How Does Exercise Work on Weight Loss?

Introduction

Weight loss and exercise revolves around one main word: calories. To survive on a daily basis, we need energy. We gain energy through consuming food sources. The number of calories that we read on the back of most food sources tells us how much potential energy is within that product if we eat it.

Weight

Your body needs a specific amount of calories to survive. The daily recommended amount is around 2,000 calories, more or less depending on your age, sex and diet goals. When you eat more than the recommended amount of calories, the body stores that energy as fat. The more fat we store, the higher our weight.

Glucose

One of the main ways that your body gains energy from food is through glucose. When your body works during the day, glucose is slowly depleted until there is not enough left to fuel the body. At this point, the body turns to its fat storage and burns the internal fat to create energy in place of the glucose. As fat burns off, you lose weight.

Calorie Deficit

To lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you take in. This is called a calorie deficit. You need to burn 3,500 calories to lose a pound of body weight. Some of this can be done through taking in less calories through diet. However, you can only take so many calories out of your diet and still remain healthy. This is where exercise comes in.

Metabolism

As you exercise, your heart rate increases, which increases your metabolism, and your ability to burn fat. For each minute of exercise that takes the heart rate above its resting rate, you burn a certain amount of calories. The amount of calories burned depends on how vigorous of exercise you are doing, as well as other factors such as age, fitness level, and current weight. The more calories you burn during exercise in a week, the greater your calorie deficit will be. The higher your calorie deficit, the more weight you will lose each week.

Safety

The body could potentially lose large amounts of weight in a short period of time through creating a large enough calorie deficit. However, the body does not react well to such drastic changes. Though you may see dramatic changes quickly, your body is unable to withstand that rate of weight loss and goes into survival mode. This can result in serious weight gain the moment after you start eating more amounts, or even physical and psychological health problems.