Lose Weight Successfully - is Exercise Overrated?

Although these effects undoubtedly exist, their influence on the impact of weight is significantly overestimated. This applies primarily to people who have never, or not for a long time, participated in exercise and now hope for fast results in weight loss. Energy consumption only rises with increased training intensity. Sports sessions with the required intensity can push unfit people to their limits. Training that is too easy can likewise only make a slight, hardly noticeable, difference, even if it's done regularly.

A daily calorie deficit of 500 kcal is recommended for weight reduction. Achieving this through exercise alone demands a high expenditure of time for unfit people. For example, if you jog at a slow pace, you will need to exercise for about an hour to consume the recommended number of calories. Therefore, training sessions would add up to about 7 hours or more per week. Training becomes significantly more effective if you are able to increase the intensity, such as, the running speed. The problem here is that unfit people are already “out of breath“ after only a few minutes and can only maintain higher physical demands for a short period of time. This is mainly because their muscles transfer less energy than fit people. Furthermore, they tend to have a higher calorie intake after exercise, therefore undoing the effects of exercise. They also often falsely believe that an increase in the basal metabolism can arise after a short time, which would contribute to an increase in energy consumption. The gain of a few kilograms of muscle mass, which can be expected after moderate training, only leads to an increase of the basal metabolism of a few dozen calories a day.  

To begin with, moderate exercise is very time-consuming. According to sports science institutions, like the College of Sport Science (ECSS) and the American College of Sports Medicine, hardly any weight loss can be achieved with moderate physical activity of less than 200 minutes per week, without any further measures. Results only set in after approximately 250 minutes per week. Training should be extended to about 300 minutes per week if you wish to prevent renewed weight gain.

Therefore, for those who are untrained and have little time, exercise alone will not achieve satisfactory results in most circumstances. However, it is important to remember that even 30 minutes of exercise a day has a positive effect on the body and health, even without weight loss.

If you wish to lose weight, it is recommended to combine exercise and a change in your diet. The intensity of training should also be continuously increased over the course of time. Ultimately, the more intense the exercise, the more effective and time-efficient the exercise will become, and the more satisfactory the results.

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