In our society, there is a prevalent paradigm: to lose weight, one must exercise.
Countless fitness and bodybuilding gurus, celebrities, doctors, YouTube bloggers, and even representatives of companies producing unhealthy food and drinks insistently proclaim “If you want to lose weight – exercise“.
The situation resembles that in science where researchers, unable to explain certain facts, find a scapegoat in the form of “hundreds of millions of years,” which can explain everything.
So it is with weight loss. Exercise is undoubtedly beneficial, but it is naive to try to cover all gaps with something useful.
The fact remains: it is believed that losing weight without exercise is impossible.
On the axiom of the importance of physical exercise for weight loss, countless gym memberships, fitness trackers, sports drinks, workout videos… are sold today.
But how many can boast of results?
Below, we will introduce you to some intriguing scientific studies on obesity. You will learn: what the main cause of obesity is, what the mechanism of obesity/weight loss is, how to lose weight correctly, and why getting rid of extra pounds without exercising is not only possible but may even be easier…
Main thoughts:
Africans do not overeat, which is why they do not suffer from obesity
Physical exercise is absolutely BENEFICIAL for health
Physical exercise is practically USELESS for weight loss
Physical activity accounts for only 10-30% of daily energy expenditure
We are losing the battle against the global obesity problem simply because we eat incredibly MUCH
The biggest mistake is equating the roles of diet and exercise in the fight against excess weight
What we know about the relationship between weight loss and sports
In general terms, the current state of affairs in science regarding the understanding of the causes of obesity, the relationship between weight loss and physical exercise can be described as follows:
Fact 1 Despite the seeming logic and familiarity of the statement, exercise for weight loss is somewhat useless: while 100% of energy comes from food, only 10-30% is burned during physical activity each day…
Fact 2 Engaging in sports triggers a number of processes in the body that determine appetite, how much food (= calories) we eat, how many calories are burned, and, as a result, how much we weigh. How these effects vary from person to person is unclear.
From this, the following conclusions can be drawn:
Conclusion 1 Do not be deceived by the hope that only sports will help you lose weight. Training is very important for health, but diet is much more important and, first and foremost, the overall caloric intake of food consumed each day.
Conclusion 2 The problem of obesity in a perfect society does indeed exist. This is a fact. But, contrary to popular belief, its cause is not only the misunderstanding of the relationship between calorie intake and the size of fat stores in the body, but also the incorrect understanding of the importance of sports for weight loss.
Based on this, let’s formulate the main principle of proper weight loss and further explore why it is so: in weight loss, the priority is to combat excessive consumption of low-quality food and excessive caloric intake and only after that, to instill the habit of engaging in sports.
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1 Hunters VS Office Plankton or The Story of a Famous Experiment on the Uselessness of Sports for Weight Loss
At the center of our research is the experiment of Professor Herman Pontzer 32, who studies issues related to weight management.
At some point in his life, he left his college to study the lifestyle of the Hadza, one of the few remaining hunter-gatherer tribes in Tanzania. His expectation was to discover a group of “machines” for burning calories.
In contrast to representatives of Western civilizations, who spend most of their time in chairs, the Hadza move all day and are little familiar with the achievements of modern civilization.
Men hunt, tracking and killing prey, and climb trees to find wild honey. Women gather plants, dig up tubers, and collect berries. Everything is as if taken from the pages of textbooks on primitive society.
It can be confidently said that their level of physical activity is much higher than that of the average modern person with a gadget in hand, a couch, beer, and a rusting playground in the yard.
By studying the lifestyle of the Hadza, Pontzer wanted to test the common assumption about why obesity has become a global problem today.
Many claim that the main reason for obesity over the past 50 years is significantly lower levels of physical activity.
When planning the experiment, Pontzer was sure he would find that hunter-gatherers burn significantly more calories during the day than the average Western person…
The Essence of the Experiment
The researchers studied several Hadza families over 11 days. They measured the types of movements and energy expenditure in 13 men and 17 women aged 18-95 years, using the double-labeled water method 2 – the most accurate known method for measuring calories burned (the concentration of carbon dioxide in exhaled air is measured, which is proportional to the calories expended).
The results were shocking.
“We were very surprised to find that the energy expenditure of members of African tribes was NOT greater than that of people living in the USA and Europe,” says Pontzer.
