Exercise
Muscle activity accounts for much of the body's energy consumption. With use, muscles will consume energy derived from both fat and glycogen. Glycogen is converted to glucose when energy is required for exercise. Fat is also converted to energy when needed.
Due to the large size of leg muscles, exercise that involves the legs such as walking, running, and cycling are the most effective at reducing body fat.
A meta-analysis of 43 randomised controlled trials by the Cochrane Collaboration found that exercising alone led to limited weight loss. In combination with diet, however, it resulted in a 1 kilogram weight loss over dieting alone. A 1.5 kilogram loss was observed with a greater degree of exercise. Even though exercise as carried out in the general population has only modest effects, a dose response curve is found and very intense exercise can lead to substantial weight loss. During 20 weeks of basic military training with no dietary restriction obese military recruit lost 12.5 kilograms.
Recommended types of physical activity include:
- activities that can be incorporated into everyday life, such as brisk walking, gardening or cycling
- supervised exercise programmes
- other activities, such as swimming, aiming to walk a certain number of steps each day, or stair climbing.
