These are much better indicators of fat loss than weight alone. Exercise is important for overall health, and different types of exercise may offer different advantages when it comes to weight loss. Try this today: Exercise can play a role in weight loss, but diet is definitely the most important aspect.

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New research suggests that running may not aid much with weight loss, but it can help you keep from gaining weight as you age.

Here's why. A Quiz for Teens Are You a Workaholic? How Well Do You Sleep? Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Nutrition Evidence Based Does Exercise Help You Lose Weight? The Surprising Truth. Medically reviewed by Daniel Bubnis, M. Cardio Strength training High intensity Exercise and hunger Other benefits Pro tips Bottom line Exercising has many benefits.

Cardio exercise and weight. Strength exercise and weight. High intensity interval training and weight. Exercise and appetite. Other benefits of exercise. The bottom line.

Just one thing Try this today: Exercise can play a role in weight loss, but diet is definitely the most important aspect. Was this helpful? How we reviewed this article: History. Apr 19, Written By Helen West.

Aug 5, Medically Reviewed By Daniel Bubnis, MS, NASM-CPT, NASE Level II-CSS. We don't know how much compensation occurs, under which circumstances, and for whom.

Another hypothesis about why it's hard to lose weight through exercise alone is that energy expenditure plateaus at a certain point. In another Pontzer paper, published in in the journal Current Biology , he and his colleagues found evidence of an upper limit.

They cast a wide geographic net, recruiting adults from Ghana, South Africa, Seychelles, Jamaica, and the United States. Tracking the study participants for eight days, they gathered data on physical activity and energy burned using accelerometers.

They classified people into three types: the sedentary folks, the moderately active who exercised two or three times per week , and the super active who exercised about every day. Importantly, these were people who were already doing a certain amount of activity, not people who were randomized to working out at various levels.

Here, physical activity accounted for only 7 to 9 percent of the variation in calories burned among the groups. Moderately active people burned more energy than people who were sedentary about calories more each day , but above that, the energy used up seemed to hit a wall.

In other words, after a certain amount of exercise, you don't keep burning calories at the same rate: Total energy expenditure may eventually plateau. In the traditional "additive" or "linear" model of total energy expenditure, how many calories one burns is a simple linear function of physical activity.

Period, full stop. Based on the research, Pontzer has proposed a new model that upends the old "calories in, calories out" approach to exercise, where the body burns more calories with more physical activity in a linear relationship also known as the "additive" model of energy expenditure.

He calls this the "constrained model" of energy expenditure, which shows that the effect of more physical activity on the human body is not linear. In light of our evolutionary history — when food sources were less reliable — he argues that the body sets a limit on how much energy it is willing to expend, regardless of how active we are.

This is still just a hypothesis. Pontzer and others will need to gather more evidence to validate it, and reconcile contradictory evidence showing that people can burn more energy as they add physical activity.

So for now it's a fascinating possibility, among all the others, that may help explain why joining a gym as a sole strategy to lose weight is often an exercise in futility. Since , the obesity prevalence has doubled worldwide, with about 13 percent of the global population now registering as obese, according to the WHO.

In the United States, nearly 70 percent of the population is either overweight or obese. A lack of exercise and too many calories have been depicted as equal causes of the crisis.

But as researchers put it in an article in BMJ , "You cannot outrun a bad diet. Since at least the s, Americans have been told that we can. This Public Health Reports paper outlines the dozens of government departments and organizations — from the American Heart Association to the US Department of Agriculture — whose campaigns suggested more physical activity alone or in addition to diet to reverse weight gain.

Unfortunately, we are losing the obesity battle because we are eating more than ever. But the exercise myth is still regularly deployed by the food and beverage industry — which are increasingly under fire for selling us too many unhealthy products.

The company has been aligning itself with exercise since the s , and was recently exposed by the New York Times for funding obesity researchers who emphasize a lack of physical activity as the cause of the epidemic.

Coca-Cola is just one of many food companies that are encouraging us to get more exercise and keep buying their products while we're at it : PepsiCo , Cargill , and Mondelez have all emphasized physical activity as a cause of obesity.

