This is the eighth and final installment in our series on exercise.<\/em><\/p>\n And we have saved the<\/em><\/strong> biggest question for last.<\/p>\n What is more important when it comes to losing weight–exercise or diet?<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n According to surveys, most of us (70%) believe that diet and exercise have an equal<\/em> impact on weight loss while 19% of us believe exercise is the most important factor. Only 11% believe diet is the most important.<\/p>\n As we will discover in this article, 89% of us are dead wrong.<\/p>\n Because studies clearly demonstrate that the essential factor in weight loss is what you eat\u2026not how much you exercise.<\/strong><\/p>\n Despite the fact that exercise brings us a myriad of powerful health benefits, weight loss is the one area where it falls short.<\/em><\/p>\n Let me explain why\u2026<\/p>\n Click To Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n No doubt about it\u2026 physical activity is on the rise<\/a>.<\/p>\n Our fitness-crazed cultures in the US and beyond see more and more of us lacing up our running\/walking shoes or joining gyms and cross-training programs.<\/p>\n Despite the fact we are exercising more, we are still\u2014steadily\u2014 gaining weight.<\/strong><\/p>\n The statistics reveal a rather bleak picture.<\/p>\n Today over two-thirds of all Americans are overweight. Childhood obesity has tripled. And in just 14 short years away, experts predict that more than half of us will be clinically obese.\u00a0 And the increased amount<\/a> of calories consumed by Americans seems to be more than enough to explain the weight gained.<\/p>\n All that physical activity does not seem to be making us any thinner.<\/em><\/p>\n Obesity\u2014a condition that promotes chronic diseases and may shorten life expectancy\u2014 is nothing short of an epidemic.<\/p>\n Common wisdom blames our sedentary lifestyles for the obesity problem.<\/p>\n But our sitting around too much is just a tiny piece of the puzzle.<\/p>\n To tackle obesity, we need to focus on the real culprit, which is our diet and overconsumption of calories.<\/em><\/p>\n Just think about it. The average American eats the equivalent of a Big Mac in extra calories on a daily basis.\u00a0 To work off<\/a> the extra calories we would have to walk more than 2 hours a day, seven days a week. \u00a0If you have trouble squeezing 30 minutes of exercise three times a week <\/em>into your busy schedule, try 130 minutes every single day<\/em>!<\/p>\n Simply put, obesity has to be prevented or reversed by diet.<\/strong><\/p>\n By what we put in our mouths.<\/p>\n Not how many hours we devote to the gym.<\/p>\n Click To Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n According to a 2011 meta-analysis<\/a>, which looked at multiple studies on childhood obesity, being active is probably not the most important determinant in unhealthy weight gain in children.\u00a0The same seems to hold true in the adult<\/a> population.<\/p>\n Other studies<\/a> suggest that exercise without dieting may actually cause <\/strong>weight gain.<\/p>\n For example, a recent study<\/a> put 81 healthy but overweight women who had not exercised for a year on a new exercise regimen designed to improve cardiovascular health. Importantly, they were explicitly instructed not<\/em> to change their eating habits for 12 weeks.<\/p>\n The results were startling.<\/p>\n In sum, their cardiovascular fitness improved, but it did not lead to weight loss.<\/p>\n This is not to say\u00a0that exercise does not play\u00a0a role in weight loss. Exercise appears to contribute to long-term weight loss results\u2014but only<\/em> when used in combination with a healthful diet.<\/p>\n In a 1999 review<\/a> of randomized trials, researchers reported a significant but overall small increase in weight loss when exercise was combined with diet while two more recent studies<\/a> found that, in the long run, an exercise-diet combination led to slightly more weight loss versus diet alone.\u00a0However, researchers also stated that \u201cthe evidence<\/a> suggests a moderate superiority of diet over exercise<\/em>\u201d when it comes to measurements of body weight and fat mass alone.<\/p>\n Click To Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n There are many reasons why exercise is less effective than diet when it comes to weight management.<\/p>\n Click To Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n Many mistakenly believe that physical activity \u2018revs\u2019 up your metabolism, which, in turn, will help you burn more calories. But if you examine the components of your metabolic rate, you will see there is a limit to how much effect exercise can really have.<\/p>\n To understand this, we need to review a few basic concepts.<\/p>\n The total amount of energy you burn on a daily basis is called Total Energy Expenditure or TEE. The biggest part of TEE comprises the Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). This is the energy your body uses to stay alive. Even if you did not move an inch all day, you would still burn this amount. Your RMR will primarily depend on your weight and height, and the variation between any two equivalent individuals is quite small.<\/p>\n There is also the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF), which are the calories you burn to digest your food and absorb its nutrients, which is responsible for 10% of TEE.<\/p>\n Now let\u2019s factor in NEAT (Non-Exercise Adaptive Thermogenesis). This is the energy you burn outside of RMR and is a reflection of how active you are in terms of \u2018moving\u2019 around through your day. While this is an area where people can impact their total energy burn, it also only accounts for 10% of TEE.<\/p>\n Lastly, the Thermic Effect of Activity (TEA) consists of the calories you burn during actual exercise. If you do the minimum recommended amount of exercise and walk for an hour 5 days a week, your TEA will represent another 10% of your total daily calorie burn.<\/p>\n It\u00a0is evident that calorie expenditure in terms of exercise is not that big in the grand scheme of things.\u00a0<\/strong>But there\u2019s more to know about your metabolism\u2026<\/p>\n The bitter truth is that the more you lose weight, the more your RMR decreases (i.e. a smaller body requires less energy to survive). And contrary to popular belief, exercise cannot counter or reverse this.<\/p>\n All of this brings us back to the same message. The real culprit when it comes to weight gain is an overconsumption of calories, not too little exercise. As described in a review<\/a> article aimed to clear the confusion about the leverage of exercise on body weight, \u2018the energy balance <\/em>(i.e. calorie in versus calorie out) equation suggests that energy intake and energy expenditure occupy equivalent roles in determining energy balance, when in fact the factors governing energy intakes influence the energy balance far more powerfully<\/strong> than the factors determining resting energy expenditure\u2019<\/em>. (Bolded mine)<\/p>\nFitness and Fat Are Both Climbing\u2026<\/h3>\n
Why Exercise Cannot Stop Obesity\u2026but Diet Can<\/h3>\n
What the Studies Show<\/h3>\n
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Why Is Exercise Not Effective?<\/h3>\n
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The Myth of Metabolism<\/h3>\n