The basic concept of weight loss is simple: burn more calories than you eat. As long as you do that, your weight will go down (barring unusual medical conditions and the like). Eat 500 calories less than you burn every day, and you’ll lose a pound each week. If there’s a 1000 calorie daily deficit, you’ll lose 2 pounds a week. Like I said: simple.
Where it gets complicated is in actual practice (shocker, right?). To start with, it’s hard to regularly maintain a calorie deficit. It takes work, and it’s usually not much fun. We also tend to get carried away with following trivial advice (like eating this week’s darling food of the diet world). Add to that the conflicting advice and sales-motivated explanations, and it’s no wonder people get frustrated.
Some well-meant advice can also be discouraging to dieters. One of the questions that comes up a lot is, “Can I just work off the calories I eat?” Most answers I’ve seen are along the lines of, “Yes, in theory, but it’s easier to reduce the number of calories you eat than to work them off.”
They go on to point out just how much exercise you’d have to do to burn the amount of calories in a given food. One book I’m looking at says “1 4-oz. M&M cookie = 1.1 hours of canoeing” and “3 mini-quiches = 1 hour of washing and waxing your car + 42 minutes of vacuuming”.
This is definitely a valid point. It’s pretty depressing to realize that just one donut means hours of exercise. But I’d argue that you still can achieve better long-term success by adding exercise than through extreme calorie restriction. Why do I think that?
Compare how you feel when you cut calories to how you feel when you’ve finished exercising. I don’t know about you, but when I try to cut way back on yummy food for any length of time, I feel virtuous for a little while, but then mostly just deprived and resentful. On the other hand, when I exercise, I feel strong and powerful, like I can really accomplish something meaningful.
Which way would you rather feel?
Now, reality check, I’m not saying, “Go ahead, eat anything and everything you want, you can exercise it off!” The experts have a very good point; it takes a lot of work to burn off some dietary indiscretions. It’s also very time consuming, and you have to find the time (and the motivation) to actually do the exercise. There are definitely limits; I find that I can burn about 500 calories extra on weekdays if I need to cancel out something I ate… but I still have to maintain my 1000 calorie/day deficit, so it definitely takes some effort.
What I am saying is this: if you’re generally making healthy food choices and maintaining a good calorie deficit on a regular basis, and you’re faced with some food that you’d really like to eat, doing a little extra exercise is a valid option. If you can do enough exercise to maintain your desired calorie deficit, you’ll lose weight.
How does this work in my everyday life? I might play Dance Dance Revolution at a challenging level for 45 minutes so that I can have a small ice cream cone. I might also decide the ice cream cone isn’t worth the time or the effort, and just opt not to eat it.
This method works for me, and if you genuinely follow it (i.e. you have time and don’t overdo the food), it will work for you.
One thing to be careful of: exercise will only be psychologically “easier” if you actually get positive feelings during or afterwards. If you start thinking of exercise as “punishment” for eating poorly, it’ll be less fun to do. It’s not supposed to be punishment, but rather, balance.
