Does Exercise really help you loose weight?
I hear this all the time and the only thing I have to say is, “it depends”.
I get a lot of weird looks with that answer having been a fitness professional for the past 27 plus years. I guess the expected answer would be, “Absolutely”. I understand their position. I am no spring chick, I have been in the fitness industry for years and years and I have no weight problem, and they think it is because I exercise “all the time”.
Naturally you know that’s an exaggeration because nobody exercises ALL THE TIME.
I have to explain to people that sure exercise keeps our entire body strong from the bones all the way to the heart. Our bodies were built to move and exert energy and when we don’t do that, we don’t feel our best and we may not even realize it.
I give them the old fitness speech then I move right in to nutrition. It’s not a 50/50 thing you know, just like relationships aren’t. We may want them to be but they aren’t. There is always one person pulling a little extra weight, the relationship works when it isn’t ALWAYS the same person doing the work.
Exercise and nutrition does NOT work like a relationship. If it did, Nutrition would probably divorce Exercise.
Don’t laugh so loud, you see Nutrition is 80 percent of our health and Exercise is only 20 percent. I don’t want you to stop exercising, that isn’t my intentions because Exercise does a body good. The deal is that Exercise takes care of the 20 percent of our health that nutrition can not address. And Nutrition takes care of the 80 percent of our health that Exercise can not address.
So they are a team and guess what? Nutrition doesn’t really mind, it’s happy to let Exercise be the “show off”. Nutrition doesn’t really mind letting exercise think it does all the work. Nutrition is happy just being quiet, the good news is that more and more people are taking notice of Nutrition.
Nutrition is coming out for everyone to see, the bad stuff is being held up for example. More and more people are getting conscious about fresh, organic, natural and local ingredients. It is such an exciting movement for us as humans from a nutritional stand point. It’s also about having a relationship with the places and people that our food comes from.
Does Exercise really help you to loose weight?
For instance:
When you exercise, what do you fuel your body with? (very important)
Do you Drink plenty of water?
Do you head to the coffee shop after work out with the girlfriends from class?
Many people gain weight because they don’t eat ENOUGH
And then there are those with portion sizes that are too large.
Do you eat out often?
How balanced is your nutrition?
Do you take supplements?
These are all very valid questions BACK to the person asking about exercise and weight loss.
Let me explain a few things here:
- We need food to survive, the right combinations make us healthy, lower the sugars, cut out the trans fats and eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, stay away from breads, additives and preservatives.
- Our bodies are 87% water, 10% other fluids (plasma, brain matter, bone marrow) and 3% solid. Water is important in washing away the impurities, improves skin tone, muscle tone, is an important component in taste and digestion.
- when we head to the coffee shop after a work out, we often put in our bodies more calories that what we have burned off at the gym. Maybe you should go and have a banana, apple or an orange, your body will thank you for that.
- We need to consume approximately 2,000 calories a day depending on your activity level, when we eat less our bodies go into “famine” mode and start to store, thinking it is going to starve. If your activity level is so low that you only require 1,500 calories, consider raising your activity levels to one that requires 2,000 calories to maintain (as long as you health allows)
- Portion sizes are TOO LARGE across the board. Our dinner plates have increased by 3 inches in diameter since the 50’s and our average waste size has increase by 4 inches, so you do the math.
- When you eat outside of the home you loose much of the control that you have over a meal. Much of the food is pre packages and pre prepared and when you refine food it looses much of it’s nutritional value. You get so much of what you don’t need, like excess sodium (creates high blood pressure) preservatives and additives. Here we go again with portion size. Way too big, when you order a meal at most restaurants I would suggest ordering a “to go” container with your meal and promptly upon delivery, slide half of it into your to go container. Guess what? You will probably find that you didn’t need it anyways, however with it on your plate it would most likely find a way into your stomach.
- Balanced nutrition will balance your body, make your organs function properly, and align all of you systems so they work optimally so that you can experience good health.
- Supplements are imperative in todays world. Tthe food we eat today is not the same as what we ate say 50 or more years ago. Our bodies need nutrients to be healthy and we don’t always get them in today’s world so supplements are a wise choice for your health.
So you see, it’s a much more complicated question that one would think and so there is no easy answer.
I do think that Exercise helps me to loose weight because I an conscious of my nutrition. What is more important is What time I eat, what I eat and how much I eat. I make it a rule to never drink cold or iced water or beverages if at all possible and I would never adjourn to the coffee shop after a good work out. I don’t exercise to lose weight, I exercise because it makes me feel good and strong. Skip the coffee shop and go straight for nutrition.
Yes, exercise is necessary in order to be healthy and it is necessary to be able to maintain a healthy weight, be and feel strong too. However the more important factor here is nutrition because that will be the final key to open the door to perfect health for you.
