I recently heard somebody ask this question: If exercise had no impact on your weight or appearance, would you still do it?

What was your first reaction to reading that question? 

Those who are reading this that have consistently exercised over a long period of time would probably say yes, and I would say it’s a yes mainly because of how it makes them feel good regardless of any change in appearance.

They have come to understand that consistently exercising is a powerful tool in the game of life; more on this later. 

On the flip side of that, you may have said no, and that’s ok, and maybe you haven’t exercised long enough to realise the full benefit. You may have been trying to use exercise as a tool for fat loss and then come to hate it. 

More exercise = more fat loss for me, more like, more exercise = me hate exercise.

Generally, what’s happening when you begin to hate exercise is that you get subscribed to a super restrictive diet approach plus an excessive exercise regime. 

It sounds like a winning combination, we have all been there, and we have all failed trying. 

First of all, a super restrictive meal plan is not sustainable. You’re basically giving your body less energy than it needs to perform everyday tasks. 

And yes, this is necessary to lose body fat. The fewer calories you eat, the more weight you lose. We need to burn off more calories than we consume to lose weight. I get it.

However, the plan doesn’t have to be borderline starvation. When you add a shit load of exercise on top of that, after three weeks, of course, you’ll hate exercise. 

Come that 3rd week you hardly have the energy to get out of bed. Never mind, do another 6am training session sound familiar?

If you focus on exercise as just a tool to burn calories, the question you need to ask yourself is, does exercising help increase your total daily energy expenditure? 

In other words, the calories you burn over a 24hour period. And that may vary from person to person.

What you burn in a training session may be offset by a lowering of non-exercises activity throughout the day or the following day. 

Non-exercise activity or N.E.A.T is all the calories you burn between laying motionless and physical activity. 

For example, if you train hard in the a.m; and the step count goes down in the pm, you couldn’t be arsed going for the evening walk, and it’s Netflix and chill time instead. 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. But if you are using exercise simply as a tool to burn calories well, you can see how it’s a flawed approach. 

You burn way more calories outside of exercise than you do exercising. You only exercise for, on average, 60min, which is the constraint here. 

But how much does exercise help when it comes to fat loss? You’ll be surprised to hear not much. 

A study done in 2007 by Hansen and colleagues concluded that exercise alone, with no change in diet, generally results in minimal reductions of fat mass in most people.

When it comes to maintaining the weight you have lost well, exercise can be a powerful tool.

In a meta-analysis (this is a study of studies basically), diet+exercise resulted in 5 lb more sustained weight loss over one year than diet alone. (Curioni, C.C. and Lourenco, P.M., 2005)

So dieting alone, with no exercise, resulted in regaining an extra 5lb on average over that one year period. 

So what am I getting at? Well, when did exercise become about just burning calories? It’s always been there, but new technologies in the fitness space have made it all about numbers. 

Don’t get me wrong, I have a Garmin and track my training too. But it has come to the point that if somebody doesn’t have their smartwatch on and trains, it feels like the session never happened. Or you get to the end of your gym session and say, “Fuck, I forgot to start my watch”. 

Even going for a walk now without the watch can feel disappointing to people. It’s sucking the fun out of exercise.

We have forgotten about the actual benefits of training and replaced them with highly questionable data. “But my heart rate monitor said I burned 800 calories in a 40min session.” Try 400 calories at best—That’s a medium-sized lunch. 

There is no harm in wanting to change the way you look through exercise, but if it’s the sole reason for exercising, it’s tough to be consistent with that approach.

We don’t want to fall into the trap of training more to burn off what we eat; that’s a game you more than likely won’t win. 

Is it ok to feel like you’ve earned a takeaway and a couple of glasses of wine, maybe, as long as it’s not a train hard all week followed by an all-out binge every weekend?

Having rewards can help cement habits. However, it doesn’t have to be food-related rewards. Think about that.

When will he start talking about the benefits of training, you may be wondering.

Before we talk about the physical benefits of training, I want to talk about the social aspect. 

Now I’m going to plug shamelessly plug the business here. You may or may not be a member of CP Fitness as you read this, but I would say that the sense of community within the gym is possibly the main reason people tend to stay.

And to be part of something like that from a health perspective is massive. Surrounding yourself with like-minded people makes the goals you set more achievable. 

Exercising for the mental aspect is generally the win. 

So let’s talk about the benefits. Well, just about everyone knows that exercise is good for you. Countless studies confirm that regular physical activity slows the ageing process and prolongs life.

A massive study done on over fifteen thousand people over the age of 35 found that the most physically fit men and women had mortality rates of bout 1/3 to 1/4 of those who were least fit. (SN, Blair et al. 1989) 

So we know exercise helps us live longer. What about strength training? Strength training is extremely important. 

It helps maintain or build muscle, plus it helps increase bone density. It makes everyday tasks easier too. 

As you age, maintaining muscle is essential; increasing bone density helps fight off osteoporosis. For postmenopausal women, this is extremely important. (Watson, S.L et al. 2018)

What if you are looking to lose some body fat? When in a dieting phase, strength training will help maintain muscle mass as you lose body fat. 

As opposed to losing muscle and fat simultaneously, which can happen with diet alone or diet plus + cardio. 

So, as you can see, there are many benefits to training. Physical, mental, and social health can be achieved through exercise. 

Paul