The core of weight loss is it mainly about exercise or starving?
I have seen many times such claims that weight loss is all about eating less and exercise is ineffective.
I have actually tried both methods and achieved results with both. Based on my experience, I believe that eating less and exercise are both very effective weight loss methods.
The reason exercise is often underestimated is because many people have weak exercise abilities.
As an example, my running pace is over 6 minutes, which means I complete one kilometer in over 6 minutes, finishing 10 kilometers in just over an hour, burning approximately 600 calories.
So what does 600 calories mean? For an average-height man with normal office work, as long as it’s not heavy physical work, the total daily expenditure is around 2000 calories. This means that in one hour of running, I burn over 1/4 of your entire daily calorie expenditure. If I run like this every day, can I not lose weight?
When compared to food calories, 600 calories is equivalent to a little over 1 pound of braised beef, meaning after running 10 kilometers, if you eat an extra pound of braised beef, your weight won’t increase.
I’m not asking you to reduce food intake, just run like I do daily, sticking to your normal diet. You’ll definitely lose weight. So why do many people say exercise has no effect? The reason is their poor exercise abilities.
With my exercise ability, running 10 kilometers at a pace of over 6 minutes is considered poor online. There are many online who can run at paces of 4 or 5 minutes.
But do you know in real life, what kind of existence I am? In my residential area, there is a rubber track, with 1050 households, many people run every day, but only a few achieve my level. Of course, not everyone in the area runs, and even at the nearby gym track, there are many runners, yet still few reach my level. I end up surpassing many while running, very few people catch up from behind, it’s usually me overtaking others.
It took me about three to four months to reach this level. Do I have exceptional talent? Not at all, most people treat exercise like a form of art, running just three kilometers a week and posting it on social media…
I started with a 10-minute pace (similar to walking speed), needing to stop twice in the middle of running 1 kilometer, to now being able to run 10 kilometers without stopping. The practice method is simple: run 1 kilometer today, 1.1 kilometers the next day, 1.2 kilometers the day after, progressively increasing distance. You’ll find that running 1.1 kilometer the next day is easier than running 1 kilometer the first day because your level is improving. Initially, you might have leg pain, rest when it hurts, resume once the pain subsides completely. As for speed, don’t worry, even at the slowest pace, you’ll see your speed naturally increasing as you run.
Just persevere daily, for three to four months, and you’ll see transformative changes in both your running ability and weight. Of course, some may have knee injuries or be too heavy for running, in which case you can use a stationary bike or rowing machine; the method is the same, gradually increasing your level.
For me now, running is not about tiredness; I don’t even feel tired running for an hour. Now, I mainly run because it’s boring, just running for an hour without doing anything else is too plain. Luckily, I love reading, so now I listen to audiobooks while running, spending that time exercising and reading simultaneously.
Compared to dieting, exercise has one advantage; you only work hard for an hour each day, leaving the rest of your time unaffected. With dieting, if you eat less at one meal, you end up hungry the whole day. I have tried what scientists say about eating until 70-80% full; initially it was fine, but after two weeks, I started finding it tough. Even though being 70-80% full doesn’t make you feel hungry, for someone who loves eating, it never feels satisfying. Overweight people eat not to satisfy hunger but because the food tastes good and they want to keep eating. Despite not feeling hungry, I combine both methods now. Eating until slightly full (as opposed to overly full before), reducing oil and salt intake, focusing on coarse grains; reducing snacks (but not eliminating them), I used to eat 200 grams of pistachios a day, now it’s around 30 grams, as it’s a caloric bomb, with several times the calories of meat. Though I restrain myself, I still eat significantly more compared to others (I just love eating that much, childhood poverty), relying on running to burn off the extra calories.
By eating and exercising this way, I’ve lost weight. But I wonder if excessive exercise might have any side effects, hoping someone knowledgeable can advise?
