The role of exercise - how important for weight loss?

[AloeSvea]

The theory and percentage most presented is the 80/20% one - that is 80% what you eat and drink, and 20% your physical activity and exercise training. I have also seen 70/30 bandied about online.

I wonder if, regarding weight loss the 20% could still be a bit generous? But, saying that, physical activity and exercise training is enormously important for cardio vascular/heart health, and for we with type two diabetes - getting excess glucose into the muscles and using it up in that way for health and well being. Not forgetting for one moment that the main way type two diabetics die is by cardio vascular disease.

I am merely talking about weight loss and gain. How much impact does physical activity and exercise have on that?

I have found myself engaging with many people lately - medical professionals, diabetes and non diabetes related on this topic, and, of course - the multitudes in my life who are trying to and interested in weight loss (and gain!). My experience is that exercise is verbalised as the number one big effect on both gain and loss.

My own take is it's the food and drink that has the greatest effect, which the 80/20% theory supports. This is not unsupported with studies, when I went online just now this study popped up -

The Role of Exercise and Physical Activity in Weight Loss and Maintenance - PMC

This review explores the role of physical activity (PA) and exercise training (ET) in the prevention of weight gain, initial weight loss, weight maintenance, and the obesity paradox. In particular, we will focus the discussion on the expected ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The prevention of weight gain after weight loss info in above study was particularly interesting to me, but not in my own experience. My latest experience being partial disability affecting my mobility and preventing me from doing serious aerobic exercise for about a year and a half.

My own experience is that window of eating regimes or intermittent fasting have the biggest impact on weight maintenance that far exceeds physical activity.

Keeping my diet low-carb, to varying degrees, is bottom line. I would say "of course".

What physical activity for me really affected re my type two was my body dealing with all that excess blood glucose by shunting it into my muscles. ie - it was great for what is referred to as diabetes control.

Anyway, I have noticed the over-empahsis from both medical professionals, and the general population in my life (friends and acquaintances, usually women), of exercise on weight loss and gain. I find myself quoting the 80/20% theory a lot, and saying that I believe based on my readings, that the food industry did a fabulous job of de-emphasising the role of food and drink, in particular the role of sugar, the new ish dwarf wheat, and ultra processing, and UP seed oils, and the predominance of what is more 'food-like products' than real wholesome food now, on being and maintaining normal weight.

I am very interested in the promotion of the semaglutide drugs (ozempic etc) being promoted as miraculous, and how they are working for folks, and again - the de-emphasis on what people are eating and drinking. (The food industry must be delighted, and great pals with the pharmaceutical companies on this one!)

Weight loss is a big subject in the world, and in particular the type two diabetes world due to the sick fat cell theory behind the disease.

So I thought I would share my thoughts in here, and hear what you all have thought on the subject...

 

[ianf0ster]

Two 'doctor' programs on UK TV have had a GP (i think they were different GPs) say that several medical studies have shown that in the majority of cases, people who exercise more to lose weight don't lose any (or negligible) weight over a few months. The supposed reason being that all that exercise makes people hungry and so they eat more calories, they may even eat more calories than the exercise uses up and so put on more weight.

I mentioned this in a post a year or so ago.

Personally, I found that I lost weight by eating LCHF, then when I became fat adapted, I could start Intermittent Fasting and that having lost some weight (not much since I was slim in the first place) I found both that walking became more pleasurable and that I could walk further and faster. But the weight loss definitely came first in my case and what started that off was LCHF without any additional exercise or calorie counting at all!

 

[Melgar]

An Interesting post and points you make @AloeSvea I enjoy these types of discussions.
This is my personal take on exercise. I am a pro exercise person. That is my choice. My view is we are all different in so many ways and the definition of Exercise so broad and overarching. It covers anything from a stroll down the road to hard training for a marathon. Exercise at its most basic is simply physically moving.

I'll give you an example from my own experience. I have been a runner for much of my life. Up until a few years ago I was running up the mountains where I live. The coastal range in British Columbia. It can be 25 c at sea level and snow at the summit to give you an idea of elevation. I would do around 70 miles a week, over 6 days. I did split runs, and did interval training. I did track sprints and slow jogs. The mountains were a long hard slog. I was expending so much energy I could barely maintain my weight. In fact I dropped to just over 100lbs and I'm just over 5'6. I had to consume so much food, and even then I struggled to maintain weight. My point is, simply thinking in terms of exercise v diet is to me an over simplification.

The type of exercise you choose is just as important as the type of food you eat. If you are expending more energy than you are consuming you will lose weight. I am living proof of that. Of course, there are complexities in the mix. The statement , expending more energy than can consume is an over simplification in itself. People's metabolisms vary tremendously. That is a significant variable. Age and ability, motivation, your bodies physical structure, fitness level and medications and oxygen uptake, muscle fibre variations and mass. I can keep going, on top of the exercise you choose to do.

Of course, very few people want to run up and down a mountain to shed a few pounds. Likewise, up until recently I could barely get through the night without my blood sugars dropping way below 3.5mmol/Ls. I'm throwing these variables into the mix as the statement exercise v diet is so much more complex.

 

[AloeSvea]

Hi there @Melgar. I have enjoyed and find interesting your contributions to the Forum also!

