The Biggest Misconception about Exercise

As a coach, I can tell you that one of the frequent health goals my clients work on is being more consistent with exercise.

Everyone knows that exercise is good for you. Yet, up to 80% of both adults and kids do not meet the minimum guidelines for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities as recommended by Healthy People. The CDC has a goal to 27 million Americans become more physically active by 2027.

However, there is a HUGE misconception on the role of exercise that I need to call out- both as a coach and as a person who lost 100 pounds. The biggest misconception of exercise is the myth that exercise leads to weight loss.

Let me break down the various ways that that weight loss has been falsely linked to exercise, and why weight loss has little to do with exercise or calorie burn.

Burning your Calories

I can’t tell you how much I HATE these charts that show how much exercise you need to do in order to BURN a certain number of calories! First of all, does it motivate you to exercise, or to EAT MORE, when you see them? If I know that eating a Kit Kat requires me to walk for 20 minutes to burn it off, and I already plan on exercising for 1 hour that day, I might be more willing to eat 2 Kit Kats.

If you enter food data on MyFitnessPal, and then enter your exercise, suddenly you “earn back” a bunch of calories. Fourth meal at Taco Bell- here we come!

Here are just a few examples of these non-motivating calorie burn charts:

What do you notice about these charts? For one thing, the calorie burn charts are very misleading, and seemingly discretionary. Some use an hour of time for the calorie burn, and others use 30 minutes.

Some split out how many calories men burn versus women (life is not fair, right).

Even others show a variety of activities, not just walking.

That is what you SEE. What you DON’T SEE is who these charts are designed for. If you are a 12-year old obese girl who has asthma, then your calorie burn may not be the same for the same type of activity as a 60-year average weight man who runs marathons.

By the way, most of these calorie burn charts assume a certain weight (usually somewhere between 150 and 180 pounds)- which you may find in the small print underneath, or not find at all.

How do you determine calorie burn?

Calorie burn is a very complicated and individual number. Sites like Freedieting give you this calorie burn calculator that makes it look “easy” to determine what you are actually burning. You just plug in your age, weight, gender, height and how many minutes you exercise, and it spits out a certain number.

Unfortunately, it does not take into account your muscle mass or current activity level. The more muscle you have in your body, the more calories you burn at rest, and the more active you are, the fewer calories you burn during activity. Known as VO2 max, the maximum rate of oxygen you use during activity is a great indicator of cardiovascular fitness often measured in elite or pro athletes. This number is hard for the average person to measure.

Or, you can rely upon devices like a Garmin, Apple watch, or even a gym elliptical trainer to tell you what your particular calorie burn is.

As I don’t own a fitness wearable, I looked up how to figure out calories burned on an Apple watch. The article went into explanations of “active energy” as part of your move goals versus “resting energy”. Apparently, you also have to have a couple of other apps to actually drill down to your “real” calorie burn. Huh?

It appears to be as complicated to figure this number out for Garmin, too. DC Rainmaker even developed a definitive guide to figuring out how different Garmin devices calculate calorie burn. Interestingly enough, there are six different methods to calculate calories for a Garmin device, with vastly different output numbers.

Look, folks, I have a graduate degree, and not sure I understand the various mechanics of this complicated process.

Maybe you also don’t have a fitness wearable that does the calculations for you, but you feel good knowing that the elliptical at your gym has you covered. Or, does it?

Forgetting that some elliptical machines actually take your heart rate to determine your intensity level (an important measure for calorie burn), Harvard Medical School came up with a calorie burn of 330 per 30 minutes of exercise for an 155 pound human. They even provide you with a handy-dandy chart with two different weights and intensity levels, so you can more closely match your own calorie requirements.

Unfortunately, the article also shares that the calorie burn number displayed by the machine was HIGHER than the actual measured number.

Well, why not? If you were in the business of selling elliptical trainers, wouldn’t you want your machine to overestimate how hard your customers worked? After all, you may not have happy customers if they see “10 calories burned” after 30 minutes, when these ridiculous charts show they should be burning “300 calories”.

Calorie Burn Equals Weight Loss (?)

Here is where things get tricky. Even if you could accurately measure your individual calorie burn using complicated charts, calculators or fancy equipment, does calorie burn automatically lead to weight loss?

According to Mayo Clinic, a person needs to burn 3500 calories per week in order to lose 1 pound. Well, that calculates to about 500 calories less per day.

No problem, right? Simply use the chart above, and bike EVERY DAY for one hour to burn 500 calories. Notwithstanding weather, that should be manageable.

Except, what happens when you suddenly start exercising after a period of inactivity?

We eat more.

In a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that inactive and overweight men and women who started a consistent exercise program for 6 months tended to eat between 90 and 125 calories more per day. Also, similar studies have shown that people who begin new exercise routines dropped 30-40% less weight than expected based on calorie burn.

I have personally experienced this. When I was training for my half marathon, which required an average weekly mileage of 10-15 miles on top of regular HIIT training, I actually gained 10 pounds over 6 months!

This is not uncommon, as I belonged to a running group with multiple marathon and Ironman runners who also shared some of their weight gain experiences when training.

I am not saying that this is the experience for everyone. However, there are few gyms, fitness studios and/or classes that do NOT include some form of nutrition or meal planning support.

When you see a person with 6 pack abs, chances are good that they are active. Chances are even better that they also eat very, very clean.

This does not mean that exercise is USELESS when it comes to weight loss. On the contrary, exercise can be an important cornerstone habit that drives healthier eating, less stress, and better sleeping. That is why holistic coaching is so important. If you have tried working with a personal trainer, or tried using meal plans in a support group, but never at the same time, you could be missing the most important element of health.

That element is putting it all together in a easy program that feels aligned with your goals and needs as a whole individual. Here are ways I can support you as a coach.

Have you lost significant weight through exercise alone? I would love to hear from you! Share your experiences in the comments.