Is Exercise Alone Enough For Fat Loss?

‘Fat loss is 80% diet and 20% exercise’.

You’ve probably heard this saying before.

Or how about this one:

‘Abs are made in the kitchen’.

Neither of these statements are strictly true.

But they both raise a similar point.

Your diet plays a huge role in fat loss success.

The problem is - it’s also the area that people struggle with the most.

(If that’s you - download this free guide to help you out before continuing)

Eating less, temporarily restricting your favourite foods…

It doesn’t sound like fun, does it? 😩

What if you could just exercise more instead?

You enjoy that more - that sounds more fun than cutting back on the food.

But is exercise alone enough for fat loss?

In theory - it could be.

To lose fat - you need to be in a calorie deficit.

All this means is you need to burn more calories than you consume each day.

Less calories in vs calories going out = weight loss - hurray!

So technically if you ate exactly the same amount of calories every day - but you burned more calories than before…

And this took you into a calorie deficit - you’d lose weight.

Here’s an example:

Sam burns 2500 calories a day, and maintains weight by eating around 2500 calories a day.

She wants to lose fat - so she decides to do some cardio every day.

She burns 250 calories in each cardio session,

Or 250kcals x 7 = 1750kcals per week.

So now she’s in a 1750kcals deficit - resulting in around 0.5lbs of weight loss per week.

And she doesn’t have to cut back on her calories AT ALL.

It checks out in theory - but how does this actually work in the real world?

Not great. Here’s why:

1. For some individuals (but not all) cardio causes increased hunger after your session/later on in the day. This can lead to consuming more calories than normal. Which cancel out the effect of the cardio (PMID: 18377694, 31172175)
   

2. Cardio sessions may burn more calories per minute whilst training - but typically result in you moving less later in the day PMID: 21993080. So you burn more calories during the session, but burn less through Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) afterwards. Cancelling each other out. Weights training burns even less calories per minute - so this won’t work either.
   

3. Higher intensity cardio like group classes or HIIT can exacerbate point 2. You’ve worked hard and therefore you feel the need to rest more - so you move less throughout the day and burn less calories.
   

4. Many individuals believe in a ‘reward’ system for exercise - ie, they have a ‘treat’ after a tough workout. But the exercise often burns less calories than the treat you consume.
   

5. Unless you are very unfit - cardiovascular training doesn’t stimulate muscle growth or retention. In other words - you need weights training alongside cardio to build or retain muscle and to lose fat.
   

6. If you are also doing weights training - engaging in cardio too frequently/every day will likely have a negative impact on your weights sessions due to the fatigue accumulated.
   

7. Performing this much cardio per week is a mental chore. It is time-consuming and probably boring for most. Plus you’ll have a lot of sweaty kit to wash! That alone puts us off…

Not only that - but a small deficit of 250-400kcals per day doesn’t give you much margin for error.

What if you are eating out and you have no idea how many calories are in the food you eat? It would be easy to over-consume 250-400kcals.

In fact - many people that try to exercise their way to fat loss success don’t track their food intake at all.

This makes it extremely unlikely that ~250kcals burned per day is going to consistently keep you in a deficit.

There’s another saying that applies:

‘You can’t out-train a bad diet’.

You can in theory, but it’s immensely difficult in practice.

In fact, it would probably be more suffering and miserable than just tidying up your diet a bit in the first place…

So what would we recommend instead?

Focus on achieving a calorie deficit through your diet.

It is much easier to manage and track accurately.

It is far more time efficient.

It is more sustainable and consistent.

And you can adapt everything around it. Such as meals out, family events etc.

Does exercise help with fat loss?

Absolutely it can.

Cardio + weights combined can lead to better weight loss outcomes than weights alone (PMID: 23019316).

Increasing daily step count is an effective way to burn more calories without significantly increasing hunger levels or limiting other activities.

You should train regularly regardless of whether you want to lose fat or not.

But the fastest possible way to get into a calorie deficit is by reducing the calories you eat.

Make this your first priority.

On a final note - remind yourself that reducing calories is designed to be temporary.

The more you apply yourself to nailing your nutrition in a fat loss phase - the quicker it is over and done with.

If you’d like to know what to eat and drink during a fat loss phase,

We have the perfect guide for you.

You can use this to plan simply, highly-effective meals to lose fat,

Without starving yourself.

Without ruining your energy levels and training.

Plus you can save a huge amount of time wandering around supermarkets not knowing what to pick for the best.

Hit the link below to grab your free guide.

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