Exercise for Fat Loss

Exercise and fitness programs have long been marketed as weight loss and "body transformation" programs. Many fitness professionals and slick marketing salesmen who sell exercise books, machines, DVD's, etc. have INCORRECTLY shaped the public's expectations about what exercise can and cannot do for them. The problem is, exercise by itself is an extremely ineffective weight loss method. The public then buys into this, have high expectations, and then are very disappointed in their results. With this in mind, let’s take a closer look at the realistic contribution of exercise to the fat loss picture.

Cardiovascular Activities, on average, burn about 10 calories per minute. A beginner with a very low level of fitness and poor work capacity will burn less. A trained individual can withstand intensities which will burn more (up to 20 calories/minute). But, let's call it 10 calories per minute on average.

Weight training burns roughly 7-9 calories per minute. I should note that there is huge variability here. The type of exercise you are performing (multiple joint vs. single joint), the loads you are using (heavy weight vs. light weight), the overall volume of the workout, your momentary effort level on each exercise, etc. all will influence how many calories are burned. Also, keep in mind that strength training workouts are basically interval workouts: you do a set, rest a minute or so, do another set, etc. So, while you may be in the gym for an hour when you strength train, probably only 30-40 minutes of that is actual metabolic work.

Ok, so let's say you were to exercise 7 days/week for an hour: 3 strength workouts (perhaps Mon/Wed/Fri) and 4 cardio type workouts (Tues/Thurs/Sat/Sun). Let's assume the strength workouts, on average, burn 7 calories/minute and you are performing actual work for 40 of those 60 minutes (this is generous). Let's also assume you are doing 60 minutes of continuous calorie burning work at an average of 10 calories/minute on cardio days. Again, this is generous. So...

• 3 strength training workouts: 120 minutes of work @ 7 calories/minute=840 total calories burned
• 4 cardio workouts: 240 minutes of work @ 10 calories/minute=2400 total calories burned

Grand Total for the Week: 3240 calories.

The reality is it's not all that much. 3240 calories is less than 1 pound of fat (3500 calories roughly).

This is why people who don't change their eating habits (which doesn't require any actual time I might add...beyond planning) and try to "exercise off" body fat fail miserably, become discouraged, and say "screw it".

Think about it this way: It can take up to 6 hours-based on the calculations above-to burn 3240 calories. How long does it take to eat an extra 3240 calories each week? How long does it take NOT to eat 3240 calories each week? 

 I should also mention that the majority of information regarding EPOC, the "after burn" is drastically over stated and misinterpreted. If you look at the research on post workout calorie burn and metabolic rate elevation, it's not significant enough to even be considered. I'll be generous and give you an extra 10% (based on what most research has shown).

So, someone hitting the gym EVERY day for an hour, after a month's time, assuming they are not ingesting more calories than they are expending, may lose 3 or 4 pounds. This is isn't exactly motivating for the end user, especially when the experts have made exercise out to be a great stand alone weight loss method. What typically happens is the well meaning exerciser who has been making a huge time commitment will say "screw it" and abandon exercise all together because they think they are not getting anything out of it. I mean, who can blame them when guys like me have been telling them otherwise?