So, you’re trying to lose weight, drop fat, or otherwise make a structural change to your body…

And, you’re looking at exercise as a way to drop the extra pounds.

You think that the more you exercise, the more weight you’ll lose. 

Well, guess again! Because this way of thinking is wrong.

Exercise does not lead to weight loss.

…Now I know you’re thinking I’ve gone all the way mad this time, but I can assure you, I’m not even off my rocker one bit.

Because while exercise is an excellent contributor to weight loss, it doesn’t lead to weight loss (at least not the way we think it does). And if we’re looking at it the wrong way, exercise can’t serve us the way it is supposed to. So we need to get our thinking right.

Here’s what you need to know.

#1. Certain people just aren’t genetically designed to respond well to exercise compared to other people. For many of us, our response to exercise can be limited and minimal.

While there is a small demographic of people who have a high response to exercise or resistance training and endurance training, whatever it is, and who will have a very, very significant bodily reaction to that exercise, many of us do not have that same response.

So if you don’t respond to exercise and you’re fully reliant on it to be your source of bodily change, you’re not going to succeed. That’s number one.

#2. We overvalue what exercise can do for us.

You may have seen a few DVDs or trendy exercise programs out there that tell you can burn over a thousand calories an hour. However, most of us are not burning anywhere near a thousand calories per hour in our exercise. And if you are, there’s a good chance you’re running yourself into the ground…

In an hour of exercise most people are burning around 300 to 350 calories regardless of what kind of exercise they are doing.

Now think of how quickly you can negate that amount of burned energy. Three tablespoons of any fat completely negates what you reduce energy-wise when you exercise.

So the direct benefit of exercising in order to burn some body fat is not really that significant compared to controlling your diet.

What Can Exercise Do?

The big benefits I see with exercise are indirect and residual. What does this mean?

• If you’re exercising, you’re far more likely to stay on track with everything else you’re doing as far as lifestyle changes. You know, we’ve all been there. When your exercise falls off everything else gets a little bit more relaxed—your diet, your habits, your social life.
• Exercise keeps you mentally positive and clear. What it can do for your mentality and your psychology is huge. That is what you should focus on when you’re looking at the benefits of exercise. The more you understand, “Exercise keeps me on track. Exercise keeps me mentally strong. Exercise gives me positive benefits to my psychology,” the better. It changes the way you exercise and it changes how you stick to it.

Conclusion

We focus too much on exercise as the tool that’s going to change our bodies.

If we look at exercise as our source of weight loss or body change, all we do is run ourselves into the ground day after day after day after day until we eventually get frustrated and fall off the wagon. Because the truth is that you’re not going to get the results you want just by exercising.

Dietary control, or dietary structure, meaning understanding and controlling what you’re putting into your body, is a much more meaningful weight loss strategy. You need to put your focus into diet, not exercise, and rather use exercise as something that keeps you on track with your diet and lifestyle.

So when I say, “exercise does not work for weight loss or changing your body composition,” what I I mean that it doesn’t work in the way that you think it does. And if you change your mentality and use exercise as a tool to stay on track, to stay focused, to stay mentally clear, to have positive psychological benefits from the exercise, you’ll be a lot more successful at losing weight.

Does this make sense to you? Tell us your thoughts below and be sure to like and share on social media.