“Exercise does NOT help with weight loss”—you’ve probably heard that claim making the rounds lately. But is it really true? 🤔
Ollie puts on his part-time scientist hat and dives into the latest research to uncover what these bold statements about exercise and weight loss actually mean. Are they backed by true science, or just sensational headlines?
Join Ollie as he unpacks the studies, explains the nuances, and finds out if exercise really has no role in shedding those extra pounds!
00:00 Does exercise help in weight loss?
00:48 Why exercise is good for you
01:29 Improved cardiovascular health
01:35 Increased muscle mass
01:42 Improved metabolic rate
01:48 Mental and social benefits
02:09 Misleading information
02:40 The problem with blanket statements
02:52 Professor Tim Spector’s statement
04:30 The reason for bold statements
04:49 Herman Pontzer’s question
06:39 Elite endurance athletes as outliers
09:40 The challenge with most studies
10:17 Key takeaways
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What do you think about the studies showing that exercise doesn’t help in weight loss?
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29 Comments
What do you think about the studies showing that exercise doesn't help in weight loss?
Your summation is so good!!
My biggest realization after a couple years cycling is exactly the point made in this video. If I overload in carbs after a ride because i'm starving, i'll effectively nullify the weight loss effort i'm trying to achieve. I have lost 45lbs at the beginning of my 40s and I can testify that diet is a very large component in the equation.
Mostly it is cause if you burn calories with sport, it is too easy to eat more than you just burned. If you eat healthy and reasonable amount of calories containing food, sport is darn good addition to lose calories. Just leave that 200g chocolate to store, eat healthy food and don't eat like a hippo (and yes, most people knows hot we should eat, many just don't do it) and exercise.
Well id love them to do a study on me. Im walking evidence that weight loss comes from eating less than you burn. Last year I rode 6950 mile and was training around 10-12 hours a week. My weight loss was minimal because I wasn't tracking what I ate over that period. Towards the end of the year I did loose weight but not a significant amount. However in saying that I didn't put any weight on either so I guess the cycling worked. There was many other benefits with mental health and my cardio system. Just for clarity im 185cm and I weighed 119 kg at the start and currently im sat at 112kg and in September before I started counting I weighed 116kg
I have a lot of life experience regarding this subject, I have done it all, strength training, walking running, climbing, CrossFit, boxing in the gym and in the ring. And I learnt a lot about my body, I am 43 and have been training in various things since I was 15. Ok ill keep my experience simple and keep in mind this is my DNA and may not apply to you reading this.
When doing high volume running for a summer I stay fairly slim maybe a touch over weight 15 to 20% fat. If I stop, normally in the winter this happens. I gain weight quite fast ill go up to 30% in a flash and more than that by the end of the winter, that's after high volume running, which I love doing.
If I am doing strength training instead of running for a summer, I don't get as slim over that summer, I look better as in the shape of my body, but not as light. When I take a break for a winter I don't gain as much fat, 25% and it's is harder for me to gain. So I think that cardio might makes me efficient but stop and you remain efficient and gain weight easier.
When I do both my results are the best, but this is hard work, both do interfere with each other I guess. But there you go, balance. And balanced diet to. is always needed.
Right now I am doing Olympic weightlifting to keep flexible some simple strength training and training for a good half marathon. Not exercising I gain weight, so I have to keep active. If I don't want to gain weight while not exercising I have to almost starve myself, bad genetics I guess.
My working weights with the squat is 90kg I just stick to that weight don't need to get any heavier, 20ish pull ups for a set, 80kg bench presses over 10 reps. Running at 25min 5k sort of pace just as my normal running pace mixed with some forced very slow pace runs. And a limit of 8000kj of food per day I steadily loose weight until the end of summer at .5kg a week.
