From The New York Times: Weighing the Evidence on Exercise, things to remember:

  • It is extremely unlikely that using exercise or a diet alone will lead to long-term weight loss. 
  • Exercise makes you hungry because your body wants to maintain its current state. Guard against eating more because you’re exercising. 
  • Start eating real food and less calories– understand that this is how you will eat from now on.
  • Start exercising. Once you hit your weight goal, continue exercising. Don’t stop. 
  • If you don’t change anything about your life, you’ll never weigh less than you do now.

The mathematics of weight loss is, in fact, quite simple, involving only subtraction. “Take in fewer calories than you burn, put yourself in negative energy balance, lose weight,” says Braun, who has been studying exercise and weight loss for years. The deficit in calories can result from cutting back your food intake or from increasing your energy output — the amount of exercise you complete — or both. 

“The body aims for homeostasis…It likes to remain at whatever weight it’s used to. So even small changes in energy balance can produce rapid changes in certain hormones associated with appetite. 

photo by Ryan McGinley.