Why exercise wont make you lose weight

There’s no shortage of things people swore to leave behind in 2018: bad jobs, bad relationships, bad habits. But chances are, you’re beginning 2019 with something you didn’t intend: a few extra pounds.

Every January, one of the top New Year’s resolutions is ti lose weight. And if you’re looking to be successful, there’s something you should know: Diet is far more important than exercise — by a long shot.”It couldn’t be more true,” nutritionist and CNN contributor Lisa Drayer said. “Basically, what I always tell people is, what you omit from your diet is so much more important than how much you exercise.”

Think of it like this: All of your “calories in” come from the food you eat and the beverages you drink, but only a portion of your “calories out” are lost through exercise.According to Alexxai Kravitz an investigator at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases — part of the National Institutes of Health, “it’s generally accepted that there are three main components to energy expenditure”:

For most people, basal metabolic rate accounts for 60% to 80% of total energy expenditure, Kravitz said. He cited a study that defines this as “the minimal rate of energy expenditure compatible with life.” As you get older, your rate goes down, but increasing your muscle mass makes it go up.

About 10% of your calories are burned digesting the food you eat, which means roughly 10% to 30% are lost through physical activity.

“An important distinction here is that this number includes all physical activity: walking around, typing, fidgeting and formal exercise,” Kravitz said. “So if the total energy expenditure from physical activity is 10% to 30%, exercise is a subset of that number.
“The average person — professional athletes excluded — burns 5% to 15% of their daily calories through exercise,” he said. “It’s not nothing, but it’s not nearly equal to food intake, which accounts for 100% of the energy intake of the body.”What’s more, as anyone who’s worked out a day in their life can tell you, exercising ramps up appetite — and that can sabotage even the best of intentions.

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