Buzz
People often associate weight loss with spending hours at the gym, endlessly running on the treadmill while watching reruns of How I Met Your Mother. But the truth is, not only do you not need so much gym time, it might actually be better to invest that time elsewhere. Here’s why.
More isn’t always better
When it comes to losing weight, diet plays a more significant role than exercise. Your body burns most of its calories just by keeping you alive. While exercise helps burn more calories, its impact on your overall caloric expenditure is relatively small. It's like delivering newspapers with a six-figure salary.
At the lower end, adding extra exercise to an already solid diet plan through calorie counting or mindful eating yields diminishing returns on your time. Some people are happy to spend a few extra minutes to burn a few more calories, but it's essential to remember we have limited time, energy, and—most importantly—willpower.
On the extreme end, excessive exercise combined with a caloric deficit can actually have negative effects. It can result in chronically high cortisol levels and eventual resistance to leptin, the hormone that controls how much fat your body stores. (It’s probably no accident that contestants on The Biggest Loser tend to regain all the weight they lost.)
Why Less Could Be More
Nutritionist and creator of the “Leangains” method, Martin Berkhan, refers to the famous marshmallow experiment to explain why a moderate amount of exercise might actually be more effective:
In the early 1970s, psychologist Walter Mischel conducted an experiment with four-year-olds. He placed each child in a room with a table in front of them, and on that table, a marshmallow. Mischel then made each child a choice: eat the marshmallow immediately, or wait a few more minutes and get another one. Nearly everyone chose to wait. Mischel then left the room for twenty minutes.
The children who succeeded in the experiment did so by distracting themselves. They covered their eyes, played with their hands, or entered a trance-like state, appearing lost in their thoughts. Their focus was elsewhere.
The strategy of the unsuccessful children was entirely the opposite. They couldn’t stop fixating on the marshmallow, almost as if trying to overpower the temptation by staring it down.
Weight loss is no different. The more energy and focus you pour into a rigid routine, the more likely you are to exhaust your willpower and hit a wall. For most, exercise works best when it’s woven into your daily life—something natural, not an overly serious event to obsess over.
Strength Training for Maximum Return on Investment in Your Exercise Routine
While cardio may not provide the highest return on investment (ROI) for weight loss, strength training is the complete opposite. It helps build lean muscle mass, which burns more calories even while you're at rest.
Think of cardio like paying off a credit card, while strength training is more like paying off a mortgage. With strength training, you're investing in an asset that grows over time. The best part? It doesn’t take much time to see results.
Building muscle can be boiled down to one simple idea: increase the weight, reps (short for repetitions), or overall volume in a given exercise. This principle is called “progressive overload.” The outcome is an increase in muscle size, a process known as muscular hypertrophy. You can create a solid exercise plan with as little as three thirty-minute sessions per week, such as this one.
Of course, everyone’s ability to tolerate exercise will differ. Some people may thrive with more physical activity, especially if they enjoy cardio. The key takeaway here is that you don’t have to spend hours working out while dieting. A minimal approach might be the best way to avoid obsessing over that metaphorical marshmallow.
Images by Pascal, RelaxingMusic, and Mark K.
