I don’t think you should exercise in order to lose weight. I know that’s not a very popular position to take, and I run the risk of Jillian Michaels breaking into my bedroom with a ball-gag and a strap-on just for mentioning it. But I have my reasons, and here they are:
1. If it’s not in your nature, you won’t keep it up.
Remember, my goal is not just to lose weight, but to do it in a way that I will be more likely to maintain the weight-loss. And I think in order to maintain the weight-loss you need to do it in a manner that is in line with your nature. Here’s something I’m not sure a lot of people understand: Anything that plays a big role in your weight-loss is also going to have to play a significant role in your maintenance. So if you force yourself to run everyday to lose weight, you may end up having to force yourself to do so the rest of your life (because you haven’t learned to manage your weight through diet.)
You might say, “But, Andy, I love running.” To which I would say, “I’m sorry. You sound like a colossal bore. But go ahead and keep running. I’m not telling you not to do anything you enjoy. I’m telling you not to force yourself to exercise for the sake of losing weight.”
2. You’ll overestimate the effects of your exercise.
In the book Mindless Eating, Brian Wansink mentions how people who start exercising will often gain weight. This has nothing to do with muscle weighing more than fat, or one of those pleasant lies we like to tell ourselves, (similar to, “I must have been eating too little!”) But what happens is we tend to overestimate the calorie-burning effects of our workouts and then wipe-out any benefit we’ve gained by indulging because — after all– we did all that exercise so how much could it hurt? Or as Brian Wansink writes:
3. It gives you one more thing to screw up.
If you’re one of those people who says, “I can’t believe I ate that cookie! Well… I might as well eat the rest of these cookies.” Then exercise is just one more way for you to “fail.” It’s one more thing for you to screw up on and then take the rest of the day/weekend/week off. This bizarre form of perfectionism is one of the most insidious problems when trying to lose weight. If exercise is part of your weight-loss routine and you miss a day of exercise, you may end up saying to yourself, “Oh, I screwed up. I didn’t have time to jog. I’m going to take the rest of the week off and get a fresh start on Monday.” You don’t need that pressure.
4. Forcing yourself to exercise to lose weight does nothing to make you someone who loves exercise.
Running on a treadmill, climbing on a stairmaster, going to an aerobics class — these are things people do because they feel they have to. They burn a lot of calories. If you’re exercising to lose weight, then that’s your main priority. But then you get to your goal weight and you’re like, “Great! Fuck that treadmill,” because running on a treadmill does nothing to make you like exercise. In fact the biggest calorie burners are also some of the most boring things you can do. It’s like homework for your body. You don’t want homework. You want to have an innate love of knowledge. What I mean is you want to do things that will make you want to be active. Playing softball, taking dancing lessons, shooting hoops, skating around on a longboard. These aren’t things that are going to burn the most calories, but they are things that you might actually find enjoyable and might really want to do for the rest of your life. And that will ultimately be a much bigger benefit to your overall health than the 8 months of your life where you spent 45 minutes a day on the treadmill.
You should exercise. Exercise every day if you can. Go outside. Be active. Play sports or go for walks. Or, if you find the idea of bench-pressing a ton of weight exciting, then train to do that. Will this help you lose weight? Maybe. But we don’t care about that, so forget it. Getting out and being active is not part of your weight-loss routine. It’s just part of being alive.
