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Phillips Close Quarter Combat Training News
Exercise and Weight Control: myths and Truths
By Stanley
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If you are feeling frustrated by a lack of weight loss from your current exercise program, this article might help you understand some myths about exercise and weight control. These are just a few questions that I get asked, so I thought I would share them with you. Myth: Exercise kills your appetite. Exercise may temporarily kill your appetite, but hunger will catch-up with you within 1 to 2 hours. Appetite is partially regulated by temperature control. However, if you are chilled, such as after swimming, you may feel ravenous. Myth: The more you exercise the more weight you’ll lose. Often, the more you exercise, the hungrier you get and the more you eat. For example, you may spend an hour on the StairMaster burning off 500 calories, and then devour twelve Oreos (600calories) in less than six minutes. After a hard workout, your body is hungry. Your soul may also be hungry for a reward. After all, you now deserve a treat for having survived the workout, right…? The effects of exercise on weight loss are complex and unclear. Nature seems to efficiently replenish fat stores of lean athletes and prevent them from wasting away. Lean female athletes, in particular, struggle harder than do males to lose body fat and maintain an even leaner physique. In terms of evolution, nature wants women to have fat and be fertile; men are supposed to be lean hunters. Myth: You’ll lose weight fastest if you exercise at low intensity (i.e., do “fat burning exercise”) on an empty stomach. “Fat-burning exercise” a low intensity workout that burns proportionately more fat than carbohydrates (glycogen) is deemed optimal for weight loss. Aerobic exercisers commonly believe they will lose more body fat if they exercise before eating, because fat will be the predominant fuel. Wrong, for fat/weight control, you need to look at the whole day’s calorie balance – not just at what you burn during exercise. If, over the course of the whole day, you create a calorie deficit by burning off more calories than you eat, you’ll lose body fat. However, if you consume more calories than you expend (as can easily happen if overeat at night), you’ll end up gaining fat. The biggest benefits of low impact, fat-burning exercise are 1) you are less likely to get injured, and 2) you are able to exercise longer and thereby burn more total calories. The truth is intense exercise may actually contribute to lower percent body fat. Research on 1.366 women and 1,257 men suggest those who did high intensity exercise tended to have less body fat than those who did lower intensity “fat-burning” exercise. If you are exercising to lose weight, I encourage you to separate exercise and weight. Yes, you should exercise for health, fitness, stress relief and, most importantly, for the ENJOYMENT. After all, the E in exercise stands for enjoyment. I discourage you from exercising to burn off calories. Under those conditions, exercise feels like punishment for having excess body fat. Grueling exercise fails to get integrated into a life-long, health promotion plan.
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