Sports will not help you lose weight.. This is a scientific fact!!
“If you want to lose some weight, exercise. If you want to lose more weight, exercise more.” These beliefs are what drive some weight loss seekers to do more physical activity in gyms and treadmills.
But what if I told you that sports will not help you lose weight! Surely a lot of questions will be in your mind now, you will wonder if there is scientific evidence indicating that sports will not help you lose weight? And if the answer is yes, then shall we stop going to the gym? Let us tell you the answers in the following lines.
How does exercise affect the body?
Before we delve into the effectiveness of exercise in losing weight, we must first know that there are other effects of exercise that are no less important than weight loss, as exercise is really great for your health in many aspects.
Regular exercise can improve blood sugar control and may help reduce your risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer. Exercise also helps you maintain, grow and strengthen your muscle mass, and maintain your bones. Strong and dense, preventing the emergence of conditions such as osteoporosis.
In addition, exercise offers some mental benefits. It can help you reduce your stress levels and manage stress more effectively, and it appears to offer some protection against neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.
How did the idea that sports help lose weight spread?
It is estimated that the global fitness industry will generate more than $80 billion in revenue in 2023. This is due to the previously mentioned positive effects of exercise on human health, and one of the biggest reasons why many people choose to exercise is to lose weight.
The idea that exercise helps lose weight has spread through the time-honored advice that eating less food and exercising more is necessary for weight loss, but science is beginning to show that we may want to study this hypothesis in a more skeptical way, and there is scientific controversy regarding that Doing more exercise will help you burn more calories.
What are the scientific facts behind that sports do not help lose weight?
Contrary to popular belief, science now argues that exercise alone or more exercise does not help you lose weight, and there are many studies that explain the reasons for this, including:
Increased physical activity may be offset by increased calorie intake and possibly weight gain
Public health scientists at Loyola University Chicago School of Medicine, in their paper published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, in 2013 stated: “Physical activity is very important for improving levels of general health and fitness, but there is limited evidence to suggest that exercise can reduce of increasing obesity.
Public health scientists have studied the link between physical activity and obesity for years. When they began their research, they assumed that physical activity would be key to losing weight. But evidence has shown that this assumption is wrong, because if you increase your activity, your appetite increases and you eat more, so with more activity Physical or without physical activity, calorie control remains key to losing or maintaining weight.
Another study by researchers at Louisiana State University followed 200 overweight men and women enrolled in a supervised aerobic exercise program over a 6-month period and found that the participants ended up making up for the calories they lost exercising by eating more, and as a result Therefore, many participants did not lose or gain weight.
Exercise versus diet
Regular exercise can prevent or help deal with a large number of health problems, but losing a lot of weight is not among the many benefits of exercise. Instead, focusing on calories in and calories out may be the most effective way to lose weight. .
"Usually, people aren't able to lose as many calories with exercise because the calorie expenditure with a typical exercise regimen — 30 minutes most days of the week — doesn't translate into significant weight loss," says Jennifer Cook, a kinesiologist at York University in Toronto.
Losing 1 pound per week - that's about half a pound - requires a calorie deficit of 3,500 calories, or 500 calories per day, and you can achieve this through diet, exercise, or a combination of both approaches, but diet and exercise seem to Sports are not equally effective.
"The reason diet may be more effective than just exercise is because exercise requires a lot of activity and effort to create a 500- to 700-calorie deficit," says Yassi Ansari, RD, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
To put this in perspective, a 155-pound person will burn approximately 500 calories from spending an hour doing high-impact aerobics or by walking for 90 minutes at 4.5 miles per hour.
In other words, don't expect a lot from those quick visits to the gym, says Cook: A person who starts exercising for about 30 minutes every day will probably lose about a pound over the course of a month, and for most people who are trying to lose weight, that will be completely discouraging. .