How Does Exercise Make You Lose Weight?
Weight loss is all about using more calories than you consume.
Every action that your body carries out requires energy from moving to digesting food to breathing, thinking and maintaining your body temperature.
This energy is supplied to your body in the form of food which is broken down during digestion into ever smaller particles until a chemical process completes the process and converts the energy into a useable form.
Flowing around in the blood, this energy is then made available to all the cells of the body to enable it to do what you and I expect of our bodies every day.
When there is excessive energy in the body, this is often stored in special tissues as fat - which is a highly concentrated store of energy - so it can be used at a later date if necessary.
Exercise increases the body’s need for energy so more is required.
This energy can be found through an increased food intake - such as that satisfyingly large meal you often fancy after a long walk.
Or on a calorie-controlled diet it can come from the fat reserves previously laid down.
Fat is a heavy substance and so when exercising whilst eating a calorie-controlled diet the fat is used up as an energy source so the person doing the exercise looks slimmer over time and loses weight into the bargain.
As if that direct effect weren’t enough there is also an indirect effect - that further boosts the weight loss effects of exercising on a regular basis.
Metabolism is the system of the body that turns energy into it’s useable form.
Exercising regularly starts to train the metabolic system that from time to time increased energy will be needed in some quantity.
Over time therefore it becomes used to burning increased amounts of fat at all times to be certain this extra energy is available when needed.
In other words regular exercise speeds up your metabolism and so also your body’s fat burning abilities so even when you’re not exercising you will burn more fat and therefore increase the rate at which you lose weight than before.
And it is both these reasons that explain how exercise makes you lose weight.
