Interesting article...exercise does NOT increase metabolism

[Maple]

Here is an interesting article in the New York Times about exercise and metabolism.

The upshot is that exercise does not maintain or increase metabolism as much as we'd like to think. (For the record, I am not against exercise and I don't believe the article is either.) Women's fitness magazines are rife with "do this and you'll continue to torch calories!" or "rev up your metabolism by doing this great exercise!" To me it seems about on par with the same Western marketing you see everywhere. Shampoo A and B promise two separate results (fabulous curly hair or sleek shiny locks) but they both have the same ingredients.

Of course, a small study (with an admittedly ridiculous protocol and comparison) is still a small study, so read with a healthy grain of salt. But I think this is a dose of realism. It just kind of confirms what we all seem to know. In terms of weight loss, diet matters the most. And in terms of fitness, diet and exercise are both absolutely required.

Here is the link to the calculator that was developed at the end: http://www.pbrc.edu/research-and-faculty/calculators/weight-loss-predictor/

[Raincloak]

I have heard that the "afterburn" effect of exercise is a myth. I think the jury is still out on it, personally. But since I am not a calorie counter, I don't know for sure or care.

[This is Seth]

It's not a myth, your metabolism will burn more for a few hours after working out. The amount is close to negligible though, that's why no one references it anymore.

[aj_rock]

What seth said. You burn a grand total of around 100 calories over a few hours. Whoop dee freakin doo.

Anyone that claims they can raise 'metabolism' as your average person normally concieves of it without fancy illegal drugs needs a stern talking to.

[Maple]

What seth said. You burn a grand total of around 100 calories over a few hours. Whoop dee freakin doo.

Anyone that claims they can raise 'metabolism' as your average person normally concieves of it without fancy illegal drugs needs a stern talking to.

Seriously. No one "earns" a cookie with exercise. (Although I really wish it were true!) It is amazing to me how every infomercial, magazine, and scheme all purport it as an embellished fact.

[Waldo]

That said depending on what you want to call it, strength training that causes muscle damage that needs recovering from causes a very noticable increase in calorie burn for a few days following the training. Enough so that trained state (where the whole body is in some degree of recovery from it) resting calorie burn is about 10%-15% higher than the body is not recovering from strength training. You can tack on those calories to the strength training activity (in which case estimates for its hourly burn are laughably low), or consider it an increase in metabolism.

"Exercise" in general does not have this effect. Only strength training heavy enough to cause damage does. ("Tabatas" and other HIIT forms have a pathetically weak EPOC afterburn that gets a lot of unnecessary praise and ink). The closer to your 1RM your working weight is, the stronger this metabolism raising effect is going to be.

This is one reason why people bulking typically have to eat more calories than they expect to have to eat to gain mass. If you don't account for these recovery calories you are going to undershoot your calorie needs a good bit and spin your wheels. This is also why people seem to see dramatic results on the weight loss/inches lost front when they begin lifting heavy. It is because their resting calorie burn rate increased a good bit and virtually noone accounts for this change. It is measureable though if you have a way to track your non-exercise calorie burn.

My non-exercise daily calorie burn is about 2400 cal/day if untrained and 2750 cal/day if my whole body is recovering from strength training to some degree.

[jdanger]

Anyone that claims they can raise 'metabolism' as your average person normally concieves of it without fancy illegal drugs needs a stern talking to.

Well we can put muscle on people easily enough (especially untrained/sedentary people). I'd argue this would result in meeting the requirements for the lay understanding of raising metabolism. It isn't magic of course, add a bunch of metabolically active tissue and holy crap, more metabolism!

[aj_rock]

Fat is still metabolically active though... diet down a large fellow and then give him *some* muscle instead, total BMR will still be lower than when he was a bag o' lard.

But that's also why I specifically stated 'as your average person concieves it'. Which is thinking that this supplement or that food or this work out will magically allow you to be a glutton and not get fat. Unfortunately, when writing on that subject, people fail to take that into account, and you get all these weird conclusions about metabolism by people that don't REALLY know what 'metabolism' means.

[jdanger]

Yeah I hear ya. To me it's one of those things where I'm actually ok with a little misunderstanding so long as the resulting action is positive. Of course we want to strive to always do the right things for the right reasons but if someone thinks their magical metabolism will improve with some exercise and it gets them off the couch, cool. We can worry about correcting misconceptions later. Active people move. Skinny people don't eat too much. Awesome, healthy people do both.

[aj_rock]

Le sigh. Unfortunately, that is a conclusion that I am also coming around to myself.

Especially while trying to promote myself as a trainer IRL, you always just get so much more co-operation from people that don't know any better when you 'trick' them into being more healthy.

I swear, sometimes I feel more like a kindergarten teacher than anything else; simplifying explanations as much as possible without exposing everyones' precious little snowflakes to the monstrosity that is the real world.

[wesb1898]

Which is thinking that this supplement or that food or this work out will magically allow you to be a glutton and not get fat.

This is why Steve's articles constantly hammer home that 80% of your success will come from diet. Exercise makes you feel better, stronger, and faster. Diet makes you see the changes. Diet AND exercise FTW!