Me: Exercise does not cause weight loss. This is a fact that has been demonstrated so robustly in research that even doctors, who hate and fear evidence, are grudgingly starting to admit this.
Someone reading that post: Cool, but have you considered that exercise leads to weight loss?
Me: I am going to eat you
lololol "does too"
does it? not for women after childbirth
does it? not if you want to see an effect size of greater than 1 kilo (2.2lbs)
does it? not if you'd like to see a maintained loss greater than 3.3% of your body weight
does it? not for people with type 2 diabetes
does it? not for people exercising for their non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Interactive computer-based reminders to diet and exercise are useless.
I mean, I literally went to Cochrane Reviews, one of the best-respected sources for massive meta-analyses, and I just input the keywords "weight loss" and "exercise," and I'm tooling through the results. Every one of the damn things shows that we do not have high-quality research indicating that exercise leads to weight loss. So no. I'm right, and you need to adjust your worldview--ask yourself, if not for weight loss, then why? Re-read those sources: exercise improved muscle density, insulin sensitivity, and cholesterol. It's good for your blood vessels, it's good for your strength, it's good for your brain.
But it won't make you thin. Maybe two pounds, maybe five, but that's about it. If you're looking at short-term, like a year, sure, you can lose weight--but the effort will almost always result in your body going "oh shit, we're living in a famine" and you will regain it, and now, with your body at a new set-point, losing it will be harder. Regaining will be easier. Welcome to the life-destroying yo-yo.
#then what the fuck are we supposed to do?
Exercise and eat lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grains because those things will keep you healthier longer, regardless of how much you weigh, and pick up your pick-axe in the ongoing horribly slow and frustrating fight of chipping away at the idea that being fat is a bad thing that means you’re a bad person. I recommend the book Fat Talk for a good place to start.
>exercise doesn't cause weight loss
>what are we supposed to do
>exercise
🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
You guys should really read the studies OP links because they almost all contradict the claims OP is making.
For postpartum women, diet is more important than exercise when it comes to losing baby weight, but they should still exercise.
For the next two, the conclusions explicitly stated that exercise reduces fat even if it doesn't cause a loss in weight (gym bros frequently weigh a lot, given that muscle is denser than fat) and that diet and exercise together are critical for weight loss.
It's a little more confusing for the next two, but again the studies claim that exercise is critical for health. For pre-diabetics especially, for reducing the chance of developing the disease. The liver one was more confusing for me, so I won't comment on that.
But the last one especially? Said computer reminders are less effective than in person training but were effective for weight loss and should be recommended to patients.
Yeah, exercise alone isn't going to be enough. Diet is critical. As the saying goes: calories in, calories out. The reason most people bounce back after fad diets is they go back to their old eating habits. Losing weight is about lifestyle change. It's not a one-off thing.
