Role Of Exercise In Weight Loss

About 34 million adults in the United States are obese and at increased risk for weight-related health problems, such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, arthritis and cancer, according to the President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. Exercise plays an important role in weight loss and is associated with reduced body fat in obese, overweight and normal weight people.

Calories and Weight Loss

Weight gain or loss directly depends on the number of calories you take in each day versus the number you burn. Dieting promotes weight loss by reducing the number of calories consumed, while exercise induces weight loss by increasing the number of calories burned each day. Exercise also ensures that your body pulls calories from body fat instead of muscle mass, according to the President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. To lose 1 lb. of body fat per week, you must burn 3,500 calories more than you take in during that week. For the average adult, this is roughly equivalent to walking briskly for two hours every day.

Increased Muscle Mass

Athletes with an unusually high amount of muscle may be overweight without having too much fat. This is because muscle weighs more than fat. It is possible to determine if weight loss is necessary in athletes by checking skinfold thickness to obtain an accurate measurement of body fat. Weight should never be the only factor involved when designing an exercise program.

Exercise and Visceral Fat

Combining regular exercise with a healthy diet is essential to achieve optimum health, but exercise alone may provide health benefits even in the absence of weight loss. Exercise can decrease visceral fat and improve health even if overall weight remains the same, according to a review published in the 2000 issue of "Exercise and Sport Science Reviews." Because study results are mixed, however, experts continue to recommend that weight loss programs include both dietary changes and frequent exercise.

Considerations

Although exercise offers many significant health benefits, some experts believe its role in weight loss is exaggerated. Diabetes and metabolism expert Eric Ravussin of Louisiana State University states in "Time" that exercise helps with weight loss only slightly, if at all. The American Council on Exercise disagrees with this theory, however, and explains that exercise will cause weight loss provided the number of dietary calories taken in does not increase. The reason some people experience no weight loss even when exercising regularly may be because working out stimulates the appetite, thereby increasing caloric consumption. Genetics may also play a role.