If you have been logging countless hours on the elliptical machine at the gym to drop those extra pounds, we have some bad news for you. New studies reveal that the weight loss benefits of exercise may have been overstated. Diet, it turns out, is a much bigger factor in weight loss.
Before you give up the gym forever, countless researchers have found that exercise has a myriad of other heath benefits – it reduces depression, heart disease, some cancers, diabetes, and dementia, to name just a few. But when it comes to losing weight, exercise alone just isn’t the best route.
A review of recent research by the Mayo Clinic concluded that “most studies have demonstrated no or modest weight loss with exercise alone.” Other studies assigned groups of sedentary women to different amount of exercise for a year, but found that the women lost similar amounts of weight regardless of which group they were in.
Researchers believe that we overestimate the number of calories we burn while exercising – often doubling the actual calorie count. We then reward ourselves for our hard work by eating food that packs on many more calories than we have burned off.
So the lesson here is not to stop exercising if you want to lose weight. Just stop pigging out after your workout.
photo credit: Foto43
October 29th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Totally true, diet accounts for close to 60-70% of weight loss/gain. I could have totally made that percent up, but close enough.
Bottom Line: If you truly want to lose weight combine dieting with cardio. Figure out how many calories your body consumes just to survive. Than consume less calories than that #. Offset any extra calories with exercise.