It’s not that exercise doesn’t work as a weight loss method, it’s just inefficient ….
… When researchers affiliated with the Pennington center had volunteers reduce their energy balance for a study last year by either cutting their calorie intakes by 25 percent or increasing their daily exercise by 12.5 percent and cutting their calories by 12.5 percent, everyone involved lost weight. They all lost about the same amount of weight too — about a pound a week. But in the exercising group, the dose of exercise required was nearly an hour a day of moderate-intensity activity, what the federal government currently recommends for weight loss but “a lot more than what many people would be able or willing to do,” Ravussin says.”
An hour a day would be wonderful — if my kids were grown.
The NYT article has the complex details. The effect of exercise on weight varies by age and gender, and between individuals as well. In general, however, it’s not a good way to lose weight. Diet is more efficient.
On the other hand exercise seems to be essential to keeping weight stable after a weight loss diet. How and why? Nobody knows for sure.
Sitting turns out to be really, really, bad. We’ve had hints of that over the past years, but now it’s getting pinned down. We don’t know why, but sitting promotes obesity.
Incidentally, it’s all harder for women. But you knew that …
