<ul><li>How much we move is connected to how much we eat. And exercise, of course, has a way of making us hungry — so hungry that we might consume more calories than we burned off.</li><li>Some people simply slow down after a workout, using less energy on their non-gym activities, because they're tired.</li></ul>

Exercise can undermine weight loss

Exercise alone has a modest contribution to weight loss. But when you alter one component, cutting the number of calories you eat in a day to lose weight, doing more exercise than usual, this sets off a cascade of changes in the body that affect how many calories you use up and, in turn, your bodyweight.

Human energy balance

People who have had success losing weight have a few things in common: <ul><li>They weigh themselves at least once a week. </li><li>They restrict their calorie intake, stay away from high-fat foods, and watch their portion sizes. </li><li>They also exercise regularly. But note: They use physical activity in addition to calorie counting and other behavioral changes.</li></ul>

How to actually lose weight

The calories we burn every day include not only movement but all the energy needed to run the thousands of functions that keep us alive.

Calories burned every day

Exercise accounts for a small portion of daily calorie burn.Even when you work out, those extra calories burned only account for a tiny part of your total energy expenditure, only around 10 to 30 percent, depending on the person. It's not nearly equal to food intake.

Exercise and calories burn

Exercise is like a wonder drug for many health outcomes: reducing blood pressure, reduces the risk of diabetes of heart diseases and slows developing cognitive impairment from Alzheimer's and dementia. But as for losing weight, it helps more in weight maintenance than in losing the actual weight.

Exercise and health

When anthropologist Herman Pontzer set off from Hunter College in New York to Tanzania to study one of the few remaining hunter-gatherer tribes on the planet, he expected to find a group of calorie-burning machines. Unlike Westerners, whoincreasingly spend their waking hours glued to chairs, the Hadza are on the move most of the time.

Calories burned every day

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