• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About Us
  • STEPS Virtual
  • FAQ
  • Links
  • Contact Us
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • 615.269.8844

STEPS Fitness

Nashville's Premier Personal Fitness Training Center

  • STEPS Virtual
  • Programs
    • STEPS Fitness Presents Events
    • DR. Irv’s Perfect Exercise Minute
    • Training Packages
    • Group Offerings
    • Corporate Wellness
    • Traveler’s Special
  • Personal Trainers
    • Dr. Irv Rubenstein
  • Testimonials
  • Fitness Blog
    • Dr Irv’s Fitness Blog
    • Exercise of the Month
  • Newsletters
    • Fit Happens
    • Real News Newsletter
  • Search

December 11, 2017 By Irv Rubenstein

The Greatest, Bigliest Exercise Ever

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Weight loss and weight management are major bugaboos for the fitness/wellness world, not because they’re not useful draws and marketing ideas but because they’re so very hard to do, like breaking up.

As I’ve posted so many times before, the science of weight loss is still very much in the air with really only one highly-confirmed conclusion: that you have to consume fewer calories than your body needs. From there, any article or any book has to navigate the general discomfort of food deprivation. In other words, you have to diet but you just have to figure out how your body, and mind, can deal with less calories.

The Greatest, Bigliest Exercise Ever1

For some, it’s eat more protein; for others it’s eat more fat; and for others it’s eat less or different carbs. The medical community doesn’t like restricting any particular macronutrient for fear you may miss out on a few essential ones. Of course, you could take a multivitamin and maybe some other supplements to compensate for what you cut out, but we all know you can’t always get what you want but you can often get what you need. (Please don’t tell Mick Jagger I bastardized his line here, ok?)

Another well-recognized component to weight loss is exercise. Many studies, and many of my posts, have addressed the role of exercise for weight loss. Much to the chagrin of us fitness pros, it takes too much commitment to counter the foods we eat.

For example, a slice of 14″ pizza from Domino’s may be 120-150 calories. By usual activity standards, that’s anywhere from 1.25-1.5 miles of jogging or 1.5-2 miles of walking. So if you have 3 slices, you’ve got some serious hoofin’ to do to make up for it. And that doesn’t include your drink and salad, etc.

The Greatest, Bigliest Exercise Ever2

But exercise has proven value when it comes to maintenance of weight lost and maintenance of a healthy weight. Too many studies have shown that once you’ve lost weight with a low-calorie diet, those who keep it off tend to have accommodated their lifestyles to include 60-90 minutes of near-daily exercise.

However, now a new study has come out that shows, for older people, diet (negative 300 calories/day) plus resistance exercise was the winner of three weight loss options offered to the participants. One group dieted only, another did the same diet plus aerobic activity, and the third did the same diet plus resistance training.

As this New York Times article summarized it, “The weight trainers had lost about two pounds of muscle and 18 pounds of fat, while the walkers had dropped about four pounds of muscle and 16 pounds of fat.”

In other words, equal gross weight was lost by the two exercise groups but the percentage of fat lost was greater among the weight trainers (90% fat lost vs 80% fat lost in the walkers.) Furthermore, the weight trainers lost less muscle mass than the walkers. Both exercise groups not only lost more weight but also lost more and a higher percentage of fat, retaining more muscle mass so as to sustain basal metabolic rate.

This is pretty stunning, not just for the results but for the way the study was conducted in both numbers of subjects and duration of the study as well as the control of diet; the diets were designed to yield a caloric deficit of about 300 calories/day so that they’d lose about 7-10% of their initial body weight.

However, if you’ve been reading my stuff lately, you know that I try to be fair and bust myths equally. In this case, a very well-controlled study done with lots of different subjects over a long period of time is just that – a study. How effective a weight loss program is outside a ‘lab’ situation is very variable. Studies have shown that that individual variability is such that on average subjects don’t lose all that much weight. In fact, one study (and I’m sorry I can’t find the reference) showed that the average weight loss was zero but that some folks lost a lot and others actually gained a lot!

