Exercise and weight loss

By L. H. GRAY
Trucker's World

11/20/2008

Have you ever rewarded yourself with a big meal after a hard day’s labor? Or tried to walk off a second piece of pecan pie? Or felt deserving of a candy bar because you spent two hours raking leaves?

Everyone’s done it — tried to “work off” the cookies they ate, or indulged in a treat because they deserved it. But does it work? Can you exercise away extra calories?

It’s true that exercise burns calories. But you may not be able to “burn off” the extra pounds as easily as you think. Or you may be frustrated by how little the scale moves with the start of your new exercise plan.

So, how does exercise affect weight?

First of all, you need to understand how the body loses weight. It’s a simple principle called calorie balance. If you consume more calories than your body needs, you will gain weight. If you consume the same amount of calories your body needs, your weight will stay the same.

It’s only when you use up MORE calories than what your body needs that you will lose weight.

This is done two ways: 1) cutting calories and 2) increasing exercise. This is a great double whammy to achieve weight loss. As you take in less calories you’re also burning extra calories. This causes a calorie deficit. Over the course of the day, there are not enough calories (or fuel) for the body to function. The body then pulls the extra fuel it needs from its fat stores. And, presto, the pounds start coming off.

Exercise helps to create a calorie deficit.

For example, Bill wants to lose weight. He starts walking four days a week for 30 minutes a day. Each walk burns 150 calories. In a week, Bill burns an extra 600 calories.

Now, a pound of fat is worth 3500 calories. So to get rid of a pound, Bill needs to create a 3500 calorie deficit. If he also reduces his food calories by 400 calories daily (just by skipping a candy bar and a soda), he probably will lose a pound that week.

If Bill did not reduce his calories, and only added four days of exercise, it could take him over five weeks to lose one pound.

You can see how frustrating this could be. It would appear the exercise is not helping. It’s just that the calorie deficit is building so slowly that it will take a longer time to see results.

Let’s say that Bill decides to walk every day. He is now burning an extra 1050 calories a week through exercise. He only needs to cut his calories by 350 calories a day to lose a pound that week. Or through exercise alone, it would take him a little over three weeks.

Let’s try one more scenario. Bill is in better shape now, so he can jog instead of walk. Each jog burns 350 calories. In a week’s time, he can burn 2450 calories through exercise alone. If he continues to cut calories, he may be able to lose 2-3 pounds per week.

You can see how exercise helps create a calorie deficit that leads to weight loss.

But the effects of exercise can also be blown out of the water by wrong thinking!

Perhaps Bill feels so good about his exercise, he thinks it won’t matter if he eats a donut with his morning coffee. However, the glazed blueberry donut contains 300 calories, about the same amount of calories he burned with exercise. He may also eat a little extra throughout the day, subconsciously feeling like he deserves it after his workout.

Not only could he negate his calorie deficit. He could end up with too many calories at the end of the day and actually gain weight.

What a surprise when Bill steps on the scale. Geez, this exercise stuff doesn’t work.

Exercise PLUS a healthy diet is the most effective way to lose weight. Even with exercise, you cannot eat excessive calories. Your body can only use a certain number of calories each day. If you eat more than you use, you will gain weight. Period. Putting these two keys together — exercise and diet — will get the weight down.

If you’re not sure how many calories you should have for weight loss, ask your doctor or use an online calorie calculator (such as the one at www.freedieting.com).

Exercise is a huge part of weight loss and good health. Not only does exercise burn calories, it strengthens the heart, lowers blood pressure and cholesterol, and creates a more positive frame of mind. Exercise helps you feel better physically and emotionally. Feeling good helps you make better choices about food. Making better food choices and exercising more results in weight loss. Yippee!

If you’re just getting started and haven’t been exercising, start slowly. You may want to try taking a short walk three days a week. Then add on a day. Once you’re able to walk five days a week, add a little more time to your walks. Make it your goal to work up to at least 30 minutes of exercise most days of the week. Just take it slowly and talk to your doctor first if you have any health concerns.

For weight loss, there are two main types of exercise to consider: 1) aerobic training and 2) strength training. Both achieve calorie burn, but affect your body in different ways.

Aerobic training

Aerobic, or cardio, exercise is any activity that uses the large muscles of your body in rhythmic motion, making your heart and lungs work harder. Examples of aerobic exercise include walking, biking, swimming, jogging, kickboxing, etc.

Your heartbeat increases and your breathing picks up as your muscles work harder. Your body begins burning more calories to meet the demand for more fuel.

Aerobic exercise is great for burning calories. In 30 minutes a 200-pound person may burn 150 calories walking, 350 calories playing tennis, or 300 calories swimming laps. Compare that to 45 calories sitting in front of the TV.

Strength training

Strength training includes exercises that make the muscles work against resistance. This could be accomplished with hand-held weights like dumbbells, weight machines at a gym, resistance bands, or even some pool exercises.

As the muscles work against the resistance, the heart rate increases with the extra effort and the body burns more calories. However, the greatest benefit of strength training doesn’t come during the actual workout.

For 30 minutes of strength training, a 200-pound person could burn 175 calories. But it’s the calorie burn following the workout that is the payoff.

When you strength train, your metabolism is boosted for the next 24 hours. That means you are burning more calories even when you go to sleep that night.

Strength training also causes an increase in lean muscle mass. Your metabolic rate (the rate at which you burn calories) is directly related to your lean muscle mass. As you lose weight, you will lose fat and muscle. If you strength train, you can