It seems to me that people for the most part are fairly consistant with their weight. I consistantly weigh in at 20 pounds over normal weight . I’m guessing that my appetite corresponds to a lifestyle energy output that is required to move around the extra 20 pounds.
Wouldn’t it follow therefore that if I strapped on 30 pounds all day that I would eventually reduce my bodyweight to at least normal?
Assuming your guess is valid, wouldn’t you just develop an even bigger appetite?
You would certainly be doing more work, carrying around that extra weight. But you might also be less active, have you climbed stairs with a 30lb backpack?
Exercise, while important, isn’t as important as eating less. The most important exercise is pushing yourself away from the dinner table.
In my experience (and this varies a lot, depending on the person’s genetics, probably), exercising daily speeds up the metabolism and allows me to eat more calories than the exercise compensates for - without gaining weight. This was especially true when I was younger. In my 20s while training to run a marathon, I consumed an extraordinary amount of food daily. Even considering the rough estimate of 100 calories burned for each mile run, I should have weighed as much as a house with all I ate. But I still continued to lose weight.