Exercise Effective for Weight Loss? - Review of Personal Data

In a previous article, I said that exercise alone is ineffective for weight loss because it takes a long time to burn fat and it makes us hungry.

This week, on Monday, I did a short stair-climbing session with strength training. Then I cycled 120 miles in four days, with the longest ride at 47 miles, on Tuesday.

"Calories out v. calories in".

My total calorie deficit for five days, was 3700 kcals. I had burned about 6500 in total, just from cycling. My macro food consumption percentages were the same each day.

I gained 1 kg in scale weight.

My body fat percentage is probably the same (under 20%), but it is difficult to measure accurately, using bathroom scales or a hand meter - I just had two different results three hours apart!

Conclusion:  I have re-gained leg muscle from past years and perhaps some fat. The muscle is holding fluid, hence the net gain in scale weight.

Time: I wonder how many people would actually have the time to devote to exercise, as I did this week? The cycling alone took me nearly ten hours and I was quite tired afterwards.

Calories: If I had kept very strictly to my usual calorie intake, I am sure I would have lost body fat and scale weight, but I would have been very hungry indeed, which is a point I made previously. You will notice that I was eating in cycles - one day more and the next, less.

The above reminds me of an interesting point in Gary Taubes' books; weight gain does not come simply from the calories we ingest. Rather, our calorie intake is driven by the body's demands.

So, if we are growing or producing new muscle or if we are under particular stress (intense exercise), we will be driven to ingest more food. We see this in the ravenous appetites of our children when they have growth spurts or the increased appetite that we have after exercise.

Similarly, if obese people cannot gain nourishment from the food they consume because of hormonal factors (insulin) which partition calories from carbohydrate into fat storage, then they too, will be driven to ingest more.