Why do we dislike exercise? - The truth about fat, muscle, and metabolism.
Why do people dislike exercise?
If you look back on your past efforts to lose weight, you might find that these efforts mainly revolved around what to eat, without considering how much exercise to do. You may have tried various types of exercise but gave up because they didn't produce any results. It's understandable that you feel frustrated and panicked because you keep hearing advice to exercise to lose weight. But have you also made some mistakes? Did you give up too soon? Is exercise simply increasing your appetite and making you eat more?
Fat, muscle and resting metabolism
While exercise doesn't produce rapid weight loss, it can still reduce fat. A recent study found that overweight women who exercised but didn't diet experienced a significant reduction in waist circumference, even if their weight didn't change. Furthermore, exercise has beneficial effects, such as boosting energy, and is a fundamental element of sustainable weight management in the long run. During exercise, you oxidize more fat, and your metabolic rate increases by up to 20 times compared to resting. When you sit down to rest after exercising, you've oxidized even more energy-how pleasant! The amount oxidized depends on the intensity and duration of the exercise and can be as high as 130 calories.
Your resting metabolic rate is the energy your body uses to maintain itself without doing anything, expressed in calories. Your muscles burn more energy than fat, even at rest. If you lose weight solely through dieting, up to a quarter of your weight loss may come from muscle, not fat. This is because muscle tissue requires more calories to maintain, so losing muscle lowers your resting metabolic rate. In other words, dieting without exercise can be counterproductive!
On the other hand, if you exercise, even without weightlifting, you'll minimize muscle loss, increasing the number of calories your body uses to maintain itself. As you become stronger, you'll use more calories for regular activity in your daily life.
You might feel frustrated when you're dieting but your weight doesn't change. Exercise can help reduce that feeling because when you increase your activity level, you offset the decrease in your resting metabolic rate caused by dieting, allowing you to continue losing weight.
Maintaining weight after weight loss
If you're still unsure whether you need to increase physical activity, you should know that simply incorporating activity into your daily life won't necessarily lead to weight loss. Maintaining weight loss achieved solely through dieting is unlikely without exercise. One study compared two groups of women: one group had lost weight but subsequently regained it, and the other group had lost weight but didn't regain it. The study found that 90% of the women who maintained their weight loss exercised three times a week for 30 minutes or more each time, while only 34% of the women who failed to maintain their weight loss exercised regularly.
Another study found that 1,047 people who lost an average of 64 pounds, and who averaged one hour of physical activity daily, maintained their weight loss for an average of six years. A Consumer Reports survey found that 81% of successful weight loss participants (those who lost 10% or more of their original weight and maintained it for at least one year) exercised at least three times a week. More than 8,000 successful weight loss participants mentioned that they exercised more than with any other weight loss method. These studies offer important insights into how you should manage your weight. They demonstrate that it's unlikely you can maintain weight loss simply through dieting. If you intend to seriously commit to weight loss, you must find ways to maintain your results.
Additional benefits
Exercise offers psychological benefits, including reducing depression, improving mood, and boosting self-esteem. These benefits are independent of the intensity and form of exercise. Both aerobic and anaerobic exercise are beneficial, and even low-intensity activities insufficient to improve cardiovascular function will provide benefits. If you have doubts, try a small test developed by mood regulation expert Dr. Robert Thayer. This test has seven scores, with 7 being the highest representing high energy and 1 the lowest representing lethargy. Use this test to assess your energy levels when you feel bored or slightly depressed from sitting idly. After the test, force yourself to stand up and walk briskly for 10 minutes, then return and test again to see if your energy has increased. You might find that if you previously felt bored and prone to arguing, this impulse has decreased. Activity can improve your mood and make you feel good about yourself. As you increase your activity level, you'll find your body image improves, and you'll have more motivation to consistently change your eating habits.
Gwen, a 53-year-old married office worker, offered an example of the indirect benefits of increased activity. She had spent ten years trying various methods to lose 20 pounds without success. Her doctor encouraged her to join an activity program I ran at a local hospital, but she was extremely skeptical and told me she had almost no hope. She reluctantly agreed to attend a beginner's aerobics class, part of the program. Six months later, when the program ended, the 15 pounds she had lost hadn't returned. At our final meeting, she told me that aerobics was the key to her success. For the first time, she felt a genuine love for exercise, a genuine passion for aerobics, and a closer connection to her body. With improved mood and body image, she felt more energetic about changing her eating habits and less resistant to new behaviors. She knew perfectly well that without the aerobics classes, our program wouldn't have worked for her.
Health benefits
Humans are born to move. If most of your physical activity involves getting out of bed, getting into your car, sitting at a table, reclining in an armchair, and finally returning to bed, your body is destined to suffer from dysfunction. Health statistics show that inactivity has a severe impact on the body. An estimated 250,000 deaths in the United States each year are related to inactivity. The most common cause of death in the United States is coronary heart disease, which is clearly related to weight.
A study compared the health of drivers and conductors on London's double-decker buses. Drivers sit all day, while conductors constantly go up and down the stairs to sell tickets. Therefore, it's not surprising that conductors have a lower incidence of heart disease, and even if they do suffer a heart attack, they are less likely to die.
Besides heart disease, being overweight is associated with diabetes, certain cancers, osteoarthritis of the knees and hips, pulmonary insufficiency, sleep apnea, menstrual irregularities, and many reproductive problems in women. Some pending data also suggest a link between asthma, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and slow wound healing. Exercise not only helps prevent disease but can also increase the chances of escaping potentially fatal illnesses. A recent study found that moderate exercise in women diagnosed with breast cancer reduced their mortality rate by 20%–50%.
A recent article in *Weekly News* stated, "Medical science still needs to develop a treatment that rivals the benefits of moderate exercise." Let's assume that exercise was discovered and patented by a pharmaceutical company; we would see its advertisements touting its unique benefits, and it would demand that this new treatment be covered by health insurance. Yet, many people who could benefit from it ignore this "unique" treatment. Some people care deeply about their health; some regularly visit the dentist for checkups; some take their pets to the vet as soon as they notice a problem; some regularly change their car's oil-but they neglect a simple, highly beneficial daily activity.
A consistent plan to increase exercise can offer numerous benefits, such as helping to gradually reduce excess weight, preventing weight gain as you age, reducing various health-damaging risk factors, improving your mood and self-concept, and helping you stay motivated for long-term weight management. Given so many benefits, why is it so difficult to implement?