In other words, in the real world, people tend to compensate, substitute or ‘cheat’ and gain or simply not lose weight while others successfully implement the program recommended by the study’s leaders and lose weight.

The Greatest, Bigliest Exercise Ever3

Thus, the key may be the degree and extent of emotional and interpersonal support that successful weight losers get, not the diet or exercise program per se.

So if I were a marketing expert, I’d be telling my clients and future clients that the best way for older folks to lose weight is to eat slightly fewer calories daily and to do 3 days of weight training each week.

If I were an honest broker of fitness-related news, I’d tell these same clients and prospects that a very well-controlled study proved the superiority of this kind of program but that it all depends on how well controlled and regulated you, the client, are about food intake and how consistent and regular you are about your weight training program.

If you are, you’ll get great results. If not, well, I fall back on my customary response in these cases: so be it.Read more here, here and here.

Related Posts:

  • Artificial Sweeteners: Diet or Die?
    Artificial Sweeteners: Diet or Die?
  • Part 1: The Diet-Obesity Debates Continue
    Part 1: The Diet-Obesity Debates Continue
  • The Real Fake News: Processed Food Is 'Healthy'
    The Real Fake News: Processed Food Is 'Healthy'
  • Bingeing at Night: A Hormonal Habit?
    Bingeing at Night: A Hormonal Habit?
  • Disease, Apps and Ultimate Responsibility
    Disease, Apps and Ultimate Responsibility
  • REAL News - June 2020
    REAL News - June 2020
  • REAL News - April 2021
    REAL News - April 2021
  • REAL News - February 2022
    REAL News - February 2022

Comments

comments

Filed Under: Fitness Blog Tagged With: burn off excess weight, childhood obesity, dieting, Exercise, resistance training, Weight loss vs Exercise gain

sidebar

Blog Sidebar

FREE Consultation!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Categories

  • Exercise of the Month
  • Fit Happens
  • Fitness Blog
  • General News
  • Newsletters
  • Real News
  • Trainers

Tags

achieve well-being aging Alzheimer's disease barefoot running body fat bone density burn off excess weight calories cardio cardiovascular childhood obesity coronavirus covid diabetes diet dieting eating disorders Exercise exercise intensity field of health or exercise science fitness flexibility functional fitness health Heart Health higher risk of obesity lose weight mental health musculoskeletal improvements obesity osteoporosis physical activity physically active protein reduce your risk of falling resistance training running Senior Training slows cognitive decline strength training Stretching training weight loss Weight loss vs Exercise gain weight management

Recent News

Jun 01

REAL News – June 2022

May 01

REAL News – May 2022

Apr 05

REAL News – April 2022

Mar 01

REAL News – March 2022

Feb 07

Dr. Irv Rubenstein contributes to journal article on lunges

STEPS Fitness
Reviewed from Google

5 out of 5 stars

Anne Jones
Anne Jones

5 out of 5 stars

posted 1 month ago

You can feel comfortable anytime in this gym but especially during a pandemic. It is very clean and a great place to get exceptional instruction. Thanks Irv.

Big Don
Big Don

5 out of 5 stars

posted 1 year ago

This was my very first experience with a private gym and personal trainer. The owner and trainer made me feel very comfortable and at home. The gym is very clean and well equipped. I felt the price was VERY well worth the time attention I received. I will return once my work schedule becomes more predictable.

Read All 36 Reviews

Search Our Directory

Footer Widget Header

Affiliations

  • american-college-of-sports-medicine
  • american-council-on-exercise
  • biometrics
  • exercise-etc-inc
  • national-strength-and-conditioning-association
  • renewed-support

STEPS Fitness | 2424 21st Ave. S. Suite #100 | Nashville, TN 37212 | 615.269.8844 p

© 2022 Nashville's Premier Personal Fitness Training Center | Designed by Ponder Consulting ®