Why you shouldn't exercise to lose weight

Why is it that some people, regardless of how much they eat and how little they exercise, never put on weight? That, to me, is the elephant in the room.

What is going on in these peoples bodies that is kept out of popular science with regard to weight loss? We know that thyroid hormone function affects weight and metabolism. In women reproductive hormones also affect weight, oestrogen is a hormone present in both males and females, so there's some crossover there. We know that adrenal function can affect weight. We know that insulin resistance can affect weight.

There has to be more to it that calories in - calories out = weigh gain or loss.

If you have an unaddressed thyroid, reproductive hormone, insulin, or adrenal issue you're going to be working hard to address your weight.

It is my suspicion that fixing the diet first improves weight control better than exercise because food is medicine. Anything you put in your body on a daily basis can be medicinal in that it can act to help your body restore homoeostasis or move further away from it.

How you feel, on the other hand, is hugely impacted by your physical activities. Not only does exercise give you energy and focus, it has a huge impact on mood. Exercise is more effective at fighting depression than most medications.

There's more to being healthy than being a healthy weight. It's probably better to be active and a little bit overweight than it is to be skinny and inactive.

Note: I said a litle bit overweight, not obese. Health risks add up quickly if you're obese. Being cut and defined like a fitness magazine model is not realistic for most people and confers few benefits beyond aesthetics. Getting out of the obese range is realistic for most people and does confer statistically significant health benefits.

Whenever I see obese people out running in public, obviously attempting to lose weight, these thoughts come to mind:

1. Impressive; that's a lot of hard work, not to mention embarrassing. Nobody fit I know could do the same carrying the equivalent weight in a backpack full of sand.

2. Doomed; you're killing yourself, imagine the long-term effects of such stress on your lower joints.

3. Futile; you're probably just going to eat too much of the wrong stuff now with all the appetite stimulated by the hard work, combined with the comfort sought in the immobilized and depressed days of joint and muscle pain.

Lose the extra baggage before you start exercising! Your body will thank you.

I used to weigh ~225# in my mid 20s. That weight was dropped to ~170# in under a year by simply removing sugars and refined/processed carbohydrates from my diet, which is a good weight for my build and height of 5'9". My experience was the desire to be active and exercise simply emerged once my weight was down, because doing physical things became fun and easy again, which also meant it was perfectly safe.

In my mid 30s now and ever since that initial drop I've stayed around ~165#, but with more muscle now that I'm more physically active. I continue to diligently avoid sugars and processed carbs, processed foods in general really, and exercise every day for the fun and fitness, because it's easy and seems to combat many of the negative effects of aging.

Exercise seems optional to me. If you eat correctly, without even exercising you'll have a normal weight, and preserve the ability to be physically active. If you eat poorly, you trap yourself, and the only way out of the trap is a slow process of eating correctly, the duration being proportional to how far you've let yourself go.

It frustrates me how we've structured the food environment such that all the convenient/affordable options surrounding us are bad for us. It takes constant discipline to not eat poorly as a result.

Good luck.