Why Excessive Exercise Can Make it Difficult to Follow a Diet
Many people who start a weight loss program incorporate exercise in the reasonable belief that exercise increases their rate of metabolism, thereby burning off more calories – and burning them off faster. However, it’s common for those seeking to lose a significant amount of weight to suddenly go from sedentary to the other extreme, throwing themselves full on into an intensive workout regimen.
Unfortunately, this approach is doomed to failure. Excessive exercise actually hinders weight loss because it can lead to increased hunger, hormonal imbalances such as high cortisol levels, and a potential adaptation where your body becomes more efficient at burning calories – thereby making it harder to create a calorie deficit necessary for weight loss. Our blog post – “What is a Calorie Deficit?” – explains this weight loss method in detail.
Essentially, your body may start to conserve energy by slowing down your metabolism when pushed too hard with exercise without a balanced diet or medical weight loss treatment to support it.
Reasons Why Too Much Exercise Can Hinder Weight Loss
Increased appetite:
Strenuous workouts can trigger hunger hormones, causing you to eat more than you burn, thus negating the calorie deficit needed for weight loss.
Stress hormone elevation (cortisol):
Overtraining can lead to high cortisol levels, which can promote fat storage and hinder fat burning.
Metabolic adaptation:
Your body can adapt to intense exercise by becoming more efficient at using energy, meaning you may burn fewer calories during workouts over time.
Muscle gain:
While building muscle is generally beneficial, if you are not adjusting your calorie intake accordingly, significant muscle gain can lead to a higher overall weight even if body fat percentage decreases.
Overtraining injuries:
Pushing yourself too hard can lead to injuries that may prevent you from exercising consistently, impacting your weight loss efforts.
How Evolution Works Against Us in Exercising to Lose Weight
Humans have developed and adapted over the eons to survive long periods of time without food. After all, our early ancestors weren’t always successful in their hunting-gathering efforts. Evolutionary anthropologist Herman Pontzer, PhD – author of the bestselling book, Burn – makes the case that human metabolism evolved over millions of years to defend against weight loss. As a result, the calories we burn every day stay within a fairly narrow range, whether we hit the gym every day or stay put on the couch.
Here are the words of Dr. Pontzer himself, from the Colloquy podcast hosted by Paul Massari:
“The simple answer, if it’s a simple answer, is that, for a half a billion years of evolution in animals, losing weight’s been a really bad sign … If you’re losing weight, your economics are not sustainable … You’re not bringing in enough to cover your expenses, and that pathway leads to death. And so, your body is built to be really good about defending its body weight. It doesn’t want to change weight very easily.
“And if it’s going to make a mistake one direction or the other, it surely doesn’t want to lose weight. And so, your body works really hard to never lose weight. And if you do lose it, to sort of get back to where you were before. So, the word ‘set point’ gets thrown around, I think, too much. I think maybe that’s too much stock that gets put into that as some sort of a hard-wired set point, but your body does seem to want to keep itself at its current weight.”
Dr. Pontzer had the rare opportunity to put this to the test. In the years 2009 and 2010, he and a group of colleagues spent time with the Hadza – a traditional hunter-gatherer community in northern Tanzania. Although assuming that the Hadza people would burn more calories than Americans thanks to their very physically active way of life, he was surprised to learn that such was not the case.
“And in fact, when you account for things like body size, fat percentage, age, no matter how you want to sort of slice it, there’s actually no difference at all in daily energy expenditure between Hadza men and women and adults in the US and in Europe and other industrialized populations. So, a total shock. They are 5 to 10 times more physically active, but there is no discernible difference in the total calories burned per day.
“It’s just more evidence that exercise alone is a pretty poor tool for weight loss. If you absolutely push it as hard as you can for as long as you can, you might see some weight loss, at least initially until your body kind of rights the ship. But the long-term expected weight loss from exercise alone is something like 2 kilograms. Right? Less than five pounds.”
