If weight loss is your only goal for exercise - it’s time to rethink your priorities
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As an aesthetic society, we often </span><a href="https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-018-1116-5"><span style="font-weight: 400;">demonise body fat</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and stigmatise people with lots of it. There’s often an assumption that people carrying excess weight don’t exercise and must be unhealthy.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But that’s not true: you can be fat </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">and</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> fit. In fact, as we age, </span><a href="https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.111.038422"><span style="font-weight: 400;">low levels of fitness can be more harmful to our health</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> than high amounts of fat.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For those considering starting exercise, try looking beyond weight loss for motivation. No matter how much you weigh, there are always benefits to exercise.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Exercise actually does a </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24438736"><span style="font-weight: 400;">pretty poor job</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of getting us to expend enough excess energy to lose weight. This is partly due to a </span><a href="https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article-abstract/110/3/583/5512180?redirectedFrom=fulltext"><span style="font-weight: 400;">compensatory effect</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of our appetite, which increases after we exercise.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Exercise changes our body composition – how much fat we have as a ratio to how much lean (muscle) tissue we have – but this doesn’t always cause big changes on the scales.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Here are just five ways exercise improves our health, no matter how much we weigh.</span></p>
<p><strong>1. Better cardiorespiratory fitness</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cardiorespiratory fitness is a measure of how far and hard you can run without needing to stop, or how many stairs you can climb without being out of breath. Running for longer, or climbing more stairs, means you have a higher absolute cardiorespiratory fitness which cannot be improved with weight loss alone.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Having a high body mass index (BMI) </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">may</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> reduce the absolute intensity you can exercise but it doesn’t mean it is less effective.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">You may be able to jog between every third lamppost, for example, but not run consistently for 1 km. While it may seem the periodic jogging is not as impressive, it’s all relative to your baseline and any exercise is better than none.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you’re carrying a lot of excess weight, you might prefer non-weight bearing exercise such as swimming or cycling indoors to minimise stress on your joints – but this will depend on you and what you like doing. After all, you’re </span><a href="http://file.scirp.org/Html/5-6901353_53271.htm"><span style="font-weight: 400;">more likely to continue</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> exercising if you enjoy it.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you’re thinking “but I hate running/swimming/cycling/dancing and I’d rather lift weights”, then lift weights! Although lifting weights doesn’t have the same effects as cardio training, the benefits are still as important for mobility, joint function and maintaining muscle mass as we age</span></p>
<p><strong>2. Lowered risk of heart disease a.nd stroke</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Exercise </span><a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/family-health-guide/exercise-and-the-risk-of-stroke-heart-disease-the-family-healthguide"><span style="font-weight: 400;">reduces the risk</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of heart disease and stroke, even in those with a chronic disease such as diabetes, irrespective of body fatness.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Regular exercise </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23494259"><span style="font-weight: 400;">helps lower</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> blood pressure, improves delivery of blood throughout the body, and reduces inflammation, even in those with a high body mass index.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Exercise improves our body’s ability to use energy. We store large amounts </span></p>
<p><strong>3. Reducing the ‘bad’ fat</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">of energy as fat, which is quite hard to break down, as it costs a lot of oxygen compared to “cheaper” fuels for the body to use like glucose.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But when we exercise regularly, we </span><a href="https://www.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/ajpendo.00355.2012"><span style="font-weight: 400;">increase our body’s ability</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to use fat as a fuel source as well as </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18272935"><span style="font-weight: 400;">requiring more energy</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> at rest.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This doesn’t necessarily mean more exercise equals more fat loss, but it does mean more fat turnover, and typically less fat stored in and around the organs (the “bad” visceral fat).</span></p>
<p><strong>4. Mental health benefits</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Research has </span><a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(18)30227-X/fulltext"><span style="font-weight: 400;">consistently shown</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that people who exercise (regardless of body size and shape) have </span><a href="https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/223730"><span style="font-weight: 400;">better mental health</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and lower levels of stress, depression and emotional problems.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It does this via blood flow to the brain, increased release of endorphins that make us feel happy, and by helping to moderate the brain’s response to stress.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Often, the hardest part is getting started with exercise or going to perform the exercise, but once you are moving the mental health benefits begin.’</span></p>
<p><strong>5. Preventing weight gain</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While exercise may not help us lose a lot of weight on the scales, it’s a </span><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/oby.21986"><span style="font-weight: 400;">good way</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to keep weight off and prevent weight regain.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Regular exercise continues to encourage the body to use stored fuels and remodel tissues (such as muscle) to grow healthier and stronger.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But preventing weight regain is tough. People who have lost weight </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17909412?dopt=Abstract"><span style="font-weight: 400;">may need greater amounts of exercise</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to counteract the physiological drive to return to the heavier body weight.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you need some extra help getting started or finding a routine that suits you, talk to your GP or consider seeing an </span><a href="https://www.essa.org.au/Public/Consumer_Information/What_is_an_Accredited_Exercise_Physiologist_.aspx"><span style="font-weight: 400;">accredited exercise physiologist</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Written by Evelyn Parr. Republished with permission of </span><a href="https://theconversation.com/if-weight-loss-is-your-only-goal-for-exercise-its-time-to-rethink-your-priorities-120083"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Conversation.</span></a></em></p>
