Exercise and weight loss: how to make it work

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Exercise and Weight Loss: How to Make It Work

Posted by Susan Bowerman, M.S., RD, CSSD, CSOWM, FAND – Senior Director, Worldwide Nutrition Education and Training

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Combine diet and exercise for best results.

Even though I’m a dietitian, my clients frequently ask me about exercise as part of their weight loss plan.

Since managing weight effectively depends on calorie balance, it makes sense that we talk about not only diet (calories in), but exercise (calories out), too. Most simply want to know how much, or sometimes how little, exercise they need to do in order to lose weight—or to keep off weight that they’ve already lost. So, here are some of the key things I tell them about exercise and body weight.

Trying to lose weight through increased activity alone is tough to do.

To lose a pound in a week’s time, strictly through exercise, you’d need to burn up an extra 500 calories a day above and beyond your current activity level. That’s no small task. You’d need to hike uphill for an hour with a 10-pound backpack or swim laps for 90 minutes without stopping. Trying to lose weight only through increased activity, or only by cutting your calories, won’t be nearly as effective as a combination of diet and exercise.

Cutting calories may cause your metabolic rate to drop somewhat.

Your metabolic rate represents the number of calories your body burns just to keep basic processes going, and it’s a big part of your ‘calories out.’ But your metabolic rate can dip a little when you cut back on your eating. So, even though your ‘calories in’ may be lower, your ‘calories out’ can drop, too, and leave you more or less in calorie balance.

Strength training can help to increase metabolic rate.

When people think exercise, they usually think aerobic exercise, like biking, swimming or jogging. But strength training is important, too. In part because it helps to build lean body mass, which can bump up your metabolic rate and help offset the drop in calorie burn that takes place when you cut your calories.

It’s easy to make mistakes when counting calories – both in and out.

People tend to overestimate the calorie cost of the exercise they do—and underestimate the number of calories they eat. This helps explain the frustration many people feel when they’re sure they’re doing ‘everything right,’ but the scale just won’t budge.

You need a lot of exercise to lose weight, but you need even more to prevent it from coming back.

Once you’ve lost it, regular activity is critical when it comes to keeping weight off. But it takes more than a leisurely stroll around the block. Members of the National Weight Loss Registry—people who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for at least a year—burn an average of about 2800 calories a week in exercise. That’s the equivalent of about 90 minutes of exercise, like a brisk four-mile walk every day.

Exercise is key to good health and anything is better than nothing.

When people hear that they might need an hour or more of exercise a day to keep their weight under control, it can be a little daunting. But don’t let the numbers discourage you. Do what you can, do it regularly, and try to go a little farther or work out a little harder each time.

Susan Bowerman, M.S., RD, CSSD, CSOWM, FAND – Senior Director, Worldwide Nutrition Education and Training
Susan is the Senior Director of Worldwide Nutrition Education and Training at Herbalife, where she is responsible for the development of nutrition education and training materials, and is one of the primary authors of the Herbalife-sponsored blog, www.discovergoodnutrition.com. She is a Registered Dietitian and holds two Board Certifications from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics as a Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics, and a Certified Specialist in Obesity and Weight Management. Susan is also a Fellow of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Susan graduated with distinction in biology from the University of Colorado, and received her master’s degree in Food Science and Nutrition from Colorado State University. She then completed her dietetic internship at the University of Kansas. Susan has taught extensively and developed educational programs targeted to individuals, groups and industry in her areas of expertise, including health promotion, weight management and sports nutrition. Prior to her role at Herbalife, she was the assistant director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition, and has held appointments as adjunct professor in nutrition at Pepperdine University and as lecturer in nutrition in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Susan was a consultant to the (then) Los Angeles Raiders for six seasons, and was a contributing columnist for the Los Angeles Times Health Section for two years. She is a co-author of 23 research papers, 14 book chapters, and was a co-author of two books for the public: “What Color is Your Diet?” and “The L.A. Shape Diet” by Dr. David Heber, published by Harper Collins in 2001 and 2004, respectively.