The exercise myth for weight loss also still appears in high-profile initiatives, like the former first lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign — largely because of the food industry's lobbying efforts, according to Marion Nestle, a New York University nutrition professor.

The White House's exercise focus to end childhood obesity, Nestle said, was "a strategic decision to make the message positive and doable and, at the same time, keep the food industry off its back.

But this focus on calories out, or the calories we can potentially burn in exercise, is "an inadequate and a potentially dangerous approach, because it is liable to encourage people to ignore or underestimate the greater impact of energy-in," an obesity doctor and professor wrote in the journal Public Health Nutrition.

In other words, we can lose sight of the fact that it's mostly too much food that's making us fat. We need to cut back the food we're eating. The evidence is now clear: Exercise is excellent for health, but it's not important for weight loss.

The two things should never be given equal weight in the obesity debate. At the individual level, some very good research on what works for weight loss comes from the National Weight Control Registry , a study that has parsed the traits, habits, and behaviors of adults who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for a minimum of one year.

They currently have more than 10, members enrolled in the study, and these folks respond to annual questionnaires about how they've managed to keep their weight down.

The researchers behind the study found that people who have had success losing weight have a few things in common: They weigh themselves at least once a week.

They restrict their calorie intake , stay away from high-fat foods, and watch their portion sizes. They also exercise regularly. But note: These folks use physical activity in addition to calorie counting and other behavioral changes.

Every reliable expert I've ever spoken to on weight loss says the most important thing a person can do is limit calories in a way they like and can sustain, and focus on eating healthfully. In general, diet with exercise can work better than calorie cutting alone, but with only marginal additional weight loss benefits.

Consider this chart from a randomized trial that was done on a group of overweight folks: The group that restricted calories lost about the same amount of weight as the group that dieted and exercised, though the exercisers didn't cut as many calories:. If you embark on a weight loss journey that involves both adding exercise and cutting calories, Montclair's Thomas warned not to count those calories burned in physical activity toward extra eating.

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Table of contents 1 An evolutionary clue to how our bodies burn calories 2 Exercise is excellent for health 3 Exercise alone is almost useless for weight loss 4 Exercise accounts for a small portion of daily calorie burn 5 It's hard to create a significant calorie deficit through exercise 6 Exercise can undermine weight loss in other, subtle ways 7 Exercise may cause physiological changes that help us conserve energy 8 Energy expenditure might have an upper limit 9 The government and the food industry are doling out unscientific advice 10 So what actually works for weight loss?

Components of total energy expenditure for an average young adult woman and man. In the "constrained" model of total energy expenditure, the body adapts to increased physical activity by reducing energy spent on other physiological activities. Physical activity and diet should never be given equal weight in the obesity debate.

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By Jenn Sinrich is a Boston-based freelance editor, writer, and content strategist. Jenn Sinrich. Learn about our editorial process. Learn more. Medical Reviewers confirm the content is thorough and accurate, reflecting the latest evidence-based research.

Content is reviewed before publication and upon substantial updates. Medically reviewed by Jonathan Valdez, RDN, CDCES, CPT.

Learn about our Medical Review Board. Table of Contents View All. Table of Contents. How Much Exercise Do You Need to Lose Weight?

How Much Exercise Is Needed For Weight Loss. Why Exercise Is Important to Weight Loss. How to Create an Exercise Routine. Why Nutrition Should Also Be Considered. Frequently Asked Questions. How to Add Strength Training to a Weight Management Routine. Getting Your Spouse or Partner to Exercise.

The Benefits of Cross Training. Frequently Asked Questions How much do you need to workout per day to lose weight? Learn More: How to Create a Calorie Deficit for Weight Loss.

Which is more important to weight loss, cardio or resistance training? Learn More: What Is Resistance Training and Why It is Important.

How much exercise should a beginner do per day? Learn More: How Much Exercise Do You Really Need? Can minute workouts spaced throughout the day be effective in losing weight? Learn More: Exercises You Can Do in 9 to 10 Minutes. Verywell Fit uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles.

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