Oh - I am very big on physical activity too, just not as the number one go-to for weight loss and normal weight maintenance.

Yes, there is a lot of variation among individuals, but, we are the same species of animal. There are broad strokes that apply to us as being the same basic animal .

 

[KennyA]

Exercise had absolutely zero impact on my weight loss. And my weight loss had zero impact on my blood glucose.

I had normal BGs within four months of starting keto (April 2020). It took nearly a further three years to lose enough weight (~90lbs) to start exercising again without risking immediate injury. I re-started football in January 2023, and have been playing regularly (3x per week) ever since. My weight (since mid-2023) is stable, I've stopped losing, my BG is stable, and my diet hasn't changed from 20g carb/day since December 2019.

Conclusion - exercise has had no measurable impact on either my blood glucose or weight. I do it because I really, really enjoy it.

 

[Lamont D]

I became around 18 stone in 2012, and I was eating the eat well plate diet as I was misdiagnosed with T2.
For over ten years. I kept asking why at my surgery. For years before becoming so heavy.
I was referred in 2008 to an endocrinologist who said it was a fatty liver caused by alcohol.
I hadn't touched alcohol for about five years previously. He didn't believe me.
I was still very active working, coaching, housework.
So, how did I become six stone lighter?
The simp!e answer is dietary restrictions. And the warning that if I continued to not use a restricted intake. I would continue to be really ill. It was also about learning what sort of exercise I could and should do. Being on my feet for most of the day was enough. Intermittent fasting. Eating just enough nutritious food for my body to continue to be healthy and having a belief in how this tailored diet. Would help me retain a healthy internal function.
I was very ill before my diagnosis and losing the weight saved my life.
I do believe in fresh food. Nothing that has been through a machine or has additives etc.
Even to oils, these oils asuch as palm oil, have no use in our diet.
And the reason for so many health issues is the big food manufacturers. They manufacture food. Wow!
Read it again. They manufacture food.
Exercise if you can but reducing carbs and sugar and the unnecessary rubbish, the big multinationals want you to eat.
a tailored dietary balance and good exercise is what I would always recommend.

 

[Melgar]

I will say I did the very low carb diet for 9 months, a couple of years ago now. The weight did drop off me, way too much in fact. The flip side though is it did nothing for my blood sugars. They remained the same as before. I found the diet unpleasant, as I'm not a big meat eater and I have a fat intolerance. I would have struggled to maintain that kind of diet.

What I will say about exercise, which I failed to mention, is it gets you out meeting people. For me being in a running club was great, I met lots of like minded people who were invested in the sport and in eating healthy, some didn't but most did. I think loneliness and boredom plays a role in overeating or eating unhealthy diets. A generalization I know, but I think it plays a part.

 

[MrsA2]

If exercise =running or going to a gym = not for me
If activity with friends eg walking and chatting, or dancing or enjoying the countryside then I'm all for it.
I'm not one to work hard to lose weight, I find it goes straight back on again plus more.
If however it's a pleasure that fits well into my life, then I sustain it.

I think it all depends on knowing what type of person you are. I know loads who love the gym...I don't

I think the word "exercise" should be banned but "increasing pleasurable activites" encouraged

 

[AloeSvea]

Thank you for these contributions!

When I talk to my friends and family (when they bring the subject up - I promise! I don't offer this info off the bat...) I say that in my experience one of the types of person who most engage with the topic, are the most knowledgable and experienced, are those with type two diabetes who were at the very least plump/fat/obese at diagnosis. Ditto the most successful at weight loss and normal weight maintenance. (Because, one imagines? Our lives and health and wellbeing depend on it.)

In these days, these highly 'interesting' days when the food and pharma industries, and the medical folks, don't seem to be working in with us on this subject (when do we hear 'it's about the food and drink!' and what ultra processing has done to us, and will continue to do to us in the real-food dietary silence...), I think it is really important that we speak up.

 

[AloeSvea]

Two 'doctor' programs on UK TV have had a GP (i think they were different GPs) say that several medical studies have shown that in the majority of cases, people who exercise more to lose weight don't lose any (or negligible) weight over a few months. The supposed reason being that all that exercise makes people hungry and so they eat more calories, they may even eat more calories than the exercise uses up and so put on more weight.

I mentioned this in a post a year or so ago.

Personally, I found that I lost weight by eating LCHF, then when I became fat adapted, I could start Intermittent Fasting and that having lost some weight (not much since I was slim in the first place) I found both that walking became more pleasurable and that I could walk further and faster. But the weight loss definitely came first in my case and what started that off was LCHF without any additional exercise or calorie counting at all!

Yes indeed. Physical activity, heavy lifting etc certainly makes me very hungry. Which is natural, for sure. Food as fuel and all that.

The calories in calories out is a stubborn theory to overcome. And I do believe it is necessary to. Totally bizarre those graphs and ads talking about how much to walk off calories from food (I get them often when online).

I have found the two categories of 'clean fuel' and 'dirty fuel' to be quite helpful in explaining the superiority of wholefoods, in contrast to ultra processed food with lots of sugar and seed oils amongst other things. The body as a machine metaphor, I guess, is a good one? Except when it's used to support the calories in calories out/the body as a steam engine idea.