>Normal exercise will not cause weight loss
What do you define "normal exercise" as? You cannot break the 2nd law of thermodynamics: if you calories in is less than your calories burned you must lose weight.
What do you define "normal exercise" as? You cannot break the 2nd law of thermodynamics: if you calories in is less than your calories burned you must lose weight.
- making you intensely crave specific calorific foods,
- making you prefer the taste of higher-energy over lower-energy foods when offered a choice,
- demanding your gut absorb more of the calories you normally consume,
- making more frugal use of the calories you normally consume,
- throwing you into hibernation mode, making you sleepy, lazy, and disinclined to move.
In general, through my life, I've found the best way to think about it is exercise for fitness, diet for weight maintenance.
What happens to you once you have responsibilities to others (wife, kids, etc.) unless you are a professional-level athlete is that you really don't have the time and energy to burn enough calories. It's hard to burn 400 kcalories, but it's easy to not eat that piece of pie (or to have a small piece and no bread with your meal).
There are exceptions, and most of us who are somewhat active have probably gone through that phase of life where we do 5000 kcal workouts 5 days a week and so on, but it's a very time-and-energy consuming proposition. I have known some men who have made it a point to continue that lifestyle into middle age, but they are exceptional and almost to a person never married (gay I think) or several times divorced. In other words, it takes total self absorption and those of us with normal family and community responsibilities have to let it go eventually.
That's also the failure I see with people and their New Years' Resolutions to get fit: quit drinking, go to the gym twice a day, etc. It's not sustainable.
There's a bit more happening than the 2nd law of thermodynamics. Our body does a lot of things.
I understand how comforting it can be to put it in "in -> out" terms, so simple. But it just doesn't reflect in any way the complexity of a living organism, and doesn't reflect the experiences of people trying naively to just eat less for instance.
Moderate exercise is good for you whether or not you want to lose weight, but if weight control is one objective, you need to be more careful than most people realize to avoid eating more when you exercise more.
The 2nd law of thermodynamics has little if anything to do with calorie counting.
This is not true for all people and can be highly variable between different people, let alone not necessarily possible for folks with metabolic disorders.
http://examine.com/faq/does-metabolism-vary-between-two-peop...
You should never take your health advice from someone trying to sell you a book supporting your poor choices.
i.e. Dr Bacon.