Exercise and weight loss
Have you ever noticed that, despite your best efforts in terms of exercise, that desired weight loss might not be happening as you'd like?That is likely because, when you've finished your workout, whatever that may be, your body is keen to find balance in terms of replenishing those dietary fat stores and maintaining energy levels. This can be largely outside of our control. Your body is thinking survival here. Look at it on an evolutionary level: who knows when you may have been in need of all of that stored energy (dietary fat) based on the predicaments you might have found yourself in in ages gone by?
So, how does the body regulate these energy levels in order to maintain 'homeostasis,' or balance? You might become increasingly hungry, with appetite-regulating hormones kicking in, meaning you eat yourself back to balance. You may move around a lot less, the brain looking to suspend non-exercise activity, or 'NEAT'. With these so-called NEAT activities, think things like simply standing, cleaning, fidgeting etc. Even those bodily systems that function outside of your control (digestion, menstruation etc.) can - sometimes in more extreme cases - alter to help restore balance.
If you tend to mostly do the same exercises, the body will become more and more efficient at them, meaning the ever-increasing likelihood of fewer calories being burned. Added to that, when you think that an hour of moderate-intensity exercise can burn somewhere in the region of 500-600 calories (optimistically), said calories can be replenished by a healthy snack, not to mention what an unhealthy snack will do to that workout you've just sweated through.
None of this is to say that exercise is pointless; quite the contrary. Exercise is absolutely vital in terms of your health and well-being and the benefits to regular and varied activity are almost limitless. The point is that weight loss through exercise alone, without the support of healthy dietary choices, is unlikely to move the dial all that much.
The aforementioned compensatory factors - many of which are outside of your control - are likely to kick in to make up for that run you've finished, intense walk you've taken or zumba class you've done. The point is to back up that amazing, heart-healthy exercise with the right food choices. That combination, done consistently over time, should slowly begin to produce those desired weight-loss results. Get in touch and let’s chat about the best way we can achieve those goals.