| Hey there, According to some, exercise is about as useful for losing weight as seawater is for quenching thirst. Although working out burns calories, they say, it also steps up appetite, making it difficult if not impossible to restrain yourself from overeating. Science shows otherwise, however. While it's true that exercise can temporarily increase hunger levels (as it should—otherwise humans would've died out long ago), studies show that regular exercise has a moderating effect on appetite and promotes a state of neutral energy balance (where calories eaten match calories burned, and weight is maintained). Sedentary living has the opposite effect as well, short-circuiting our body's machinery for controlling hunger according to actual energy requirements. Another related myth often used to pick at exercise is that the body offsets many or most of the calories burned during a workout by simply burning fewer throughout the rest of the day, especially when dieting. This isn't entirely incorrect—when calories are restricted, our body does have sneaky ways to bring energy expenditure down and intake up—but research shows that this effect is relatively insignificant in most people. Why, then, do so many people do so much exercise without losing much if any weight? Usually, it's because they don't realize that exercise doesn't drive fat loss. Diet does. And so when meal planning is awry, even enormous amounts of exercise can produce no discernible improvements in body composition. This is particularly true of cardio, which is often people's first choice for fat loss because it burns more calories than strength training. What cardio doesn't do, however, is help you build and maintain muscle while you lose fat, which is crucial for achieving a lean and fit physique rather than a "skinny fat" one. Only strength training can do that. So, where does all this leave us? Well, exercise alone of any kind is usually ineffective for weight loss, but if you eat and exercise properly, you can lose fat rapidly while also adding lean muscle to all of the right places on your body. And supplements? Unnecessary, of course, but there are a few you should consider if you want to optimize your results in the gym (and your health and wellbeing), such as protein powder, creatine, and a multivitamin. To find out why—and which supplements are best for you given your circumstances and goals—take this 60-second lifestyle quiz: ⇒ https://legionathletics.com/quiz Go for it! Mike | 
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