I’m sure that at least once you’ve exercised with the intention of burning off everything you ate.
Or checked the number of calories burned on your smartwatch after a workout.
We all have. 🙂
The sad truth? You probably didn’t burn anywhere near as much as your watch told you.
Smartwatches are far from accurate when it comes to estimating energy expenditure because it depends on a wide range of factors. And exercise itself represents only a relatively small part of your total daily energy expenditure.
Where and how do we actually burn energy?
Your total daily energy expenditure consists of four main components:
1. BMR – Basal Metabolic Rate
This number represents the amount of energy your body uses at rest – while you are awake but lying still.
It is the energy needed to maintain basic life functions such as breathing, heart function, brain and organ activity, body temperature regulation and other essential processes.
BMR makes up the largest part of your daily energy expenditure.
2. NEAT – Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis
NEAT represents all the spontaneous, often unconscious movement you do throughout the day that is not planned exercise.
These are all the small movements you make during the day – gesturing, nodding your head, tapping your foot and similar activities.
And no, walking does not automatically fall into this category.
3. TEF – Thermic Effect of Food
Yes, you also use energy when you eat – more precisely, when your body digests and absorbs food.
Protein has a significantly higher thermic effect than fats and carbohydrates.
And that is why I always say: a calorie is not just a calorie.
The type of food you eat and the balance of macronutrients play an important role in how your body functions.
4. EA – Exercise Activity
This refers to planned physical activity – your workout.
And this is exactly what most people focus on when they want to lose weight, because the first thing we tend to think about is how many calories we can burn.
For the average person, exercise often accounts for around 10% of total daily energy expenditure – and sometimes even less.
That is why the idea that you can regularly eat whatever you want, in whatever amount you want, and then simply “burn it off” at the gym is unrealistic.
No habit that works against your goal – whether it concerns nutrition, sleep or recovery – can simply be cancelled out by a harder or smarter workout.
Exercise has completely different functions.
And they are extremely important.
Especially for women over 35.
Physical fitness is one of the most common topics in magazines, online articles and countless promises made by workout and weight-loss programmes.
But what should really be our priority is building a healthier, stronger and more functional body.
Primarily because the gradual loss of muscle mass, strength and function begins much earlier than most people realise and continues as we age.
It is going to be a little late to start thinking about it when you are 60.
The process of losing muscle tissue starts much earlier and becomes more pronounced with age – especially when there is no adequate stimulus from strength training, sufficient protein intake and an active lifestyle in general.
For women, this is later compounded by hormonal changes associated with perimenopause and menopause.
So perhaps the most important question when it comes to exercise should be:
“What should I be doing now to preserve the muscles I will need when I’m 60, 70 or 80?”
Because muscles are not just what makes your jeans fit better.
Although yes, they do that too!
Muscle is an extremely important tissue, both metabolically and functionally.
Through training, you are building much more than your appearance.
Strength training can help you:
- preserve and build muscle mass and strength,
- provide an important stimulus to your bones, which is particularly important for helping maintain bone density,
- improve balance and coordination, which can help reduce the risk of falls later in life,
- maintain joint mobility and your ability to move normally,
- improve insulin sensitivity and glucose regulation,
- support cardiovascular health,
- maintain your ability to get up from the floor, carry shopping bags, lift something heavy, go hiking, travel, run, squat and simply live your everyday life independently.
And, of course, it can also change the ratio between muscle and body fat.
Or, as women often simplify their goals:
“I just want to tone up a little.”
What that actually means is achieving exactly what we want after the age of 40:
preserving or increasing muscle tissue while reducing body fat.
If you still see exercise only as punishment for what you ate or simply as a way to burn calories, it will be very difficult for it to become a permanent part of your life and a lifelong habit.
There will always be a beginning and an end.
You start a programme.
You stick with it for a few months.
You “lose the weight.”
And you cannot wait for it to be over.
Then you go back to your old habits.
Exercise can absolutely help with weight management.
Of course it will affect the way your body looks.
Of course, combined with a well-balanced diet, it can help you achieve a healthier ratio of muscle to body fat.
But that is only one part of the puzzle.
Because the real purpose of exercise is to help you remain independent, mobile and vital in the decades ahead.
To be able to get out of bed without assistance.
Carry your own suitcase.
Walk up the stairs.
Maintain enough strength and balance.
And stay independent in your own body for as long as possible.
Whatever your current goal may be – weight loss, reducing body fat, getting fitter or simply having more energy – exercise is a much greater investment than the calories you burn during those 45 minutes.
You only have one body for the rest of your life.
You cannot replace it. But you can do a great deal to help it function well for as long as possible.