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In this episode, we cover why NOT to use exercise solely for the purpose of losing weight and strategies to focus on instead. Just focusing on burning calories will keep you stuck and burnt out - I've been there!
To try a free week of my signature Fit for Hiking program to get you fit from the trails (gym AND at-home options) start HERE.
To try a free week of my signature Fit for Hiking program to get you fit from the trails (gym AND at-home options) start HERE.
For next level fat loss strategies, hormone/gut health help, serious performance goals and unparalleled support, apply for Mountain Metabolic coaching. Learn more HERE.
For more free wellness resources, hiking/travel guides, and other blog posts, check out my website HERE.
What is Fit for Hiking?
Where fitness and outdoors meet. In this space we chat all things hiking, exercise, wellness, adventure, motherhood, and metabolic health from a female perspective! Get ready to learn + be inspired to live your fullest, most adventurous life!
Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a longtime fitness professional and Midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. In combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential, and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for hiking podcast. 2s Hello fit for hiking fam! Welcome back to another episode of the fit for hiking podcast. So happy to be back with you this week. Some really fun stuff has been going on, and now I feel like kind of settling into cozy season as I'm recording this. It's November, like kind of heading into holidays. Just got back a couple weeks ago from the fit for hiking retreat that I did with the team, the coaches, and that was such a special experience. You guys like, it's crazy because last year, this time I didn't have any sort of team. I was still a solopreneur. I had been for several years, and I didn't even think that that was like in the cards. And then things changed. So rapidly, kind of from November to January of last year within the business, so much growth and ended up hiring those next few months. And it's just changed so much over the past year. It's like, honestly mind blowing to think about and don't really get into like the business side of things very much on here. And if that's ever something that you guys are interested in starting a business, growing a business or anything like that, let me know. Because I am so passionate about it, because I had literally zero business know how before getting into this whole thing, and it's been so cool to watch it unfold, especially the last year. We've had our biggest year of growth and and impact more than anything. And so it's been really amazing and we got to all connect as a team. We had never all met in person, which is crazy like all of us are, you know, based in different places around the US. And so the four of us got to go to Zion National Park and Glam for the weekend, you know, have some campfire chats, hike. It was just such a cool time to, like, get to brainstorm in person and get to know each other when all we've gotten to do is chat on zoom calls. So that was pretty amazing. And after getting back from that, I've just been like settling into kind of a season of restfulness after the summer and fall, I usually find that I'm pretty exhausted because I like to go hard during hiking season, for obvious reasons. You know, it's kind of limited in mountainous areas. You don't have a whole lot of time to get out and enjoy the mountains, you know, from a hiking standpoint. So I would say like a may through. Even like beginning of November. I really pushed myself energetically to say yes to all the things to like get out and hike very frequently, especially on weekends, go on more trips, and by the time we get to November, you guys I am like pooped. Honestly, I'm so tired and I'm ready to kind of like settle into more of a cozy season, especially as I've gotten into my 30s and having a kid like, I just don't have the energy that I used to. It's crazy. So I'm actually pretty excited to enjoy cozy season. And we are traveling for Thanksgiving back to the Midwest to see some family and friends. But for Christmas, we're actually staying in Colorado this year. We don't ever do that. I'm so excited! Not because I don't want to be near family, but I think it'll be really special to have our first Christmas at home, like just our own family unit with juniper and have her first Christmas, especially in our new home. We're going to go chop down a tree soon and like, do the whole thing. So I think it'll be really nice to continue that restfulness into December instead of like having to travel around a bunch. So very excited for that. Anyways, enough on the personal updates. I want to talk about a topic today that I feel like it's just a big old myth in the fitness industry, and I've definitely seen this myth perpetuated through fitness for the past decade, you know, working in fitness. And I used to kind of buy into it as well. So what we're going to talk about is why you should stop using exercise for fat loss. I think, you know, we oftentimes view exercise as like the holy grail of losing weight, losing fat. And so I want to talk about why it's not an effective method for losing body weight, losing body fat. And now I'm obviously not devaluing exercise. That's kind of my thing. I love exercise, it's my business. It's my passion. It has been since I was little, like I've always loved movement. I've always loved exercise. So I'm in no way, shape or form discouraging exercise. But what I want to debunk here is the myth that like using exercise for fat loss is the best way to go about it, and that that is the means to the end of losing weight. Definitely not true. And it's a big old myth that we need to. Debunk a little bit. So we're going to talk about that today and break down a few key points as to also what is the best route. So let's get into this topic. One I want to talk about calorie burn manually burning calories through exercise. So the reason why