Why do sports make you lose weight?

It is often thought that sport makes you lose weight. This is sometimes true, but weight loss cannot be satisfactory without subjecting oneself to a certain rigor in training and in diet. By following the right advice, it is possible to modify your own metabolism to set up a virtuous circle.

Energy expenditure related to sport

Does sport make you lose weight? It all depends on how it is practiced, and the regularity of the training sessions. But it is impossible to maintain an unbalanced diet and hope to lose weight by doing more sport.
Excess weight is often due to the presence of excess fatty tissue. A kilo of fat represents approximately 8000 kcal. However, it is estimated that one hour of intense sporting activity, such as swimming or tennis, can consume around 600 kcal. To eliminate one kilo of fat, it would therefore be necessary to swim for more than 13 hours without stopping, and above all without eating.

If we only observe the weight on the scale, sport has no effect in bringing it down, because it modifies the body’s metabolism. The more you exercise, the hungrier you get. And above all, sports activity allows you to develop muscle mass that weighs more than fat . The weight therefore remains the same, but the silhouette changes. Hence the importance of not relying solely on a bathroom scale.

Sport makes you lose weight thanks to a better balance of the body

While exercise does not change gross body weight, it does change metabolism and the way the body works. By developing muscles, the body will learn to draw its energy from sources other than carbohydrates.
Several types of fibers make up a muscle: slow twitch fibers, fast fibers and intermediate fibers. The former have a high oxygen content. They feed mainly on lipids and are essential for performing actions as simple as sitting or standing. Fast fibers, on the contrary, feed mainly on glycogen sugar and allow an almost instantaneous but exhausting effort. To develop endurance, the body will learn to draw its energy from lipids rather than carbohydrates.

By exercising two to three times a week for an hour, you can increase your muscle mass in just a few weeks. And the more muscle mass you have, the more the basal metabolism is increased and the more calories you lose , even at rest. The virtuous circle does not take long to set up.