Why Exercise Can Cause Weight Gain

A listener named Marcia sent an email asking about weight loss and exercise. This is what she asked:

I've been doing resistance training and some cardio for a couple of months now and I've noticed that I've been gaining weight, mainly around my belly. Do you have any way to explain this?

Why yes, Marcia, I do have a few different ways to explain what kind of things might cause you to gain weight even if you’re exercising. And of course, I won't leave you hanging. I will also tell you what you can do to avoid this issue.

Exercise isn’t for weight loss

I don’t know where the idea first came from but I do know that the majority of people I have met and coached in my life hold this idea that the most important factor in losing weight is exercise. Well, despite how ingrained this belief may be, it is not true. Here's one important reason why: The extra calories you burn when you exercise only account for a small portion of your total energy expenditure. In fact, there are three main components to your overall energy expenditure:

1. basal metabolic rate (the energy your body uses to stay alive) makes up 60 to 80 percent of your energy expediture,

2. the energy used to break down and metabolize food makes up about 10 percent,

3. the energy used to make your body move makes up 10 to 30 percent.

While the food you eat accounts for 100% of the energy you bring into your body, the exercise and movement you do only uses up about 10 to 30% of it. So, exercising away your food intake would take some real heroic efforts. Decreasing your food intake (while exercising for the other wonderful benefits exercise bestows) would be much more effective.

While the food you eat accounts for 100% of the energy you bring into your body, the exercise and movement you do only uses up about 10 to 30% of it.

Before we move on, I want to make sure you know that I'm not suggesting you leave exercise out of your healthy weight loss regimen—I'm just tempering your expectations. Although exercise alone isn't an effective way to lose weight, it's been shown to be great for maintaining weight. The vast majority of your weight loss should be focused on, and will come from, the changes you make to your relationship with food.

This is exactly why the Weighless Program, which I co-founded with Nutrition Diva Monica Reinagel, includes both movement and dietary interventions but spends much more time focusing on what, when...

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