Exercise does not help with weight loss

Who created this theory? I have seen many people on this forum state that weight loss is 95% nutrition and 5% exercise. Since when? We have been told for years by our doctors, nutritionists, personal trainers, health magazines and books, etc that the key to losing weight is proper diet AND regular exercise. Exercise boosts our metabolism and burns glycogen levels as well as calories. If exercise is necessary in order to maintain and not gain weight why wouldn't it be a huge factor in weight loss?

I know that we can lose weight without it and I know that exercise alone without proper nutrition does not work.  However,  with regular exercise and following our individual plans for nutrition we should be able to speed up the process with more strenuous workouts especially as we get closer to goal and the weight loss slows down.  Why does everyone keep saying that exercise does NOT promote weight loss??

I wouldn't say that.  I just say it doesn't excuse poor eating habits. Meaning I will eat this Big Mac and then jog a few miles.  It doesn't work like that.  Eventually your bad eating habits will catch up to you.   

Exercise for me is the only way I lose weight.  If I don't include exercise with my balanced diet...nothing much happens.  Unless, I starve myself and we all know that's not healthy.  I am not one of those people that can cut back on my eating or make a few adjustments with my food and BINGO I lose weight.  I must move and exercise to lose weight.

I agree with you.  Exercise and a balanced diet is the best long lasting way of losing weight and keeping it off. 

There are a lot of reasons exercise doesn't work for weight loss. One of the biggest is, people who exercise invariably eat more. Some do it consciously, as in "I'm going to eat back these exercise calories." Others do it unconsciously, just because activity makes them hungrier. If two people with identical metabolisms ate the same, but one had more activity, yes, they would burn more. But the real world usually doesn't work that way. Lots of things go into this category. People who work out in cold weather eat a LOT more than those who don't, and burn very little extra. People training for and running marathons GAIN weight, and not muscle.

People do exercise as a fad even more than diets. Very few gym rats keep up the routine long term. Regain hits hard when the marathon gym sessions stop.

Most studies show that exercise does not have a long term boost to your RMR. Trainers want you to believe exercise gives your metabolism a boost, but when you stop exercising, your metabolism is the same ss a couch potato. The other frequent myth is that muscle burns more calories than fat. Actual scientific studies shows that it does, but by a really, really small amount. 

People like to think they gain muscle mass. They aren't. They CAN'T while in a calorie deficit. Just not possible.

Exercise is not necessary to maintain, either. I'd say the vast majority maintain with zero exercise.

Studies show that people who exercise hard have LESS overall activity in a day than those who maintain normal activity. They work out, and sit the rest of the day. I'm not saying everyone does this. Most would deny it, loudly. But when people are put under a microscope, their overall activity drops on days they exercise, meaning they burn fewer calories than if they didn't go to the gym.

Studies also show the best metabolic boost is by increasing NEAT, Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. That's all activity other than exercise. Climbing stairs, vacuuming the house, walking in the supermarket, etc etc. Doing a lot more of that is much better than some hard time on the treadmill.

There are lots of studies that show exercise doesn't contribute to weight loss. It's great for overall health, and  many other things. But if you are losing more weight since you started exercising, it's because you are doing a better job controlling what you eat, not because you are lifting weights or running.

Here's a recent article that has some information.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/05/15/t ake-off-that-fitbit-exercise-alone-wont-make-you-lose-weight /

Please read what Grim is saying - and read it again if necessary.

Also - keep in mind that its in the best interest of the "personal trainers/nutritionist/books and magazines" to promote exercise.  It keeps many of them in business.

What interests me especially are the studies regarding exercise and increased caloric consumption. 

So - do I exercise - I work with a trainer twice per week using weights - I do this for my bone health not so to lose weight.  Do I move more? - hell yes - in my everyday life -  park further away - take the stairs - walk rather then email a co-worker, walk the golf course rather then take a cart, etc etc.  To me this is the total key to keeping active and healthy

I cannot like this enough.  Well stated!

We keep saying it because people have been led to believe that exercise is a "huge" factor in weight loss .  Is it a factor?  Absolutely - just not a "huge" factor.  

What you put in your mouth each and every moment of the day IS a huge factor in weight loss.  Magazines and TV shows contribute to the myth that you can "burn off" the calorie from a cookie or a tub of popcorn by doing "X-amount" of activity.  When what actually happens is that your liver immediately goes into fat storage mode when your blood sugar rises from eating this kind of food - long before you ever exercise. So go ahead and run for an hour to burn off those 2 Mrs. Field's cookies...but just know that your liver already stored those calories as fat and no amount of running is going to change that. 

Exercise is a huge factor in building muscle...and increasing heart and lung health...and increasing flexibility.  And doing all that exercise now will hopefully preserve more muscle mass while you're losing lots of weight, thereby keeping your basal metabolic rate higher once you reach maintenance.  And continued exercise continues to produce all these benefits.  But even as a thin person, if you choose to eat the wrong food it will get stored as fat - regardless of how much you exercise.  

I've seen LOTS of overweight marathon runners who thought they could carb load because of all their exercise.  Nope - it just made them what I like to call "healthy fat".  

Everyone on here believes exercise is a GOOD thing - a GREAT thing - and we all need to do it.  But do not let it take the focus off what got us all here.  None of us got to the point of needing surgery because we simply failed to exercise.  Nope - we got here because of our ****ty eating habits and food choices.  

#truth

We all know that the rate of Type 2 diabetes is out of control for the morbidly obese. It's also growing for those with a healthy BMI. They may be eating the right amount of calories to maintain their weight. But the crap they are eating is still doing damage. More so-called "healthy" fat.

...and they are eating lots of those "healthy whole grain" carbs!  We Americans have been led down the garden path on that one 

Yup. My mother gets "whole wheat" bread. It looks like Wonderbread with a little brown food coloring in it. Yeah, that makes it healthy.

Another interesting thing about diabetes. I recently read an article/study wherein they found that people who developed diabetes at a normal BMI had more trouble with it in the long run than did people who didn't develop diabetes until they became MO/SMO. I confess I don't remember the details...but it was an eye-opener.