Move More to Keep It Off

Exercise does play an important role in weight loss, but exercise alone, without limiting calories from food, is not enough to promote a sizeable weight loss. Research has shown that it is virtually impossible to lose weight taking the exercise-only route. Unfortunately, people are generally unaware of that fact, particularly men.

When guys like Chris first attempt to shed excess pounds, they often place too much emphasis on exercise and overlook or underestimate the value of cutting back on their calories.Women typically approach weight loss more like Marianne: they don’t rely on exercise as their main strategy for slimming down but focus more on what and how much they’re eating, an approach that is definitely to their advantage. However, women like Marianne often have unrealistic expectations about their weight loss.

All too often they become impatient with the rate at which the pounds are coming off, especially if they compare themselves with men, who are physically equipped to lose weight more quickly. So instead of trying to exercise more, women have a tendency to look for other diet-related approaches to cut calories even faster, and that isn’t a healthy or practical strategy. Unfortunately, that unrealistic approach can set women up for disappointment and lead them to abandon their commitment to losing weight. The best way for women and men to lose weight is for them to narrow the gender gap and combine their strategies.

As the example of Chris and Marianne illustrates, women and men have different attitudes and beliefs about the role physical activity plays in weight loss. In this article we explore those differences to help everyone come up with a winning weight-loss strategy. Why Exercise Alone Doesn’t Work It’s a fact: based on the pool of scientific evidence, health and medical experts agree that while exercise is important, it does not lead to significant weight loss on its own.

As we saw, although it is theoretically possible to lose weight using exercise as one’s sole weight-loss strategy, that approach is not realistic for most people.The reality for both men and women is that without paying careful attention, it is very easy to eat the calories burned in exercise. For example, it takes about 1 hour on the treadmill for a man of 170 pounds to burn off a bagel (without cream cheese), a few cookies, or a donut. Each 30-minute session that a woman spends circuit training burns about 150 calories. For a 150-pound woman, that’s the equivalent of a 12-ounce glass of orange juice. Still not convinced? Here are some other examples that illustrate how long women and men need to exercise (at moderate intensity) to burn off some of their favorite indulgence foods.

Another factor to consider on the subject of why exercise alone doesn’t seem to help most people lose much weight has to do with the power of estimation: people have trouble determining their eating and exercise levels accurately. Research has found that it is very common to underestimate the number of calories consumed in food.

At the same time, numerous studies have found that it is also very common to overestimate the time spent engaged in activity. For example, a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study followed fifty overweight women involved in a behavioral weight control program. Participants were required to exercise for 30 minutes. One group exercised for 30 minutes without a break; the other group exercised in three 10-minute spurts. All of the women were asked to record their activity in a daily exercise log.

To validate their self-reported information, they wore a device that measured their activity. The results? Approximately 45 percent of the women overreported the amount of exercise they performed, and there was no difference between the women engaged in long bouts of exercise and those engaged in short bouts. Even more alarming: the women who overreported their exercise lost on average 3 pounds less than the women who underreported their exercise. While this study was done with women, the same results would likely be seen in men. A more effective and more realistic approach than exercising alone is to split the caloric difference. Begin by reducing calories from food and then add exercise to your strategy.

FROM A WOMAN’S VIEWPOINT WHY EXERCISE ALONE DOESN’T WORK

Women are notorious for believing that their metabolism is out of whack. Based on over ten years of research, however, researchers have concluded that women may want to reconsider that statement.A classic study conducted in 1992 concluded that not shedding pounds can rarely be attributed to a malfunction of the thyroid, the metabolism, or any other body function. People in the study were not losing weight mainly because they had inaccurate perceptions of what they ate and how much they exercised. On average, they underreported how much they ate by 47 percent and overreported how much they exercised by 51 percent. One potential solution to this dilemma: Keep a daily journal.

