Can you slim down without lifting a finger? A simple question with a simple answer: yes! But remember, although the basics of weight loss start with your calorie intake, overlooking the importance of exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle and successful weight loss is a major mistake! These two elements are the keys to achieving any fitness ambition. The FizzUp trainer will tell you more about the importance of combining strategic food and exercise habits to help you shed pounds.
Every day, your body needs an arbitrary and ever-changing amount of energy in order to function at its minimum threshold. This energy is used to power your vital functions when you’re at total rest. The number of calories you need to support your body’s primary functions is called your basal metabolic rate (BMR).
Although, you probably don’t lie around all day long and are up and about doing activities instead. When you move, exercise, do everyday tasks and work, your energy needs increase and must be added to your basal metabolic rate. This is known as your total daily energy expenditure: all the calories your body uses over an entire day in order to function properly, maintain its weight and help you recover after exercise.
From here, you can use your height, weight, age and sex to calculate your basal metabolic rate. Next, multiply the result by the activity factor to get an estimate of your daily energy needs that will keep your weight stable.
The rest is easy. When you eat more calories than your body needs (your total daily energy expenditure), it stores the excess energy either as glycogen (whose storage in the body is limited) or fat (whose storage in the body is virtually unlimited). This is what makes you gain weight if you keep eating more calories than you burn.
Similarly, when you eat fewer calories than required by your total daily energy expenditure, your body will use up the energy it has stored in case you ever need extra. This is what makes you lose weight.
As a result, if you eat 1,800 calories a day and your daily energy expenditure is 2,000 calories without exercise when you combine your basal metabolic rate and your everyday activities, then you’re experiencing a calorie deficit of 200 calories (2,000 – 1,800), which is what will eventually trigger weight loss.
In short, if you want to gain or lose weight, all you have to do is eat more or less than your body needs on a regular basis. We’ve intentionally excluded the energy you need to recover from your workouts and your rate of weight loss/weight gain in the long term.
All in all, the ability to lose weight boils down to your diet. Yes, you can lose weight without any effort. But is that the best way to go about it? No!
Exercise offers some incredibly significant advantages for your entire body and mind, so it would be a major mistake to pass it up.
Physical activity betters your health, conditions your body, increases your muscle mass and definition, improves your blood flow and reduces your risk of disease and premature death. But it’s perks go well beyond that! Exercise also soothes anxiety and enhances your sleep quality, hormonal profile and energy levels. People who move tend to find it easier to stick to a healthy and well-defined eating routine, too.
On top of that, when you’re trying to lose weight, you have to maximize your fat loss as you minimize your muscle mass and bone density loss. For this, exercise strengthens your muscles and bones besides keeping your metabolism high to burn fat using a much better fat loss to muscle mass retention ratio.
Working out also helps you maintain a higher calorie intake so that you don’t break your healthy eating habits because you get the munchies or give in to the temptation of junk food.
If you burn an extra 400 calories a day thanks to your workout, you’ll reach a daily energy expenditure of 2,500 calories a day (2,100 + 400), which means you can eat more food but still be in a calorie deficit that can lead to weight loss.
So if you want to lose weight, watching your diet is the main factor that will guarantee a gradually decreasing number on the scale. But with exercise, you can lose weight with less time and effort to keep both your body and mind in great health.
Together, healthy eating habits and exercise create the winning weight-loss strategy that will have you shedding the pounds and keeping them off for good. That’s why FizzUp brings you nutritional guidance* and a savvy meal planner* in addition to workouts that are right for you. Don’t wait. Get moving and start enjoying a wholesome diet to see and feel the difference!
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