Is the gym effective for losing weight?

The upper limit of the weight loss effect of the gym is very high, but the lower limit is also very low. It does not depend on how expensive the annual membership card is or how good a personal trainer you hire. The core depends on whether you can grasp the core logic of "calorie gap". Calling it a weight loss magic place or an IQ tax is actually not about the gym itself, but the results of your own execution.

There was a mother of two children in the gym I used to go to. She had been following the live aerobics at home for two months. Her knees hurt so much that she had to struggle to go up and down stairs, and she didn’t lose even one or two pounds. Later, she found a reliable coach who first adjusted her force-generating mode and fixed her shoulders, back, hips and legs three times a week. After training some large muscle groups, I then walked uphill for 20 minutes. I usually replaced my afternoon milk tea with sugar-free American style. I skipped half a bowl of rice for dinner. I lost 13 pounds in two and a half months. I could fit into jeans that I couldn’t wear before. Everyone I met said that the gym was so good for weight loss.

But there are also many people who feel that the gym is completely useless. My colleague and I signed up for the annual membership last year and went there three times in total. Each time I went, I took selfies in front of the mirror for half an hour. After walking slowly on the treadmill for 10 minutes, I started to feel tired. I just turned a corner after leaving the gym. Eat barbecue with cold beer, and some novices just rush to weight loss. After training, they feel that they have consumed a lot, so they turn around and show off two large protein bars and a cup of meal replacement milkshake. Calculated, the intake is more than the consumption. After three months, the weight has increased by 2 pounds. Naturally, they feel that the money was wasted.

To be honest, the gym is essentially a scene that provides you with professional tools. If you know how to use them, the efficiency is really much higher than practicing at home. People with heavy weights don’t want to hurt their knees, so they can choose low-impact aerobic equipment such as elliptical machines and rowing machines. If you want to increase your basal metabolism by building muscle, you can’t buy a complete set of gantry racks and squat racks at home, right? The atmosphere when people around you are practicing is much better than when you lie at home and watch two episodes of a drama before you think about it. But if you apply for a card just to buy the psychological comfort of "I am trying to lose weight", then there is really no need to spend this money, because you will not lose weight no matter where you go.

I trained in the gym during my fat-burning period last year. I didn’t hire a personal trainer. I read a lot of popular science posts in advance and made a differentiated training plan. After each 40-minute strength training, I added 30 minutes of incline walking. In terms of diet, I just gave up late-night snacks and replaced white rice with brown rice for dinner. I lost 14 pounds in two and a half months, my body fat dropped from 27 to 22, and I lost two sizes in pants. It’s interesting to say that the colleague who applied for the card with me before is still telling people around me that the gym is an IQ tax. Who do you think you can ask to explain this?