Exercise may not be the best for losing weight, but it is of great benefit to your physical and mental health. It reduces the likelihood of cardiovascular disease, improves blood sugar levels, strengthens bones, maintains cognitive abilities, and reduces the risk of depression, cancer and early death.
However, there is one area where exercise doesn’t always work: weight loss.
Why doesn’t exercise help with weight loss?
In a society that views gyms as nothing more than calorie-burning machines, many expect exercise to reduce waist size. When that doesn’t happen, they feel frustrated. But the truth is that our expectations are incorrect.
According to a Washington Post report: “Large-scale studies show that exercise alone usually results in minimal weight loss, often just a few pounds over 6 months, because the body “compensates” for the excess activity by increasing appetite or by reducing calories burned for other vital functions.”
In a 2024 randomized trial of overweight middle-aged adults, participants who exercised regularly without changing their diet improved their fitness and metabolic markers, but lost little weight.
As we age, our basal metabolic rate slows, and the body becomes more efficient at conserving energy.
Various factors affect this, including age-related muscle atrophy, or muscle loss with age. We need to exercise longer or with more intensity to the point where it may become unrealistic to achieve a sufficient calorie deficit to lose weight.
Benefits of sports
Recent research indicates that short periods of movement, integrated into daily life, known as “exercise snacks,” lead to a significant reduction in the risk of disease, even in small doses.
Exercise improves a person’s “health” even if it does not reduce weight. In fact, fit people tend to live longer than others, regardless of their weight.
This distinction is important in the era of GLP-1 and other weight-loss drugs. For many, these treatments make losing weight easier than ever before.
We point out that rapid weight loss resulting from medications may involve hidden costs, including muscle loss. Muscles are essential for movement, blood sugar control, and healthy longevity. Losing muscle mass while losing weight may improve appearance, but it weakens the body’s immunity.
If the goal is long-term “health,” the priority should be on movement and building muscle, not just weight.
