Jun 30, 2017 12:12 PM EDT By Chris Brandt, UniversityHerald Reporter

Exercise is useless in the quest to fight obesity. That sentence might seem surprising but that's what studies have revealed about the role of exercise in weight loss.

To clarify everything first, exercise is good for the body and mind. However, different studies have shown that exercise in itself is useless in man's battle against the bulge.

Yes, the stories are true about people who have seen significant results through exercise but they are just a few compared to the majority. A 2001 study on exercise intervention revealed that the amount of energy a person spends on exercising has no correlation with the amount of weight they shed.

An earlier study on the correlation of weight loss and exercise showed that physical activity only produces modest weight reduction. David Allison, an obesity researcher at the University of Alabama, explained that exercise has a lesser effect than you can mathematically predict.

This breaks the common myth of "calories in, calories out" preaching by a lot of physical fitness gurus. For many years, the message has been, "It's okay to indulge as long as you exercise."

The shocking fact, however, is that people gain more weight than they are losing. Researcher Max Wishnofsky explained it quite clearly. He said that a pound of fat in the human body represents 3,500 calories. If a person loses 500 calories every day through diet and exercise, he or she loses a pound of fat in one week. On the other hand, the food a lot of people eat everyday must have more than 500 calories. In short, people gain more than they lose.

So what really works for weight loss?

A study conducted by the National Weight Control Registry revealed that those who have been successful in cutting calories were not just physically active but conscious of their calorie intake as well.

So what doctors recommend is for people to focus on healthy eating and lessen their calorie intake in the way they can sustain.

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