Pilates For Weight Loss
Why has Pilates become synonymous with losing weight?
One question that I’ve heard many many times over the years is ‘Will I lose weight doing Pilates?’ and the answer is always the same. Unfortunately, the answer isn’t as simple as what most people want to hear - Pilates on it’s own is not effective for weight loss.
So why do people often say that they feel amazing, or have lost so much weight doing Pilates? In general terms, it’s actually more a reflection of a number of choices they are now making and Pilates is just the method of exercise they are doing at the time.
These choices will reflect their mental state, their food choices, their motivation to exercise, and their outlook on life and themselves. Taking up Pilates from doing no exercise at all will help shift some weight and definitely help you sculpt your body so your clothes might fit better.
But only doing Pilates long term, without complementing it with other forms of exercise is unlikely to lead to a drastic change in your weight. Let’s explore this a bit more…
First question: Why do we put weight on?
Lifestyle
Simply put, our physiology isn’t used to having the easy access and availability to energy rich foods that we currently have as a privileged society. On top of this our lifestyle factors are not always ideal for matching our food intake.
We evolved from eating occasionally, and often in large volumes, so our body got used to converting extra nutrients and energy into fat cells as a means of storing it for a later date. Those fat cells burn off predominantly in endurance based activities such as walking or jogging slowly for long distances.
But now that we only have to walk as far as the cupboard to grab something, we often aren’t balancing out the burning of energy with the amount coming in. It’s also the type of food we are exposed to - highly refined and processed foods are quickly broken down and stored for use later, much faster than the foods we get from the butcher or the veggies from our garden.
Stress
There’s also an element of understanding how stress impacts our body. Being stressed in whatever form that may be (emotional, physical, spiritual) will cause our physiology to stay in a state of burning through easily accessed energy cells, rather than breaking down fat cells.
To survive and maintain our blood sugar, we are encouraged to eat high energy, low nutrient foods to fuel the fire. Stress also throws sleep out which limits the ability to process and store food properly. Tied in to that conversation is that we are often not getting enough exposure to the sun which acts to recharge the batteries inside every single cell of our body.
When these guys are at full charge, our appetite diminishes because we already have energy, and don’t need to bring extra in through ingestion. Getting sunlight also dictates our internal clocks to help us wake up and go to sleep at the end of the day. Safe to say there are a few factors conspiring against us as we work hard to maintain a healthy weight, right?!
Next question: What does it actually mean to lose weight?
To lose weight is most commonly assessed by how heavy someone is. The most common way people keep an eye on their body weight, is on the scales.
That is effective to a point, but remember we’re made up of many substances, not just adipose tissue (fat). So when you’re standing on the scales, you’re also assessing how much water you have in your body; how much food you are in the process of digesting, how much waste you have yet to eliminate, how heavy your muscles and bones are, how much clothing you have on and how much hair you have!
So when assessing your weight via scales, it’s actually worth considering all of those factors when doing consistent measurements to ensure you’re weighing yourself with the same clothes on, at the same time of day and after similar amounts of water and food have been ingested and eliminated.
But here’s the thing - per cubic centimetre (think the size of a dice) muscle weighs more than fat. So you can actually burn fat off your body and put muscle on, and still weigh the same - hence why the scales aren’t always your best indicator.
What are some better options? You can use a tape measure or callipers to accurately and consistently measure the shape and thickness of your limbs and waist line to see if things are sculpting, even if you don’t lost kilograms.
You can also invest in scales that use currents of electricity running through your body to measure the specific tissue masses in your body for a more accurate representation of your body segments and fat distribution. (This is what we had in the studio earlier this year during the Pilates Challenge.)
And finally: So how does Pilates help with weight loss?
Generally speaking, it isn’t about the Pilates - it’s about doing more exercise in general. Someone who is willing to invest their time and resources into something like Pilates is already in a great headspace to make the changes required to help change their body.
They have the time and resources to have someone train them, often multiple times in a week, and push them to a level of exertion that will require the body to break down fat stores to fuel your recovery. They will also need to be making smart food choices around having nutrient dense meals, that replenish the body rather than just provide it with straight energy.
Look for foods that contain healthy fats (nuts, fish, avocado etc) for example and lots of vegetables. With better quality food coming in, the body has better resources to speed up recovery and also fuel the fire more efficiently, so you end up feeling much better. And because you’re fueling yourself better, then you’re less likely to need as much food or crave foods that aren’t going to be of value - a great upward spiral!
So why has Pilates gotten such rave reviews by the masses for weight loss?
We may be slightly biased, but we do think it’s the best all around exercise for toning, sculpting and strengthening the body. It is also an excellent regime for helping you look and feel better overall.
Pilates requires coordinated and consistent strength through your whole body, requiring you to really concentrate, and with the help of the equipment it will make you feel longer and more flexible.
Training in this way is really helpful, especially if you can only workout once per week, but if you want to really burn fat and get your metabolism firing, it would be advisable to compliment Pilates with a form of cardiovascular training, ideally running.
If running isn’t possible, then swimming, walking, cycling and hiking are all fantastic alternatives - anything that is going to get your heart rate up for extended periods of time, at a level where you can still speak but in broken sentences.
The other key points of maintaining a healthy weight is sleeping well, getting lots of sun, and reducing stress in your life however you can. Good luck and feel free to contact us if you need more advice around losing weight or access to a fantastic nutritional therapist.