With higher physical activity levels among hunter-gatherers and more toned figures, they actually burned the same amount of calories during the day as the average American or European.
Physically active Africans burn nearly the same amount of calories during the day as the average European/American leading a sedentary lifestyle
Of course, the experiment mentioned is hard to call perfect; it is more of a preliminary investigation into the issue: only 30 people from one social group participated. There can be no talk of any statistics here.
But still… how is this possible?
First of all, it is important to understand the following: daily energy expenditure or the number of calories burned consists of two main components:
- physical movements, including sports;
- the internal resting metabolism – this is the energy required to maintain the body’s internal functions: each cell needs a portion of energy to function, and this energy must come from food.
Interestingly, this fact has long been known to scientists, but somehow it has happened that few of them attach importance to it in the context of determining the main cause of obesity.
And, even more curiously: contrary to popular belief, physical activity is not a determining factor in calculating the volume of daily calories burned.
Pontzer suggested that the approximate equality of calorie expenditure throughout the day between the Hadza and Europeans may be explained by the fact that the lifestyle of hunters combines periods of activity and rest, during which calories are expended very sparingly.
The number of calories burned throughout the day is not determined solely by a person’s lifestyle activity; there is also internal metabolism.
Scientists continue to study the problem, but the experiment presented demonstrates the non-triviality of the weight loss issue and the complexity of the “relationships” between sports and calories.
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The Main Cause of Obesity
– If energy expenditures are approximately the same, how can we explain the weight difference between Europeans/Americans and the Hadza?
“The Hadza burn as many calories as Westerners, but they do not suffer from obesityThe reason: they do not overeat, so they do not gain weight.”
The main cause of obesity is overeating. Unlike Europeans, Africans do not overeat and therefore do not gain weight.
This fundamentally obvious reason explains the phenomenon that scientists have observed for many years: overweight people find it incredibly difficult to lose weight, no matter what sport they engage in… if they are restricted in any way.
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2 Any physical exercise is absolutely beneficial for… health
To avoid misinterpretation of the main idea that we will try to convey in this article, let us postulate the following: sports (non-professional) and any physical activity are absolutely beneficial for health.
In the scientific world, there is a concept called meta-analysis, which involves scientists analyzing all available scientific publications on a specific topic in order to summarize the data contained within them. It’s like being in a forest, rising above it, and seeing the overall picture.
The results of one of the most comprehensive meta-analyses 3 of scientific articles on the topic of weight loss and obesity issues indicate that any physical exercises have very low effectiveness in weight loss, however, engaging in sports significantly improves health indicators for all those losing weight: blood pressure, cholesterol levels, risk of type 2 diabetes, stroke, and heart attack.
Research shows that physically active people are significantly less likely to “catch” mental disorders such as dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, and also have higher intelligence levels 4.
These are just some of the advantages of an active lifestyle among many others.
Physical exercises are absolutely BENEFICIAL for the health of the body and mind
Sports help normalize and maintain weight 5 (even if it is below normal), provided that the calorie intake is controlled.
Overall, physical exercises are a wonderful remedy for many health problems.
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3 Any physical exercises are practically useless for… weight loss
The media and the internet are full of amazing stories of people losing weight who have shed dozens of kilograms on a treadmill. Do you know even one such person?
Reality is often harsh, rough, and unkempt, consisting not of advertising fairy tales, but of stories of failures in weight loss through sports, gyms, jump ropes, treadmills, etc.
Look at the results of one of the studies on the impact of physical activity on weight loss 6: after 20 weeks of training, the weight loss was less than expected, and the researchers concluded: “there is no dependence between the amount of energy expended on exercise and the degree of weight loss“.
To find the relationship between physical activity and weight loss, researchers have studied different categories of people over time, from marathon runners 7 to twins 8, and women with obesity at the age of menopause 9, who tried to combat it through running, cycling, jumping rope, and personal training.
Most of them managed to achieve weight loss of at best 1-2 kilograms, even under strict control when their diet remained constant.
Multiple other analyses of scientific publications 10 on this topic indicate the same:
Any physical exercise is practically useless for weight loss
University of Alabama researcher David Allison 11 concludes: “exercise has a very weak effect on weight loss, much less significant than one might predict through mathematical calculations“.
