Fat Loss Crash Course | Exercise or No Exercise and How Much?

The main concept to understand is that you can’t overrun your fork. You can't out-exercise a bad diet. If you check expenditure of calories per exercise and then the amount of calories in the food you consume it becomes obvious.

There are multiple factors affecting calorie expenditure, such as gender, metabolism, muscle mass, fat mass, etc, so numbers I am about to list are ballpark figures for you to get a general idea.

Running with an average speed of 5 mph burns about 600 calories per hour. Yoga burns on average 200 to 300 calories per hour depending on the yoga type. Hiking burns about 300 calories per hour, subject to the level of incline or decline, etc. You got the idea.

Now let’s see how many calories you will receive from some foods. Banana, apple, and orange of a medium-size give you about 100 calories each. A small snicker bar gives you about 250 calories. 16 oz (approx 550 ml) of orange juice gives you roughly 230 calories. All of those foods are very easy to consume mindlessly and you would not even realize you just wasted an hour of yoga by snacking on a chocolate bar.

I am saying it all not to scare you with food and force you to get on a crash diet, don’t do it. I want you to be mindful of your calorie input and output.

So, as you understand most of the fat loss is diet. Exercises are supplemental. You lose weight at the table and you get fit in the gym. However, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Sometimes, it is easier for your mind to participate in some exercise to allow you to eat some food you are not supposed to. If you eat a chocolate bar once in a while without rolling over your calorie allowance, it helps you feel less restricted with your diet.

Another thing to consider is that you must do strength training to keep most of your muscles. If you use your muscles during weight lifting or any other exercise, your body will preserve your muscle mass better. You don’t have to be crazy about it, 3-4 times a week with a decent program is more than enough.

If you just want to lose weight, you might as well have an exercise you enjoy. You can simply walk your dog in a park for an hour, swim a few times a week, work in a garden, etc and it will help with a calorie deficit.

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is the fastest method to burn the most calories in the shortest time frame. There are plenty of programs you can find which fall under this category. However, HIIT training is very taxing. You do burn a lot of calories for the shortest time, but this makes you exhausted fast, especially if you are not doing this type of exercise regularly and in a calorie deficit.

My favorite supplemental weight loss exercise is cardio. Modern-day fitness gurus love to hate on the steady pace cardio such as elliptical, running, biking, etc, but for the general health and calorie deficit, this is amazing. Cardio is less taxing for your body compared to HIIT training and does not exhaust you as much.

My top choice is the elliptical machine. It puts far less pressure on your joints than running while burning a similar number of calories, depending on the intensity and it burns way more calories than the stationary bicycle. My favorite part is that I can simply entertain myself by watching a movie on an elliptical machine, which will make an experience much more bearable and help the time go faster.