The Key to Weight loss: diet or exercise?

Exercising does not burn as many calories

as most people believe it does

By Carlos A. Bracuto

Personal Trainer

Physical exercise might be the ultimate prescription for health and fitness. Exercising regularly reduces the risk of chronic disease, improves a variety of already established conditions, strengthens your bones and muscles, boosts your energy and sex life, promotes better sleep, focus and relaxation, and, among many other benefits, helps you lose weight. However, regarding weight loss, there are many misconceptions that I’d like to clarify.

We often hear people complaining about not losing weight despite going to the gym three times a week, or taking daily fitness classes, or riding their bicycles around town. The truth is, exercising does not burn as many calories as most people believe it does. This is not to say that it is not a crucial part of your weight loss plan, but if you start an exercise program without adjusting your diet and lifestyle, you will end up exhausted… and weighing the same –or even more- than at the beginning.

How can you lose weight?

The formula is simple: in order to lose weight, you should burn more calories than the ones you consume. In other words, create a caloric deficit.

When it comes to losing weight (or keeping a healthy weight) and be overall healthy and fit, I always repeat this mantra to my students (read it while burning incense and with Hindu music playing in the background): “Exercise, Nutrition, Lifestyle.” Indeed, there are many factors that will influence your goals, but when it comes to embark on your path toward health and fitness, exercising, adopting a healthy diet, and incorporating healthy lifestyle behaviors is the trinity that will ultimately guarantee your success.

The In & Out of calories

In order to understand how we can effectively lose weight, we should examine first how we bring calories in and how we burn them out.

The “in” process is pretty straightforward: we ingest calories through food and drinks.

The “out” process is a bit more complex. There are three main ways to calorie expenditure:

1) Basal Metabolic Rate (all the body’s life-sustaining processes, like breathing, blood circulation, protein synthesis, etc.): 60-80% of energy expenditure.

2) Dietary thermogenesis (heat produced to digest, breakdown and absorb a meal): 10%

3) Physical activity (not just exercise, but also all body movements like mowing the lawn, washing dishes, and, yes, even bending your elbow to bring that beer toward your mouth): 10-30%

That’s right: we bring in all our calories through eating and drinking, but we can burn just a fraction of them through exercise. Moreover, exercising –especially some forms of it, like a long bout of endurance training or weight lifting- can increase your appetite, so if you are not careful about what and how much you eat after an exercise session, at the end of the day you can end up gaining, instead of losing, weight.

How to maximize the results of your exercise training for weight loss purposes

Fitness coaches cannot create a nutrition plan or recommend medications or supplements for a client; that is beyond our clearly defined scope of practice. What we can do is provide information and help you find the resources to adopt a healthier diet and produce necessary lifestyle changes to assure the success of your weight loss or fitness goals.

Of course, a fitness coach will design the right exercise program for you, provide support, motivation and strategies to help you adhere to your program and prevent relapsing.

If you are trying to lose weight, my first recommendation would be: Don’t start in the gym, but in the kitchen. As stated in the last Dietary Guidelines for Americans report, in order to lose weight in a realistic and reasonable manner, let’s say 1 ½ pounds A WEEK, you should reduce your DAILY intake of calories by 500 - 750 calories.

The following information will help you understand why your dumbbells, resistance bands, tennis racket or yoga mat won’t help much unless you reduce your caloric intake.

· CALORIES IN: A hot dog with ketchup will provide around 300 calories (and 26% of your daily fat intake, with more than 30% of saturated fat)

· CALORIES OUT: Bicycling leisurely around town for 1 hour at 10 mph will burn around 295 calories.

As you can see, in order to burn the calories provided by the hot dog, you would have to ride a bicycle all along the green way from south Ashland to Phoenix, and back. But, how about if you decide to stop in downtown for some hydration? I hope you didn’t forget you water bottle. One can of soda will bring in 150 calories (and let’s forget for a minute about the high fructose corn syrup, phosphoric acid, and artificial color and flavors it contains). Perhaps you should keep riding all the way up to Medford and beyond. More examples:

· CALORIES IN: A 16 oz. Starbucks mocha Frappuccino (why would anyone drink coffee at Starbucks is a subject for another post…) has 360 calories. Just 1 original Oreo cookie has 53 calories.

· CALORIES OUT: Swimming laps at light/ moderate speed or hiking burns around 420 calories per hour.

· CALORIES IN: A single slice of pizza has approximately 285 calories. Add pepperoni (basically, a combination of sugar, saturated fat, sodium and an endless list of preservatives formatted in small circles) and you incorporate about 100 extra calories. Wash it down with a can of IPA beer, and you are adding some 200 extra calories.

· CALORIES OUT: Running consistently at about 5 mph for an hour, or a vigorous circuit training class, burns around 620 calories.

Cardio or weight training?

When it comes to losing weight through exercise, both cardio and weight training are the way to go. It is true that cardio exercise normally helps you burn more calories during a single session (of course, it all depends on the duration and intensity of the workout, among other factors), but weight training is more effective for building muscle, and, as muscle burns more calories at rest than other tissues, you will continue burning calories for more than 24 hours while your body is resting. That means that, after a weight training workout, thanks to this increase in metabolic rate, your body will continue burning calories even while you are sitting in the couch watching a movie or sleeping.

Love what you do

You might be wondering what kind of cardio or weight training exercise you should do. Make sure that whatever form of exercise you chose, it is something you enjoy doing. The chances of sticking to your exercise program greatly increase when you do an activity you like.

Keep in mind that high intensity aerobic exercise is more effective in burning calories than low intensity training. However, you should select the workout that is most appropriate for your goals and current physical level.

Lower to moderate cardio exercise (50-70% of your Maximum Heart Rate) is generally low impact, so it is more accessible for deconditioned people or those with certain exercise limitations (obesity, pregnancy, recovering from illness or injuries) Example: step class, walking, water aerobics, tennis.

Higher intensity cardio exercise (70-85% of your MHR) will help you burn more calories, build strength and resistance, and increase your metabolic rate. Example: High Intensity Interval Training, cardio kickboxing, circuit training, soccer.

Weight training, on the other hand, can be done at home (if you have the proper equipment) or in the gym. It is recommended that you train following the advice of a fitness professional, in order to make your training safer and more effective.

Please contact me if you want to start working on your weight loss program.