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The “3500 Calorie Rule”
For a long time, we believed that the formula for weight loss is very simple and expressed in terms of calories consumed and expended.
Once, scientist Max Wishnofsky derived the 3500 Calorie Rule, which is now used by almost all experts as the main rule for weight loss, and the study itself is one of the most widely cited 12:
“0.5 kilograms of human fat is equivalent to approximately 3500 calories.
Therefore, if you reduce your daily caloric intake by 500 calories, through diet or physical exercise, it will lead to weight loss of about 0.5 kg each week (500 cal x 7 days = 3500 cal).
Conversely, adding 500 calories each day will lead to an increase in fat mass according to the same rules.“
Today, scientists regard the “3500 Calorie Rule” as too simplistic.
They are more likely to describe energy balance as a dynamic and adaptive system: if one of the components changes (reduction in caloric intake, increased physical activity), it triggers a cascade of changes in the body that ultimately determine how many calories are used and, accordingly, your body weight.
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4 Why Losing Weight Without Exercise is Possible
The truth of life is that even when we are physically active throughout the day, the calories we manage to burn during activities are only a very small fraction of all energy expenditures for the day.
According to Alexxai Kravitz 13 – a neurobiologist specializing in obesity issues – this is about only 10-30%, depending on the individual (excluding professional athletes, for whom training is a multi-hour job).
Physical activity accounts for only 10-30% of daily energy expenditure
According to Kravitz, total daily energy expenditure consists of three main components:
- metabolism or energy used to maintain basic bodily functions at rest;
- energy for digesting food;
- energy for physical activity.
The largest of these is the energy of internal metabolism, the value of which we can hardly control 14, it is a kind of constant, unique to each person. Its value is 60-80% of the total energy expenditure.
The largest share of energy expenditure each day is for maintaining internal metabolism – 60-80%,
The energy for digesting food accounts for about 10%.
Only 10-30% 30,31 is left for overall physical activity, and even less for targeted sports activities, just a part of that value.
The practical conclusion from this is: any type of sport is effective for weight loss only to a very small extent.
This indicates that it is not only possible to lose weight without exercise, but moreover, one should not rely too much on it for this purpose.
It is possible to lose weight without exercise, as only a very small fraction of daily calories is burned during workouts: only 10-30%
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5 To Some Extent, Losing Weight Without Exercise is Easier
Our level of physical activity determines how much food we eat. Those who engage in sports are familiar with the feeling of intense hunger that arises after a workout.
This is a natural biological law.
However, this often very strong and pleasant feeling of hunger can lead to consuming much more calories than were expended during the workout.
Researcher Kevin Hall explains this fact 15:
“Let’s assume that a man weighing 100 kg decides to lose weight by adding 60 minutes of moderate-intensity running four days a week while keeping his calorie intake the same. The experiment lasts for 30 days, at the end of which he achieves a result – minus 2-3 kg.
The figure may be insignificant, but it is different from zero. Now let’s assume that the subject decides to reward himself more during the experiment with extra portions of his favorite food or more rest for recovery.
What will we get? The weight loss result will be even smaller. The so-called compensatory mechanism kicks in.“
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This means that if a person wants to lose weight while actively engaging in sports, it may take an incredible amount of time, willpower, and effort, with practically zero results, due to the compensatory mechanism that will nullify all efforts each time.
In one study, it was demonstrated that it is indeed typical for people to increase the amount of food consumed after a workout 17 for two reasons: they believe they have expended too much energy, or simply because they feel hungrier.
In another study 18, it was shown that people usually overestimate how much energy was expended during exercise, meaning they consume more calories than were actually burned.
Important In the end, the result of an hour of hard work in the gym can be minimized in just 5 minutes of self-pity and self-rewarding afterwards.
For example: one slice of pizza can destroy the result of an hour of training. Just like one ice cream, a chocolate bar, and other beloved treats.
On the other hand, many people tend to reduce their level of physical activity during daily activities after a workout.
For instance, deciding to take a nap for rest, using the elevator instead of the stairs, etc. This behavior is called “compensatory” 19 and is characterized by subconscious adjustments in behavior after exercising in relation to the amount of calories expended.
The more you engage in sports hoping to lose weight, the greater the appetite and desire to rest. This compensatory mechanism explains why, to some extent, losing weight while exercising can be more challenging.