people use exercise for fat loss is historically because of the calorie burn that's associated with working out right. But looking to manually burn calories with exercise for fat loss often does lead people to not see any progress, sometimes for years. And here's why. So think about doing an hour of vigorous exercise. That's pretty great, right? For a lot of women, you may burn 400 to 500 calories total during this hour, depending on your body size, right? Like the smaller you are, the less you're going to burn. The larger you are, the more you're going to burn. Just moving around in general, but especially during exercise for larger individuals or men, it could be upwards of 600, maybe even 700 calories for this hour. Great, then you feel so good about your efforts that you treat yourself to an extra afternoon iced latte. Maybe that's like 300 calories. Then you have a bigger lunch than normal because you're really hungry from all of that activity. And then after dinner, you decide you deserve a bowl of ice cream because of your really hard workout. And that's another 300 plus calories. These small adjustments have now likely completely negated your calorie burn, and will most likely leave you at maintenance for the day, or maybe even in a calorie surplus. If all of the other variables in your day remain the same. Now, of course, we have to factor in total daily intake, and you know whether you are exceeding that with what you're exceeding your maintenance calories with what you're eating. And this is going to be different for everybody based on your body size and your basal metabolic rate. So many factors. So the reality is you can eat back calories. You burned across an entire hour in a matter of minutes. Okay. So think about that. Like how easy is it to eat a couple cookies or a couple pieces of pizza? And that's right. That right there is like all of the calories that you burned during your workout. And I hate even equating it to that, because I don't like looking at food as like a calorie equation. But this is what so many people end up doing when they view exercise as just a means to burn calories. And this is actually why so many people exercise hard for years, even decades, and don't really get any leaner or lose body fat. It's a vicious cycle and it really just keeps you stuck. And I can personally attest to this because I was stuck in this cycle for like, man, probably like 5 to 8 years where I really wanted to lose weight. Like that was a big goal of mine in my 20s, and I just didn't feel like I was where I wanted to be. I felt like I was holding on to a lot of extra weight, even though I was working out like six days a week really hard, doing like intense cardio classes and a lot of running and all of these things. But I ended up looking at it as a calorie burn amount, and then I would just kind of end up eating back those calories whether I was realizing it or not. Um, due to a lot of different factors, which we're going to talk about today, both like the mental side and the, the physical side. So I want to talk about something here, and this is the coma analogy. And you might have heard this before, but you can lose weight laying in a bed literally in a coma without moving if your intake is leaving you in a calorie deficit. Okay. So just think about that for a second, because I think so often we equate weight loss with exercise movement, burning calories. On the flip side, you can also be extremely active, workout daily and gain body fat if you're eating is overcompensating for the calories burned. This just shows like the power of food intake more than anything else for changing our body composition for gaining or losing weight. Similarly, you can do. A workout program and gain weight, and then someone else can do that exact same workout program and lose weight based on what you're eating, based on your intake, and not even necessarily the food quality, which I'm saying, like, you know, healthy foods versus unhealthy foods, but food quantity, because we know that food quantity is what dictates whether we are in a calorie surplus or in a calorie deficit. There's been studies done where people have eaten nothing but McDonald's or like Twinkies and Ho HOS for a month, and they lose weight if they are eating at a place that is a calorie deficit for them based on their maintenance calories. Okay, so yes, obviously that's not the healthiest way to go about things. We don't want to be eating foods that are, you know, not making us feel great and not super healthy, primarily as our means of eating, to lose weight, or even just as a person in general. We want to eat to fuel our bodies, you know, supply our our cells with micronutrients and macronutrients that we need. But when it comes to fat loss, it really does come down to food. Quantity and quality is what's going to dictate how you feel your gut health, hormone health, you know, just all of these different health metrics and markers. So it definitely still matters. But the the quantity is what's going to dictate weight loss or weight gain. That's why people will oftentimes say like, oh, I eat so healthy, but I'm not losing weight, or I'm even gaining weight because healthy food still has calories. And if the calories are not in line with your needs to maintain or lose weight. Then you're going to struggle there. You're going to spend your wheels. So let's talk about the mental side of all of this, because this is a really, really big component of what keeps people stuck. So if you are using exercise just to burn calories, you are more likely to stay in this cycle due to your mental state around exercise. So let me explain. People who believe exercise is the holy grail of weight loss often overemphasize how much progress their workouts will end up making for them, and really under emphasize their food intake and how much that can hold them back. They're also more likely to have the like I earned it mentality. I need to treat myself because I like went for a run today, which leads to over overconsumption. And you know, we're just always like, oh, I'm going to