Why​ ​does​ ​it​ ​take​ ​more​ ​than​ ​exercise​ ​to​ ​lose​ ​weight?

Soft drink and snack food manufacturers want you to believe that you can eat or drink what you want as long as you exercise. They spend billions of dollars on celebrity endorsements trying to confuse you or make you doubt that it takes more than exercise to lose weight. What’s their goal? Sell you more of their products which are high in sugar and fat, low in nutrients and high in calories.

Currently, more than one in two adults and nearly one in six children are overweight. According to the OECD obesity update for 2017, obesity rates are projected to increase further by 2030. Maybe it’s time these soft drink and snack food companies revisited their corporate social responsibility initiatives?

The upside of this public health crisis is we are learning more about what it takes to lose weight and keep it off. We know that it takes more than just exercise to lose weight and that our bodies have been designed to keep, rather than lose weight.

 Are you doing the right thing exercising to lose weight?

When we exercise, it burns energy which we need to replace. If we aren’t monitoring what we eat, it’s easy to over-replace those burnt calories. This is so frustrating because we’re naturally hungry after exercising too!

Our bodies also plateau or reach a state where working out more does not result in more calories burned. This happens when our bodies adapt to the same physical activity performed over a long period of time. Furthermore, our bodies have evolved to keep us at our current weight. When we do lose it, we just gain that weight right back!

Our bodies benefit from physical activity but it only accounts for small changes in weight loss. So, how can we shed those unwanted kilos?

• combine exercise with individualized attention and weight loss plans
• educate ourselves on food choices
• eat the right foods for our bodies

The idea that we can eat what we want as long as we exercise just isn’t true. By approaching weight loss holistically, it’s easier to get our heads around that it takes more than being active to lose weight. So, until a weight-loss pill is invented, it comes down to eating fewer calories than our body needs.