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6 Active sports activities trigger a mechanism of physiological changes that.. hinder weight loss
The most intriguing theoretical explanation for why losing weight without physical activity is easier lies in how our body regulates energy mechanisms after exercise.
Researchers have discovered a phenomenon called “metabolic compensation” 20.
“The more stress we put our bodies under through exercise, the greater the physiological changes, compensatory mechanisms, are activated in response,” says Lara Dugas from Loyola University.
In other words, our body actively resists our efforts to lose weight. This effect has been repeatedly confirmed by scientists.
In one notable study 21, researchers examined seven pairs of sedentary twins. For 93 days, they exercised on a stationary bike for 2 hours each day to lose weight.
During the experiment, the twins were in a research laboratory under continuous observation and supervision by dietitians, whose task was to monitor the consistency of caloric intake from food.
Despite the fact that participants led a sedentary lifestyle before the experiment, switching to a regime of 2 hours of cycling resulted in an average weight loss (due to a reduction in fat mass) of 5 kg (with a minimum of 1 kg and a maximum of 8 kg).
So what’s the catch? They lost weight, and quite well?
They did lose weight, but the important thing is that the degree of weight loss varied by about 22% from the calculated amount, meaning participants burned 22% fewer calories than predicted by researchers before the experiment began.
Why?
As an explanation for the difference between the results and expectations, scientists suggested that either the participants’ metabolic rate decreased over time, or they expended less energy outside of training.
One of the researchers referred to this phenomenon as a type of “survival mechanism”: the body conserves energy to preserve fat reserves just in case for future energy needs.
Why this happens and how long it can last is still unclear.
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7 The rule “the more you exercise, the more you lose weight” does not work
Today, there are a huge number of formulas and calculators to determine how many calories you need to consume per day to lose weight.
All of them operate on the principle of adding and subtracting calories, assuming a linear relationship between the level of physical activity and the calories burned.
It is clear that this is not entirely correct.
One of the theories as to why it is difficult to lose weight just by exercising is that there is an upper limit to energy expenditure. In mathematical terms – a nonlinear relationship between effort and calories burned.
In one study 22, researchers monitored the lifestyle of 332 adults from Ghana, South Africa, Sicily, Jamaica, and the USA. For 8 days, data on physical activity and energy expenditure were recorded using an accelerometer.
All participants were classified into three categories: leading a sedentary lifestyle, with a moderate level of activity (training 2-3 times a week), and super active (training almost every day).
The result: physical activity accounted for 7-9% of the calories expended each day IN ALL THREE groups!
Participants with a moderate level of activity burned only 200 calories more than those who led a sedentary lifestyle. And at a high level of activity, energy expenditure seemed to hit an invisible ceiling.
After adjusting for physiological characteristics (weight and body composition), the researchers concluded: total energy expenditure depends on the level of physical activity, but the dependence is stronger at a moderate level of activity; at high activity levels, energy expenditure tends to reach a limit.
In other words, after performing a certain volume of exercise, the rate of calorie burning decreases.
“This limit is something different from the commonly accepted perception of energy expenditure,” says Pontzer. “The World Health Organization and the creators of Fitbit claim that the more you train, the more calories you burn and the more effectively you lose weight…”
Based on the research, Pontzer proposed a different model to describe the relationship between physical exercise and weight loss, which overturns the conventional one.
According to it, the relationship between the number of calories burned and the level of physical activity is nonlinear.
He called the new model the “model of constrained energy expenditure,” and its essence is that the relationship between the level of physical activity and weight loss is nonlinear.
Since ancient times, when having food on the table was not guaranteed, the human body has learned to use energy sparingly, regardless of the level of physical activity.
But let’s not forget that this is just a theory. More evidence is needed to test it and to refute the opposing viewpoint that the more you exercise, the more weight you lose.
The above does not negate the common rule of weight loss, which states that to lose weight, one must create an energy deficit in the body: the calories consumed from food should be slightly less than those expended (approximately ~500 kcal).
We are merely pointing out the fact that physical exercise is extremely ineffective in creating this deficit, even with an increase in its volume :(.
With high physical activity, the body conservatively uses calories. Engaging in sports 2-3 times a week is considered optimal for weight loss. The rule “the more you exercise, the more you lose weight” does not work.
