Exercise will not help you lose weight: an uncomfortable truth

This article from The Washington Post by Gretchen Reynolds will pretty much blow your mind. In a few pages, you’ll learn that everything you believed about your metabolism is false. I know. I know. Let’s take a collective deep sigh, and regroup. She writes, “But here’s the good news. The adjustments the body makes, which include reductions to inflammation and stress reactivity, may be a big part of why exercise is so good for us.”

This is the key! For so many of us the hamster wheel of exercise: not losing weight, getting discouraged, stopping exercising, gaining weight, exercising, not losing weight, getting discouraged, stopping exercising, gaining weight, and on and on until the day we die—is no way to live.

I’m here to suggest a new perspective. This outlook will not come easily to many of us. This may take time. But if we start now by getting curious about this new perspective, then at some point it will become part of our actual approach to exercise.

Exercise is for your mental health. Exercise is for your overall physical health. Exercise is not to lose weight.

Read that again. Now, look in the mirror and say those three sentences to your reflection. That last sentence hurts a little to say, I know. But it’s true.

If we can strive to get curious about reframing our exercise expectations, we can avoid the inevitable disappointment and ultimate cascade of shame, disappointment, and giving up, when the results we anticipate don’t happen. Eventually, through consistent reframing of our thoughts and feelings toward exercise, we can gain appreciation for our consistent new-found mental and physical health regardless of weight loss.

For more tips, tools, and tricks, please connect for your free 15 minute consultation. I’m excited to chat and learn more about what your dreams are goals.