3 Reasons Why More Exercise is Wrong For PCOD/ PCOS Weight Loss.
- Pooja
- Feb 12, 2022
- 4 min read
When you think of exercising you may be thinking you should be doing exercise like 2 hours/ day or more if you have PCOS so that you are actually losing the stubborn weight as FAAAST as possible. You may have been identified with PCOS either in your teens or in your twenties.
You would be tempted to subscribe to the calorie deficit equation where you think all you need to do is eat less and work out more and you should be sorted. For working out more you might be like I should be doing cardio and then weights and then cross fit training and whatever else that can be thrown into that equation just to offload the calories.
But wait…. I have news for you. When it comes to exercise, more does not often mean good.
Let me explain to you why this is the case.
Three reasons why more exercise is wrong for PCOD/ PCOS weight loss?
1. Caloric loss with exercise is actually quite small
Exercise is certainly good for the body for a myriad of reasons like
To improve
- Cardiovascular fitness
- Insulin sensitivity
- Glycemic control of type 2 diabetes,
- Blood pressure
- Depression scores etc.
However, doing exercise for weight loss as an objective may not provide the desired outcomes since caloric loss with exercise is actually quite small. A systematic review of studies with a minimum of 1-year follow-up suggested that subjects who used exercise alone for weight reduction experienced minimal weight loss.
Expected weight loss from specific exercise programs in overweight and obese patients:
In the following table, several different physical activity strategies for weight loss in obese patients have been stipulated along with the overall likelihood for nominal and clinically significant weight loss. These are based on datasets from large randomized controlled trials.Table 1 summarizes the expected weight change from different exercise training programs.
Table 1
Expected initial weight loss and possibly of producing clinically significant weight loss from different modalities of exercise training.
Modality | Weight Loss | Clinically significant weight loss |
Pedometer-based step goal | Range: 0 to 1 kg of weight loss | Unlikely |
Aerobic Exercise Training only | Range: 0 to 2kg of weight loss | Possible, but only with extremely high exercise volumes |
Resistance Training only | None | Unlikely |
Aerobic and Resistance training only | Range: 0 to 2kg of weight loss | Possible, but only with extremely high volumes of aerobic exercise training |
Caloric restriction combined with aerobic exercise training | Range: −9 kg to −13 kg | Possible |
| | |
2. Thanks to the rigorous exercise schedule, you may end up overeating. After all - “I deserve to treat myself with one serving of chocolate cake after all that hard work, don’t I?”.
I once went to a marathon and was surprised to find many of the marathoners taking refuge in patisseries immediately following the 5K run. There are various studies that go to prove this point.
There is a 2009 study which shows that people seemed to increase their food intake after exercise — either because they thought they burned off a lot of calories or because they were hungrier. Another review of studies from 2012 found that people generally overestimated how much energy exercise burned and ate more when they worked out.
Your hard work on the machine for an hour can be destroyed with poor quality of food choices within 5 mins post workout. A single slice of pizza, for example, could undo the benefit of an hour's workout. So could a cafe mocha or an ice cream cone.
There is also evidence to suggest another category of people who simply slow down after a workout, using less energy on their non-gym activities. They might decide to lie down for a rest, fidget less because they are tired, or take the elevator instead of the stairs.(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23447495/)
These changes are usually called "compensatory behaviors" — and they simply refer to adjustments we may unconsciously make after working out to offset the calories burned.
3. Endurance exercise can lead to release of stress hormones which finally end up making you store more fat.
Typically, everyone wants to sweat it out when they work out and think that the more endurance exercises that they do, they would end up burning more calories which would enable them to lose weight faster. However, recent research papers have concluded that exposure to prolonged periods and intensities of workouts will result in increased levels of cortisol. Research in adults revealed that if a certain physical effort is exceeded the cortisol level rises as a function of both, intensity and duration (Kirschbaum and Hellhammer, 1994; Brownlee et al., 2005; Hill et al., 2008; Gatti and De Palo, 2011).
Usually people may think that working out for over an hour with endurance exercises like walking, jogging, running, swimming would cause the possibility of the release of cortisol. However, a case in point studies shows that for 15- to 16-year-old adolescents, for example, a 12-min bout with an intensity of 70–85% of the maximum heart rate (HRmax) led to an increase in cortisol levels contrasted to a group exercising with moderate intensity (50–65% HRmax).
In another study from Yale, it has been concluded that stress may cause excess abdominal fat in otherwise slender women. There has been several research studies that slate that higher levels of cortisol would enhance sugar cravings, increase appetite and result in weight gain. So instead of your exercise regimen contributing to your overall health, it could result into weight gain.
Summary:
Exercise is important and beneficial for PCOS / PCOD women, however the type, intensity and duration are critical parameters to ensure that it results into the benefits and not into weight gain for women with PCOD/PCOS.
References:
(3)https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Fulltext/2010/06000/Behavioral_Compensatory_Adjustments_to_Exercise.23.aspx
(12) Kirschbaum and Hellhammer, 1994; Brownlee et al., 2005; Hill et al., 2008; Gatti and De Palo, 2011
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