deepstash
Beta
Exercise and health
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.
MORE IDEAS FROM THE ARTICLE
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.
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.
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.
- 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.
- Some people simply slow down after a workout, using less energy on their non-gym activities, because they're tired.
People who have had success losing weight have a few things in common:
- They weigh themselves at least once a week.
- They restrict their calorie intake, stay away from high-fat foods, and watch their portion sizes.
- They also exercise regularly. But note: They use physical activity in addition to calorie counting and other behavioral changes.
RELATED IDEAS
- Basal metabolism is the energy our body needs to keep our cells working and accounts for 65-80% of most adults' caloric consumption.
- The thermic effect of food is the energy our body uses to process food and accounts for 10% of most adults' caloric consumption.
- Physical activity accounts for 10 - 30 % of most people’s caloric consumption .
While intermittent fasting has as main purpose to make the large calorie deficit remain unchanged after a period of fasting or low-calorie dieting, studies have shown that actually a combination of eating just a bit more and doing less physical activity can help recover half of this calorie deficit.
There are 3 main ways:
- the basal metabolism, the energy used for your body's basic functioning while at rest
- the energy used to break down food (also known as the thermic effect of food)
- the energy used in physical activity.
Most of the energy you burn is from your resting metabolism.