Discover in this post the keys to exercise and lose weight. We explain the factors involved in weight loss and the best way to feed ourselves.
Exercising helps increase energy expenditure and therefore allows you to burn fat and lose weight. Therefore, it seems logical that just by starting to exercise we will lose weight. However, this is not always the case. Why?
First of all, we must take into account the following factors:
- That the effort we have made does not significantly increase energy expenditure (Pilates, yoga, gymnastics, undemanding walks).
- Eat more. It is quite common for exercise to whet your appetite. And it is also common that sports are taken as an excuse to eat or drink some other temptation.
- The big palizones in the gym are not effective if we then spend the rest of the day at the computer or on the sofa. You have to adopt a more active lifestyle in general.
Once these factors have been discarded, we must bear in mind that when we begin to exercise, our body detects that it lacks resources to face this physical exercise. In this way, the body begins to adapt to exercise by creating more muscle tissue and accumulating glycogen (energy) in the muscles and in the liver. This increase in protein to create muscle tissue retains water. Therefore, the increase in muscle mass is one of the factors to take into account.
That weight loss is the consequence of your training, not the reason.
Another factor to take into account is that, when exercising, we will also need more energy, which is usually basically glycogen that is stored in the muscles. Glycogen when stored also retains water, something that also adds and makes the weight not lose as much as we would like.
Therefore, if we want to lose weight, basically, we must create an energy deficit. But if we exercise and keep the same diet, we will probably stay with the same weight. And not because exercise has no effect, but because what we lose in fat, on the other hand, we gain muscle mass.
