. Your milage WILL differ. Based on lots of things. Do you and share it. Onward. Great topic!!!


(Karen Parrott) #20

And for weight loss, cutting back to 30-40 mins of walking a day helps me lose weight more effectively.

Over exercising seems to tell my body to hang onto fat. I can lift weights and lose weight just fine. And sprints.