Moderation is the Key to a Successful Exercise Program
The take-home message is that overdoing any exercise routine is counterproductive if weight loss is your goal. As mentioned earlier, pushing yourself too much can result in injury or a medical emergency. Here is a basic guideline to following a beneficial exercise program:
Consult a professional – Meet with a certified trainer or nutritionist to develop a personalized exercise plan that aligns with your weight loss goals.
Find a balance – Aim for a moderate exercise routine that includes both cardio and strength training, while ensuring you are eating a healthy diet to maintain a calorie deficit. While we’ve quoted Dr. Pontzer extensively, here is an observation by our own William E. Newsome, M.D., Medical Director and co-owner of Solutions Weight Loss.
“Intense exercise increases hunger, and most of the time people compensate by eating more calories which eliminates the calorie deficit. It’s easier to lose weight by simply eating less calories and casually walking 5,000-10,000 steps daily.”
Listen to your body – Pay attention to signs of overtraining like fatigue, decreased performance, and muscle soreness, and adjust your workout intensity or duration accordingly.
Exercise and Diet Need to Work Together
Going back to the Hadza community, even though their high level of physical activity doesn’t burn any more calories than the typical industrialized society couch potato, Dr. Pontzer notes that its members are free of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer. But working out as a way of life rather than a lifestyle doesn’t completely account for their excellent health. The Hadza community members aren’t doing their hunting and gathering at fast food eateries or supermarkets to fill their shopping carts with highly processed foods. Diet (as opposed to dieting) makes a big difference!
How a Supervised Medical Weight Loss Program Can Help Your Achieve Your Goals
Being aware of the calories you consume on a daily basis, the types of foods you eat and the amount of exercise you get will put you in the right mindset to succeed on a weight loss program. But if you’ve already tried specific types of diet plans and programs without long-term results, do not think that you’re destined to fail in your weight loss goals! Medical appetite control could be the answer you’ve been looking for.
Medical weight loss medications can treat those living with overweight and obesity by controlling your appetite – thereby making it possible to follow a low-calorie diet without constant feelings of gnawing hunger! Solutions Weight Loss provides today’s most advanced weight loss medications under the guidance of Dr. Newsome. From the very start of your medical weight loss journey with us, Dr. Newsome conducts your in-depth initial consultation, and will evaluate and prescribe for you the best treatment to achieve your goals. He brings his own personal weight loss experiences, and a lifelong dedication to health and fitness.
As we say at Solutions Weight Loss, the future of weight loss is here! We offer high-quality, safe and affordable, compounded GLP-1 medications like semaglutide and tirzepatide – which you probably know under brand names like Wegovy®, Ozempic®, Zepbound®, or Mounjaro®. Research shows that when combined with one-on-one physician coaching, low-calorie diet and lifestyle changes, they are the safest and most effective approach to achieve sustainable weight loss.
Because we prescribe, compound and dispense these medications, shortages of the brand-name drugs will never affect your access. In fact, you can leave our office with your medication the same day! Moreover, we understand that people have busy schedules that may not allow them to visit our office on a weekly basis. That’s why we can dispense up to 12 weeks of your weight loss medication at a time.
One foundation of our practice is the importance of the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Newsome and our entire Solutions Weight Loss team are with you on every step of your medical weight loss journey! You’ll never feel that you’re on your own, or have to deal with an impersonal online chat or text with whoever is working at a telehealth service at the time when you happen to have a question. You will know us, and we will know you – which allows us to give you the individual help and advice you need!
Solutions Weight Loss internal results prove our program is effective at driving long-term improvements to metabolic health and weight loss, with an average of 21% weight loss at 12 months; 19.1% at 18 months, and 18.9% at 24 months. Our members have also decreased their waist circumference by 7 inches, on average. These results are superior to the weight loss seen in clinical trials for GLP-1 medications. Regardless of which medication they take, our members have demonstrated significant and sustained results!
See what makes Solutions Weight Loss the #1 weight loss clinic in Florida! Schedule your consultation with Dr. Newsome here, or call 407-413-5503, and experience the benefits of today’s metabolic approach to sustainable weight loss! Don’t wait another day to start living your best life!