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8 Government organizations and representatives of the food industry deliberately lie, saying that it is impossible to lose weight without exercise
Since 1980, the percentage of people suffering from obesity has doubled, and today about 13% of the world’s population, according to the World Health Organization, is overweight. In the USA, 70% of the population falls into this category!
Lack of physical activity and consuming too many calories per day are cited as the main causes of obesity. However, emphasizing the significance of the second factor, scientists argue 23 that “you cannot outrun a bad diet”.
Starting from 1950, Americans have been told the opposite. Official reports from public health organizations contain the names of dozens of government organizations, from those dealing with cardiovascular disease issues to the Department of Agriculture, whose public campaigns aimed to increase public engagement in various sports to address the problem of excess weight.
But.. it is obvious to everyone that we are losing the battle against the global obesity problem simply because we eat incredibly much.
Nevertheless, “information ducks” about the benefits of exercise for weight loss are periodically launched again and again by various companies, usually producing unhealthy food and drinks, which try to improve their image in a positive light in the eyes of consumers and say: “you are gaining weight not because you eat and drink our product, but because you do not exercise.”
We are losing the battle against the global obesity problem simply because we eat incredibly MUCH.
“Physical exercise is vital for maintaining health and well-being,” says a representative of Coca-Cola.
The company, which produces a notoriously unhealthy product, is deliberately trying to create an image in the minds of customers of being concerned about their health.
Since the 1920s 24 and regularly (one of the latest instances was noted by the New York Times 25), Coca-Cola has acted as a sponsor of scientific research into the causes of obesity and as a brand emphasizing the importance of physical exercise in addressing the epidemic of overweight.
The biggest mistake is equating the roles of diet and physical exercise in the fight against excess weight.
Many famous personalities also promote the benefits of sports in the fight against obesity, often because they advocate for the interests of certain food companies. Not for “thank you,” of course.
“The White House’s program to promote physical exercise in the fight against childhood obesity was merely a strategic move to announce something positive and achievable while simultaneously not harming the interests of fast-food producers and other junk.”
“The persistent promotion of an active lifestyle as the only way to lose weight has one goal: to prevent people from understanding that the only cause of obesity is eating too much food.” – claims a professor specializing in obesity issues 26.
“The benefits of physical exercise are numerous,” says Diana Thomas 27 from Montclair State University. “But if you are trying to lose weight, the biggest problem from my perspective is the food we eat. We need to eat less.”
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9 So, how to lose weight without exercise?
One of the most valuable resources for information on what to do to lose weight is studying the lifestyle and habits of those who have already done it.
In the USA, there is a special project – the National Weight Control Registry 28 – which represents one of the largest studies on the causes of obesity and effective weight loss methods.
This database contains records of the habits, lifestyle, and eating behaviors of people who have managed to lose 15 or more kilograms and maintain that weight for at least one year.
The number of participants in the study exceeds 10,000 people, and each of them answers questions every year aimed at discovering how they managed to lose weight.
All those who have managed to lose significant weight and maintain the result share something in common. They:
- monitored their weight at least once a week;
- restricted calorie intake every day, avoided fatty foods, and watched portion sizes;
- exercised regularly.
It is important to note that physical exercise for all participants was an addition to a strict calorie counting regimen and other dietary habit changes.
All well-known experts in the field of weight loss agree on one thing: the most important thing that anyone who wants to lose weight must do is to limit the number of calories consumed and eat healthy foods.
The opinion of all renowned scientists and dietitians on what needs to be done to lose weight boils down to one thing: first and foremost, it is necessary to limit the number of calories consumed and eat healthy foods.
Of course, a proper diet and physical exercise are more beneficial for weight loss than just calorie restriction, but the effect of physical exercise on weight loss is minimal and incomparable to the effect of a proper diet.
In scientific experiments, people who simply restrict calories achieve roughly the same weight loss results as those who additionally engage in sports 29.
If you want to lose weight as quickly as possible by using all available mechanisms – calorie restriction and exercising – keep in mind that your body will force you to succumb to a false sense of self-pity, allowing you to eat and rest more as compensation for active and “exhausting” workouts.
It would be better if you learn to love sports as a means to improve health, rather than for weight loss.
