I exercise all the time - why can't I lose weight?

By Heather

This is a common question I get asked a lot. It is very disheartening when you stick to an exercise schedule and after a week you don't see any weight loss. Even after a month, the weight loss is minimal. Why might this be?

1. Your exercise is not intense enough
Did you know that the UK government recommends adults to do at least 3 sessions of 45 minutes of exercise per week? That's moderate to vigorous intensity. And that's not even to lose weight, but just to improve other areas of health (like your heart and bones). So if you stop after 10 or 20 minutes exercise you may not be burning enough calories. If you are not doing an intense enough activity (moderate to vigorous intensity) you may not be burning enough calories. 

The number of calories burnt during exercise depends on the time spent on it and the intensity of it. If you spend your time doing vigorous intensity exercise you may be able to exercise for less time. But if you are doing light intensity exercise you will have to exercise for a lot longer!

2. You reward yourself with food because you are doing a lot of exercise
I know exercise is hard work, especially if you are not used to it. It is natural for you to want to be rewarded. But inappropriate food choices can make all your exercise efforts null and void! If you burn 300 calories by jogging for 30 minutes, you can completely cancel that out by eating a slice of cheesecake when you get home. If your food reward is more than 300 calories you've incurred calorie debt, and this tends to grow as time goes on until you get on top of this habit.

The rate at which you can consume calories is a lot faster than the rate at which you are able to burn calories. So remember, 5 minutes of eating is a much faster way of adding calories than 5 minutes of exercise is at burning calories. There is not a straight 1 to 1 relationship between rates of energy intake and energy expenditure. 

3. You reduce your physical activity throughout the rest of the day
If you exercise regularly but then spend the rest of your time recovering this could contribute to a lack of weight loss. Your gains in calorie burning during exercise may be significantly dampened if your normal levels of activity are then reduced from what they were before the exercise regimen started.

My recommendations would be to try and exercise everyday, as getting into and maintaining a habit is much easier if it is something that happens at a set time every day (like brushing your teeth). This also means that you will be more likely to hit the exercise target and burn more calories than you otherwise would with less exercise.

Also, cut out high calorie food which may be difficult (like chocolate and biscuits). The best way is don't buy them, then you won't have them in the house tempting you.  

Finally I would recommend snacking on fruit and vegetables. You may not be able to burn calories at the same rate as you can ingest them, but if the foods are low calorie to begin with, snacking on a large quantity will not add up to much by the time you are done. 

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