FROM A MAN’S VIEWPOINT WHY EXERCISE ALONE DOESN’T WORK

What can you expect from an eat-less-and-exercise combination? According to a 2004 study performed in Australia, a lot. Researchers assigned sixty nonsmoking overweight men between the ages of twenty and fifty to four groups: one was on a reduced-calorie diet and engaged in light exercise three times per week; a second was on a reduced-calorie diet and engaged in vigorous exercise three times per week; the third engaged in light exercise only; and the fourth engaged in vigorous exercise only.

The men who restricted their eating and exercised three times a week for 16 weeks lost an average of 22 pounds and showed improvements in their blood sugar and insulin levels, whereas those in the exercise-only groups lost only 1 to 3 pounds. Interestingly, the weight-loss difference between the light and vigorous exercise groups was only a couple of pounds. The men in the vigorous exercise groups experienced improvement in their blood sugar levels, with the effect being greater when the exercise was coupled with the reduced-calorie diet.

Exercise: A Matter of Priority

Overall, women and men seem to have very different views on how exercise best fits into the weight-loss equation. Several studies have found that men prioritize exercise first and food second; women prioritize food first and exercise second. Why do men have a tendency to start with exercise when they need to shed some pounds? One logical answer is that many men have more experience with exercise, going back to their boyhoods. In addition, men who exercise regularly often see physical results.The majority of men typically gain weight in their midsection or stomach (taking on what is commonly referred to as the apple shape), a fat-deposit area that puts them at increased risk for certain diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes.

Studies have shown that regular exercise has a strong effect on reducing waist circumference in men, and that in turn helps reduce their disease risk. So when guys are suddenly able to buckle their belt a notch or two tighter or fit into a smaller-size pair of pants, they see the effects of exercise and are likely to discount the impact of eating less. Although women are definitely on the right weight-loss track when they cut back their calories from food, eventually they will need to add some exercise, especially if they seem to find themselves in a weightloss rut.That is when most women could use some help from the guys.

A 2006 Weight Watchers study discovered that women’s awareness of the need for regular exercise is high and even comparable to men’s, but awareness is not the same as action. As we saw, women in general tend to be less physically active than men. When women watch the needle on the scale fall, they are more likely to attribute their weight loss to their diet than to exercise, and they are correct in making that assumption. But when women reach a point where their weight loss levels off or stalls, they have a tendency to restrict their calories from food even more rather than adding exercise to their weight-loss regimen.

Since it’s next to impossible to lose weight using only exercise, the female eat-less approach is going to be the better strategy and result in greater weight loss provided that the reduced food intake is done in a healthy and balanced way. Down the road, though, the male exercise-more approach helps enhance weight loss and will be one of the key strategies for keeping pounds off for good.

FROM A WOMAN’S VIEWPOINT EXERCISE: A MATTER OF PRIORITY

Weight Watchers conducted research to find out about women’s physical activity preferences and discovered that women like to keep their exercise routine simple. Hands down, women enjoyed walking over any other type of exercise. Some other physical activities that women were more likely than men to participate in included lifting weights and taking yoga, Pilates, or kickboxing classes. Women’s equipment choices also reflected their desire for simplicity. Just give a woman a gym bag, a yoga mat, a water bottle, and a pair of workout shoes, and she’s ready to exercise.

FROM A MAN’S VIEWPOINT EXERCISE: A MATTER OF PRIORITY

Based on Weight Watchers research, walking also appears to be men’s number one choice for exercise, but men prefer to branch out and sweat more. Guys, particularly those under the age of forty-five, were more likely than women and men over the age of forty-five to participate in such sports as tennis, golf, basketball, and cycling.

When guys exercise, they typically enjoy all the physical aspects of it: sweating, pumping iron, building muscles. Not only do they enjoy working out, but they are also intrigued by the wide variety of state-of-the-art exercise gadgets out there, such as body-fat scales, pedometers, and heart rate wristwatches, to name just a few. Men often find such gadgets fun and inspirational.Women, on the other hand, are less infatuated with them and often find them unnecessary and overly complicated.