In 2021, I started to cycle alone everyday for at least 1h. In 2 months I lost 11kg, and 9 of these kgs were fat (I was beeing monitored by a doctor). Through out hat year I managed to lose almost 20kgs only by cycling and diet. (Initial weight 92kgs, lowest weight ever 67kgs, today weight 78kgs but way less bodyfat)
"Weight loss" is misleading. When taking up exercise, the volume of fat that is lost is often replaced with muscle tissue. Secret: muscle tissue volumetrically weighs more than fat. So for everyone not losing weight at first: you still might be getting fitter and healthier😉
The Office fan here happy ☺️
I came across that study a while back and have struggled since to get my head round it, especially in regard to a person who exercises massively, such as a marathon runner. I think your analysis makes sense. I’d add the point that people who decide to lose weight via exercise, and succeed, are probably the sort of people who can ration themselves as regards dieting, so actually don’t realise how little effect the exercise had on their weight loss.
Exercising has NOTHING to do with the weight loss . Weight loss is exclusively about severe diet . The more you exercise , the more you are hungry and will eat more . Overweight ? Stop gorging . Most people don`t have enough will and brain power to manage weight loss . But it is very easy , again , if you have the brain and will .
Wow – calling out Diary of CEO there was brutal … GCN getting brave 😂
I enjoy these kind of videos.
As you claim to be a "scientist", perhaps you could tell us your qualifications and basis for making this claim? Then we can better judge what weight to give to your opinions in contrast to those of Professor Spector.
Ollie is spot on, and the meta studies confirm what any amateur athlete, never mind a pro, can feel in their own body. After a period of greater work pressure I am back into a regular routine and 4-5kg lighter. But yes, scoffing the biscuits or Dan-style nights out can undo that quickly. I know a lot of the science talks about low intensity training burning fat, but I have found that my weight drops further when I add the hard intervals — I can just feel my metabolism running at a higher rate.
I've experimented with the phrase "you can't out train a bad diet, but you can out train an okay diet" meaning if you're not eating over your 2000 ish calories a day, and it's healthy food, the addition of exercise will make you drop fat.
My weight loss issues, muscle is heavier than fat, so you gain weight when you start exercising and put on muscle. If you are a diabetic, your body will burn the sugars in your bloodstream but never touch the fat in your body. That is why I trained 1 night a week and played soccer on the weekend, cycled to and from work 20k a day and climbed the eight floors to my office on arrival at work and never lost a gram. I was type 2 diabetic and that is why I would hunt down a large herbivore and fang it to death after my shower. Preferably between two hunks of bread. Oh and plunger coffee in a mug ta boot, espresso. How to beat weight as a diabetic? Low carb high protein diet. Low GI foods and enjoy the headache as your body is forced to burn its fat due to exercise. The same exercise rate resulted in my body looking toned when the weight was lost. People didn't say you've lost weight. They said you look really healthy.
I’ve always had a fairly healthy diet, I like to cook and don’t eat much UPF. Despite that my weight had crept up to 12 1/2 stone in my late 50’s, I’m 5’10 so not too heavy but more than I was comfortable with. I started exercising and returned to cycling after 20 years off the bike and slowly the weight reduced. I now try and exercise for an average of 7 hours a week and at age 60 I’m back to the same weight I was at age 25, 10 stone 4. My diet hasn’t changed and I didn’t start exercising to loose weight, more just to be healthier, but I’m pleased with the leaner me.
By the way. I had shoulder surgery for a torn rotator cuff. For eight weeks no exercise of any kind allowed. I gained 8kg and hit 92kg body weight. I am only 165cm tall.
General public seem to think that going to the gym is enough (and actually doing very little when they are there) …. Most peoples idea of exercise is half hearted …. Cyclists know pain and how to really exercise …
Great Article Olly! I was able to go down from 122Kg to 99Kg in a year through cycling. I currently swing between 106-110Kg (Christmas) which I find is a comfortable weight for me (I have spent 43 years doing Judo a couple of nights a week as well so carry a bit of Muscle as well.) I try to ride around 150km a week a few short rides 20-35km and a longer one 50-70km (I also do some 100Km rides in summer.) I'm 5'10" tall 62 years old and Strava says I burn around 2000 to 2400 calories on a 100km ride (I use a power meter and chest heart monitor) without a doubt if you put enough effort in you loose weight.
One little pound of fat has 3000 calories! It's all sbout what you eat unless you do 50 miles every day.
