Exercise is commonly seen as a tool to burn off calories and stored body fat. While exercise has potential to greatly increase calorie burn off and fat burning, as seen in elite athletes [1], studies show that for most people who are struggling with fat loss, dieting – i.e. reducing caloric intake - results in a greater weight loss (or fat loss in some cases) than exercising.[2-5] Why?

 

The problem is not that exercise is ineffective, but that the prescribed exercise dose or adherence to the prescribed exercise dose, is poor.[4, 6] In most studies, the energy deficit produced by the prescribed exercise is far smaller than that usually produced by dietary restriction.[4] In contrast, in studies that carefully compared the effects of an equal energy deficit caused by either aerobic exercise versus caloric restriction, the effect on weight loss is similar.[7-10] In these studies, subjects achieved an identical daily energy deficit of 500-700 calories, created either by diet or by supervised daily exercise, for a 12-week period. Similar weight losses (approximately 6 kg in women and 8 kg in men) occurred in both the diet-only and exercise-only groups.[7, 8]

 

Unfortunately, adherence to exercise programs that daily burn 500-700 calories per session is low and over half end up dropping out after 16 months, despite getting paid for their time.[11, 12] But this does not mean that lower amounts of exercise are "worthless". Here I will tell you how regular exercising – even if your workouts don’t result in large calorie expenditures - helps you stay on the fitness track…

 

Most people, including traditional doctors, think that testosterone deficiency is an old man’s issue. This is very wrong! Actually, an excess amount of body fat can cause a man’s testosterone levels drop to as much as 10 years of aging.[1]

 

Several studies have demonstrated that too much body fat is associated with reduced testosterone levels independent of aging.[2-4]

 

Low levels of testosterone (both total and free testosterone) are a consistent feature among young men below 40 years of age with metabolic syndrome, the hallmark of which is an enlarged belly.[5]

 

Young men (20–39 years) with the lowest baseline total testosterone levels have the highest risk of developing cholesterol and blood fat abnormalities (dyslipidemia). [6] Compared to age-matched men with the highest baseline total testosterone levels of 663 ng/dL or higher, those with the lowest baseline total testosterone levels of 418 ng/dL or below had up to a twofold greater risk of developing an adverse lipid profile 5 years later, which in turn could contribute to future risk of cardiovascular disease.[6]

 

Thus, testosterone deficiency clearly has health implications also for younger men. But how much does your belly actually impact your testosterone levels… and erectile function?