treat myself. But then that makes it really hard to ever actually lose weight. If that's your goal. When we're constantly eating back all of the calories that we're burning through exercise. So if you are an avid exerciser and have been trying to lose weight for years and it's not really working well for you, this is likely a large part of what's holding you back. And I say that with zero judgment because like I said, I did this for a very long time, and it's really hard when you like go to the gym and they have like calorie counters on all of the cardio machines and all of our like, fitness trackers are telling us how many calories we're burning and all this stuff. It's hard not to look at those numbers and just believe them, but they are not accurate. And they really that number like should not mean anything to us. We'll talk about that a little bit more later. So the hunger component, this is another point that I want to chat through, because the other consideration in this equation is the increased hunger from trying to manually burn calories. So say you're running multiple times a week for like an hour plus at a time, or attending extremely cardio focused group workout classes maybe 4 or 5 times a week or more. This type of exercise will inevitably drive up hunger, making it much harder to stay in a calorie deficit. It just does. This is why so many marathon runners actually gain weight during training. Like, you're not supposed to focus on weight loss during training because you have to eat according to your increased hunger and what your body needs based on your output, based on the performance that you're trying to do. And one of our first episodes on the show, we actually talked about why running is not a good method for fat loss. And so if you're kind of curious about that, if maybe you're a big runner and you've tried to, like, sign up for half marathons to motivate yourself to lose weight, go back and listen to that episode, because it really is going to kind of feed into this same conversation of trying to manually burn calories through doing something like running, but then you're really just fighting your body because it's going to make you so dang hungry. And when you're trying to eat in a calorie deficit while training for something like this, it's a losing battle. Like your body's going to win every time. So definitely go back and listen to that. The increased hunger is a really big factor when it comes to exercise and fat loss, and that's why we don't want to over exercise or just try to use our exercise to manually burn calories, because you will end up struggling to adhere to any sort of calorie deficit. If you're constantly so dang hungry from increasing the amount of time you're doing your workouts, maybe you're increasing intense intensity and doing like hour plus runs. We've definitely had a lot of clients come through Mountain Metabolic that are doing this exact thing. They keep increasing training volume, increasing training volume. Now they're having to do an hour of cardio six plus days a week, and it's making them so hungry that their calories are really high and they don't even realize it because they think, well, I'm doing all this activity, so it should be fine. But like I said earlier, think how fast you can eat back the calories you burn during an hour long run. If you're really ravenous and you end up eating, you know, several pieces of pizza and a cookie or whatever. 1s So let's talk about the mental shift that needs to take place here. What exactly is the point of exercising then? If fat loss is the goal, you must make the mental shift to view exercise as a means to a healthier, more active and vibrant life and not just a means to burning calories. And this is such a big part of like my purpose behind the show and behind my program, because I just so badly want the women listening to this for this to click, because it truly is life changing. And it's easier said than done, but it really does change everything when you make this mental shift. And it could be the very thing that allows you to finally enjoy exercise and see fat loss progress. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but that's how it's worked for so many of our clients, how it worked for me, and I'm sure I won't be the last person to experience this. So. Why do I exercise now? I want to talk about this in my own life. My wife exercise now instead of burning calories or even paying attention to that is more muscle because that supports a healthier basal metabolic rate. It also supports slower aging, better bone density, and just better capability for life. As I age and just as I like to carry around my kiddo, I also want to be able to carry my £20 toddler up mountains. That's important to me. Like, I don't want to have to stop hiking because I have a kid and I have to carry her, but it definitely makes it a lot harder. I hope I want to be able to say yes to bucket list hikes, even on a whim. You know, if we're going to go on a trip, I want to be able to say, okay, yes, I can do this. I'm ready. I've been putting in the work and not waiting until something came up. Um, also, my own mental health. Mental health is huge, huge for exercise, especially postpartum. I found that this is such a massive part of like helping me still take care of myself, keep energy high to shape my body with muscle, and to just have fun. Like I don't fixate on the calories anymore. And man, what a drain. Like a mental drain that is. I remember doing that for so long and just always feeling like I was on this hamster wheel. And it's truly exhausting and sucks the joy out of movement and being able to move your body and hiking was really the first catalyst for me. With this mental shift back in 2020, I wanted to feel unstoppable on my hikes and I was not feeling that. Like I'd had a couple hiking situations where I just felt like sluggish and blah, even though I was working out a lot. And so I started training with my hikes in mind and focusing on that goal instead of burning calories, which made a huge difference for me mentally. And