The video referenced at 0:12 doesn't say that exercise doesn't cause weight loss, it says it's not the best method of weight loss. Which is true. As a scientist….
There was nothing at all in your video to show that exercise is a good method of weight loss, or even the best method. You highlight that Ponzer showed that activity level was almost irrelevant in weight control, but that the amount of food ingested (even within the same population of hunter gatherers) was the relevant parameter. Then you also state that "Exercise is not effective… at a population level… because most people don't or wont' do enough exercise.
Unless coupled with calorie control, exercise is almost useless as a method of weight loss as appetite tends to increase in line with the exercise. I say this as an elite athlete for 20 years.
Exercise can help with weight loss, but for the vast majority of people, simply exercising more is ineffective in controlling their weight
Exercise level does not effectively predict weight loss: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5556592/
Behavoural adaptations that reduce effectiveness of exercise in weight loss https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3696411/#:~:text=When%20EI%20and%20macronutrients%20were,diet%20counseling%20or%20energy%20restriction.
Strictly monitored energy balance shows that energy ependiture is a poor predictor of weight loss
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8441008/#:~:text=As%20previously%20reported%2C%20both%20the,part%20the%20unrealized%20weight%20loss.
If your video was to have any credibility, you should provide links to the studies you reference.
Exercise can help weight loss, but you can't out-exercise a bad diet. No-one disagrees that exercise is good for you, but that's not what your video purported to be about.
As a scientist… I think you should do a lot better.
Here's my experience perusing and commenting in a lot of beginner fitness and weight loss forums/spaces. It's like 70% people talking about how they've been going to the gym/working out for 6-9 months and are not losing weight. Yes, you're correct, however, for most people having them focus on diet above exercise, if their goal is weightloss, is more effective. Yeah, the doctor in that other video has an agenda and is pushing stuff, but the audience is probably not super mega athletes. It's like when you're first learning physics, you don't jump straight into Quantum Electrodynamics. You first start with basic principals and build a simplified understanding of the world and how it works, a foundation. Then after you gain competence you start delving deeper and move into more technically correct and more expansive physics. You're not wrong, but I don't think a lot of this advice is particularly all that helpful.
For my own example/experience. I'm a beginner/intermediate cyclist as well as a beginner/intermediate weightlifter. I spent most of last year training for a 100 mile ride, so long 5-6 hour sessions on the bike every weekend for months. I ended the fall after the ride I trained for having gained a couple pounds of weight. Diet is a significantly more powerful lever.
Lost about 40kg cycling since 2019. It's an uphill battle and I've still probably got 10kg to go to be the optimum cycling weight, but I'll get there. It does mean completely modifying your eating habits (I'm doing it through intermittent fasting for example which wont suit everyone), but it's taken me from only being able to cycle 30km to now being able to do 350km monsters. Sadly it's not a quick fix but I find always targeting a few big events a year helps with motivation e.g. I've done Liege Bastogne Liege, the Fred Whiton and Chasing the Sun. Admittedly being retired makes it easier because I can find the time and I don't have the stress of working. I try and stick to eating just under my BMR day to day but obviously fuelling up when it comes to events
I was eating what i wanted as i like food, i still pretty much eat what i want, but started cycling in 2020 (yes I am a lockdown born again cyclist). I lost 3 stone, increased my mobility and am the same weight at 55 that I was when i was 19. Started doing a little more resistance training now as well, inspired by GCN 😊
I have been zwifting for 8 weeks, 1 to 2 hours a day, and I have lost 15 plus pounds. My goal was not weight loss. My goal was to increase my endurance to allow 100km rides several x a week. BTW 60 year old female from the gentle island in canada.
You can't take snippets out of interviews and play them out of context. Yes exercise is great for healthspan and yes if you are purely looking at weight it is 90% diet.
(#1 consistency trumps intensity when it comes to exercise, daily moderate level exercise should be a habit just like brushing your teeth)
Good video 👍🏼
I actually haven't lost any weight since starting cycling. However, i have lost almost 5% body fat and built muscle… which is a way better outcome in my opinion!