Exercise and me was never love at first sight. It wasn’t the stranger who made the whole world fade away when your eyes met across a crowded room. Instead, it was a slow growing into another person’s skin, a friendship that acquired new dimensions, a comfort whose absence you noticed more than its presence.
But once I fell, it was hard. The hour or so I spend running or doing yoga or lifting (depending on my goals for the day) is still one of the brightest spots of my day. And the days I don’t work out, simply don’t go as well as the ones that I do. Like the best of relationships, it started manifesting itself in the little things: the energy and sense of well-being that lasted through the day; the automatic veering towards more nourishing foods; the joy of mastering a full push-up or head stand.
Which is why, when I first heard that exercise isn’t all that effective for weight loss, I was devastated: it felt like a betrayal of the highest degree. Like many people who struggle with their weight, I assumed I could burn off all that I ate, by pushing my body a little more.
But a slew of research indicates otherwise. In an editorial titled ‘It is time to bust the myth of physical inactivity and obesity: you cannot outrun a bad diet’, the British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2015, said that “regular physical activity reduces the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia and some cancers by at least 30%. However, physical activity does not promote weight loss.”
There’s also this: too much of it can even make you gain weight. Part of the reason is, most of us overestimate the calories we actually burn during exercise and think we can eat more because we are moving more. Not exactly, unfortunately. In terms of sheer maths, exercise alone doesn’t create a substantial enough calorie deficit to cause weight loss. An intense hour-long sweat session that leaves you panting for breath can be mitigated in a minute if you swig a ‘healthy’ post-workout smoothie made with peanut butter, banana, milk and whey right after.
No, I am not dissing exercise, far from it. It does great things for energy levels, brain function, cardiovascular health, blood glucose level , immune system and sleep cycles, among other things. I’ve just decided to take it out of my weight-loss equation. I move, because I like the way I look and feel after a solid workout. I do think my clothes sit on me better, my skin glows, my cholesterol and sugar levels are better, I can scoot up five flights of stairs without puffing.
But to lose weight, I follow food writer Michael Pollan’s deceptively simple approach to nutrition, “Eat (real) food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” It is hard. I wish I could court both donuts and kettlebells simultaneously. But as relationship gurus often say, love stays because you CHOOSE to let it, over and over again. I’m trying to apply the same logic to my body. I do want to enjoy living with it for the rest of my life.