that journey is just continued to progress. And like I said, this is not an overnight thing. It's not. It's not easy. But when you just continue to show up with that reframe of your mental state around exercise, it becomes easier to the point where now, like, don't even think about like, man, I wonder how many calories I burn during my workout today. I don't think about it, I don't care. That's not the goal. So here are some practical tips for what this looks like in everyday life. If you're wanting to start working on this mental shift for yourself. One is to stop looking at the calorie burn on your Apple Watch or Cardio machines, and stop adding back calories burned into nutrition trackers. Like, if you're tracking on My Fitness Pal, do not add back calories. Stop worrying about calories burn during activity. Pretend that those things honestly don't even exist because they are so horribly inaccurate. You guys like up to 80% inaccurate. They don't know all of your metabolic components that can guesstimate things based on your weight, but they're not going to be accurate. And honestly, that can just really hold us back when we fixate on these things. Number two is to find movement that actually feels good to you and that you like, regardless of how many calories you think you're burning. Just think about that for yourself. Like, what does that look like for you? And how can you incorporate a little bit more of that into your life? Number three is to try lifting weights slowly a few times a week for the goal of building muscle. I mean, it's crazy how. Building muscle is like typically not a goal for women. It just isn't. We're like, oh no, I don't want to build. I don't want to gain. I want to like, lose. I want to get smaller. I want to be littler. But man, I can't even begin to talk about all of the benefits of actually spending a concentrated amount of time adding muscle to your frame intentionally, like so many benefits from a metabolic standpoint and just from a body composition standpoint, if we can stop fearing muscle gain. And so, you know, whether you're incorporating weight lifting as your main modality of exercise, or maybe you just are doing it once or twice a week to try to maintain some muscle, work that into your life and don't feel like you have to speed through it. The goal is not burning calories. Remember, the goal is to build muscle, shape your frame, and focus on that instead. Number four is to focus more on nutrition and food quantity and increasing your daily walking for fat loss and not bringing your workouts into this equation. Like I said, we often put so much pressure on exercise to be the thing that allows us to lose weight when it really is like not going to be the major player here. Look at your nutrition, look at your food quantity, and look at your daily activity outside of your workouts. Are you sedentary all day? Are you walking multiple times a day? Increasing your steps like stepping is truly. One of the most underrated things that we can be doing, and most people are walking way less than they think, especially if you work in a sedentary profession. So focus on these two things way more heavily. If your goal is fat loss, think about like your workouts being used to make sure that you are maintaining or even gaining muscle while you're focusing on fat loss. This is going to help keep your basal metabolic rate high while you are losing fat. That's important. You don't want to lose equal parts muscle and fat while losing weight, because we want our metabolism to still thrive so that it's not super hard to maintain that weight loss. Okay, so focus on that with your workouts and then focus on daily steps and food quantity for losing body fat. And number five, if you're not sure where the heck to start with, like how much you should be eating bringing this all together, what does this even look like? What do true strength training workouts look like that do? Support the metabolism, higher amount and metabolic coach. This is literally our bread and butter. This is what we do to take the guesswork out for our clients. It's such a worthy investment. And think about it like a long term investment like this is going to benefit you the rest of your life. So that's what we're here for. And as always, the application link is in the show notes. That's where you want to start. If you even have questions or just want to learn a little bit more about it, look there. If you want to chat with me before getting on a call, you can always send us a DM to the Fit Underscore for Hiking Instagram page. We'd love to chat with you there about this, and we can just see if it even makes sense for you to hop on a call. All right, you guys. I hope that this has all been informative and make sense. Um, really, my goal with this episode was to take the pressure off of exercise to be the thing that allows us to lose weight, and that we can actually view exercise as the means to live a more vibrant and full life instead of making you smaller one. It's not the most effective way to even do that, and two, it really detracts from the experience of moving your body and the joy when we're so worried about numbers, whether that's the number on the scale or the number of calories that you're trying to burn. So taking the mental focus off of that, like, man, what a life changing shift for myself and for so many others that I've worked with. So I wanted to encourage you guys to give that a chance as well. And if you want to chat a bit more on this topic, send us a DM. If you guys have topics that you want covered on the show. As always, please do send us a message. We'd love to hear your feedback and like what types of things you're wanting us to get into on the show. All right, you guys, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Thank you for tuning in and we will see you in the next episode. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this. Be sure to follow along with my daily post at Ponytail Underscore. On a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at ponytail on a trail. Happy and healthy trails.