Quote:
Originally Posted by kaplods
Most people can't lose weight from exercise alone, because increasing exercise tends to also increase hunger. Without conscious effort, most people end up adding enough extra calories to compensate for the extra exercise.
I contend that the primary reason is not increased hunger, but because it's really hard to "out-exercise" overconsumption of calories. Exercising burns far fewer calories than one thinks. If someone is intaking 2400 calories a day (not an absurdly large amount of food), his/her TDEE is 1800, and s/he goes to the gym for 1 hour every day and burns 400 calories, s/he will not lose weight.
The food intake feels "fine," it's not out of control. The dedication to exercise is there- 1 hour every single day. And yet the weight continues to creep on, slowly.
I do agree that for some people it increases appetite, leading to eating back one's calories. (Though I am not one of them, it's an appetite suppressant for me.) For others, it's a faulty logic process that leads them astray ("I went to the gym, I have a free pass to indulge during dinner.") But for everyone it ultimately comes down to not using more calories than one burns each day.
It IS possible to lose weight through exercise and not by changing one's diet, but it depends on a lot of variables (how much he/she is eating, etc)... and plus who wants to spend hours and hours at the gym every day?