Doctor explains exercise conspiracy in weight loss

We should all do it (exercise), but absolutely not if your goal is weight loss. That's a huge myth, particularly perpetuated by gyms and fitness apps. It is complete nonsense, says Tim Spector.

Official guidelines recommend adults should get 150 minutes of mild exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise spread over four to five days each week.

These include running, skipping, swimming, walking up stairs, and muscle-strengthening exercises two days a week.

Professor, Doctor, dietary researcher and author Tim Spector, says that all these regimens will not help you lose weight on their own. He trained as an epidemiologist and claimed fame for tracking Covid during the pandemic.

Any kind of exercise, actually plays "very little role in weight loss," he stated on Steven Bartlett's podcast The Diary of a CEO.

According to him, exercising has been adopted as a quick fix which avoids the core problem.

"All the long-term studies show it doesn't help weight loss. It’s been grossly exaggerated as an easy fix for our obesity problem. All the studies show that."

He accepted that working out is great for overall health, especially the heart.

"It's great for your health, I exercise. It's fantastic for your mood, it's great for your heart. But on its own, if you don't change your diet, it's no use and that's well known now by all obesity experts and the studies. We should all do it, but absolutely not if your goal is weight loss. That's a huge myth, particularly perpetuated by gyms and fitness apps. It is complete nonsense," he said.

His comments contradict health agencies from around the globe that maintain that exercising is key to shedding the pounds.

According to some of the most trusted health authorities, case in point NHS, say "Being active is key to losing weight and keeping it off." And that reducing calorie in take will support weight loss but that it "requires physical activity to burn energy". These calories are ways of measuring energy either in food or burnt through activity.

Weight gain starts when more calories are consumed than burnt off. People looking to lose weight therefore seek to limit calories or exercise more.

According to Spector, only after losing considerable weight through a changed diet can exercise help keep it from coming back.

"The only caveat to that is if you have changed your diet, improved your diet and lost some weight, maintaining some exercise does prevent it going back up again."

He added that counting and managing calories is "complete nonsense" because most people who comply to the practice "bounce back" from it after a while.

He advised adopting a plant-based foods diet, eating plant-based foods in a 10-hour window, and staying away from ultra-processed foodstuffs.

During the same podcast, he said that such processed items and poor diet affect gut bacteria whose imbalance has been linked to mental disorders like anxiety and depression.