Weight loss requires perseverance, and there are misconceptions about walking being better than jogging and abdominal exercises.

Why is it important to persevere and stick to a long-term approach to weight loss?

Countless dieters' experiences tell us that losing weight is not a task that can be accomplished overnight. It requires not only patience but also perseverance. Only by persisting and sticking to it in the long term can we achieve satisfactory results.

As we all know, obesity mainly depends on two factors: the number of fat cells and the size of fat cells.

The number of fat cells is generally formed during growth and development and does not increase after adulthood. Therefore, the key to obesity is the size of fat cells. If fat cells are full, they are large, and the person will become obese. Conversely, if fat cells are "shrunken" or "small," the person will lose weight.

Scientific measurements show that normal human fat cells are approximately 67-98 micrometers long, with each fat cell containing about 0.6 micrograms of fat. In contrast, fat cells in obese individuals are 36-50 micrometers longer than normal fat cells, and each fat cell contains 0.3 micrograms more fat; in particularly obese individuals, fat cells can contain as much as 1.36 micrograms.

This shows that if a single fat cell is so much heavier than a normal fat cell, then if all 5 billion or more fat cells in the body were to fill out and expand, a person would naturally become fat.

To reduce fat in all the body's fat cells, exercise or medication alone is insufficient. Sometimes, even if body fat is reduced, once dieting stops, the shrunken fat cells quickly replenish themselves and "fill up" again, causing the person to gain weight once more.

Therefore, once you have successfully lost weight, you must persevere in your weight loss efforts to achieve long-term results.

Why is walking more effective for weight loss than jogging?

In most people's minds, jogging is more effective for weight loss than walking for the same distance, speed, and time, because everyone believes that jogging burns much more energy than walking.

However, the opposite is true; jogging is less effective for weight loss than walking and burns fewer calories.

From the perspective of biomechanics, running utilizes the elasticity of muscles. The reaction force generated by the elasticity of muscles allows a person to easily reach the desired position, saving the energy required to move the body to that position, thus reducing the energy consumed.

Walking, on the other hand, relies entirely on body movement and doesn't involve the same level of muscle reaction force, thus consuming more energy than jogging. Everyone has probably experienced this: strolling through the streets slowly is much more tiring than jogging the same distance – that's the reason.

It is estimated that brisk walking consumes 2 to 3 times more energy than jogging the same distance at the same speed. Therefore, brisk walking is one of the best ways to burn calories when exercising to lose weight.

Why can't abdominal exercises reduce belly fat?

In general, obese people tend to have more concentrated abdominal fat. Often, as soon as a person gains weight, their abdomen will protrude first. If a person has a small belly, it is not only unsightly but also affects their figure, so they will try every means to get rid of it.

Therefore, many obese people are particularly superstitious about abdominal exercises, such as sit-ups, believing that this exercise can burn abdominal fat and get rid of belly fat.

Actually, this belief has no scientific basis. Abdominal exercises cannot burn abdominal fat, nor can they get rid of a belly. So why is that? There are two reasons.

One reason is that abdominal fat reduction doesn't occur in isolation; it happens alongside overall body fat reduction, which requires expending more energy. Sit-ups, performed at a rate of 30 per minute, only burn 25-29 kilojoules, meaning they can only reduce 1 gram of body fat. To reduce 10 grams of body fat, one would need to perform 300 sit-ups, which is clearly impossible for the average person to maintain daily. Therefore, sit-ups are fundamentally ineffective at reducing abdominal fat.

Secondly, abdominal fat is generally located deep within the abdomen, especially in obese men, where it accumulates between the intestines, making it difficult to eliminate through exercise. However, combining half an hour of sit-ups with at least half an hour of jogging may be more effective in reducing abdominal fat.