Do NOT Exercise For Fat Loss

"Don't exercise for weight loss"

Ok, I guess we're getting straight into the topic for today's newsletter.

Over the past week, I have created an eBook for my Boot Camp Castleknock group about how to prepare for the Nutrition Challenge we have starting up next Monday, September 13th. One of the things I touched on was how to use MyFitnessPal.

MyFitnessPal is a great tool if you want to lose body fat by means of counting calories. In the diary section of the App, they have one equation that I feel can lead to people not doing as well as they think they are doing.

An excerpt from the new nutrition eBook:

The Equation is: Goal - Food + Exercise = Calories Remaining

The first one is the goal number. That number will take into account how many calories you’re burning at rest (your basal metabolic rate - BMR). This accounts for 65-70% of the calories you burn every day. Other factors that affect how many calories you burn every day include how active you are throughout the day (step count is not a bad measurement of this) the effect of exercise and exercise itself. The type of exercise we do at Boot Camp, with the introduction of the heavier kettlebells is focused on what's called EPOC (Excess- Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption) and it is the amount of oxygen our body consumes post exercise as we recover from the session. This number is hard to predict. So we take it that it is included in our goal number. People can include this number twice by adding this assumption, along with additional steps onto the exercise number which can lead to an increase in calories and weight gain.

Speaking of the exercise number, here is my main gripe. Forget about “eating back your calories”. Because whether you have a Fitbit, Apple Watch, Samsung or even a Heart Rate monitor on during a workout, that final calorie number can vastly over estimate how many calories you have burned during a session. If you treat it as gospel and follow the equation, you will be over consuming and gain body fat, regardless of exercise. Yes, you may eat a little more on training days if your energy levels need it. This could be a 150kcal-200kcal snack to have energy for the session an hour or two before it. This is done for purpose rather than feeling you can eat back your potential calories burned.

I have talked about eating back calories before in this newsletter and the eBook goes on to talk about the importance of exercise. However, instead of giving you a copy and paste email, I thought I would provide you with a real-world example of why you should not exercise for fat loss. That example will of course be me.

Here is a result from an InBody Test I did over the summer.

Weight: 83.4kg
Muscle: 42.2kg
Percentage Body Fat: 12%

I had a good routine going (ok, it was slipping a little bit with things starting to open in June in comparison to May) and I was building up well towards the Dublin City Marathon. Of course, that gets cancelled. That, combined with things opening up, a few sessions, stags, coming home/30th family parties (nope, I'm beyond 30) and weddings, meaning that training took a dip and so did my good food choices.

Now, I am not complaining. I enjoyed my summer and it was great to see people in person rather than through Zoom. Just trying to paint a picture over the last 6-8 weeks. I wouldn't change it (well, except for the marathon being cancelled!). But you can imagine what happened to my weight as a result of the reduced exercise (and my bank balance, actually!)

With that said, here's yesterday's InBody:

Weight: 82.7kg (-0.7kg)
Muscle: 41.8kg (-0.4kg)
Percentage Body Fat 12.4% (+0.4%)

I actually lost weight! I should be happy, right?

Wrong.

Wasn't the figure I was interested in. So, yes I have done a bit of running that may have helped lower my overall weight. However, because of the reduced strength training work I have actually increased body fat. So I am lighter... but have gained body fat!

If I was just to hop on a weighing scale, I would not have known this. Pictures and probably measurements around my stomach area would have shown it.

It's not a huge difference. But if you look at the bottom of the second InBody, you will see that in May I was 83.7kg with 43.3kg of lean muscle and 10.8% body fat. Now I have lost weight. But due to the muscle I have lost with the lack of strength training like I was in May, I am now 12.5% body fat. So I have gained fat... even though I am a kilo lighter.

Still not a huge difference enough to show the importance of exercise and how it may not directly affect the scales but it does affect your appearance.

Strength training (which is why we have increased our volume and weight of kettlebells in Castleknock) can help reduce body fat by building muscle. And to emphasise here, as I did in the eBook, it is not easy to be big and bulky, especially if you are a female. It helps when it comes to getting that "toned" look. Muscle is also a lot more dense than fat so 5kg of muscle will look a lot smaller than 5kg of fat.

When you are exercising, do not think of it as burning fat. Have a different, more measurable goal to it instead. It might be to get stronger, lift more, run faster or run longer. You can see direct progress with that through a good programme. How each exercise affects your body shape, is something you can't measure.

For some people, the number on the scales will be important. That depends on where you are now and your overall goal. The point of this newsletter was to show the importance of not doing exercise for the sole purpose of weight loss as it does not translate as well as people may think.

We are starting our challenge with Boot Camp Castleknock on Monday, September 13th. If you want to join that challenge and are from the Castleknock area, I have a few links below on how you can sign up and take one of our few remaining places today:

Booty Camp 1 Month (€89):
https://www.trainerize.me/profile/coachseanfitness/?planID=127883&mode=checkout

Booty Camp 2 Months (€169):
https://www.trainerize.me/profile/coachseanfitness/?planID=127884&mode=checkout

Booty Camp 3 Months (€219):
https://www.trainerize.me/profile/coachseanfitness/?planID=127885&mode=checkout

Seán

PS. If you enjoy getting these newsletters and feel you get something out of them, I have a quick favour to ask. Through Any Given Training Day we are running a competition with Designs By SD who do make to order gifts & crafts that are fully customizable and personalized. They have designed some really cool gifts (including a party pack with Irish Craft Cocktails), packaged with 6-week online coaching through Any Given Training Day. If you can click on this link HERE, it will take you to their post on the challenge. Please share it in your Instagram stories and follow both Designs By SD and Any Given Training Day Instagram pages.