AFL Grand Final week is a great reminder of what the human body is capable of when nutrition, movement and recovery work together. The good news is that you do not need to train like an AFL player to achieve meaningful improvements in your own health.For most people trying to lose body fat, improve metabolic health or get better results from a structured nutrition program, the focus should be much simpler: move more, sit less, maintain your muscle and exercise consistently.This year, Australia released its updated 24 hour movement guidelines for adults, reinforcing that good health is not determined by one gym session. The guidelines now take a more integrated view of movement across the whole day.Adults are encouraged to complete at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity on most days, undertake muscle strengthening exercise on at least two days each week, include functional activities targeting mobility, balance and coordination on three or more days, accumulate several hours of light activity throughout the day and regularly break up prolonged periods of sitting.They also recognise sleep as part of the equation, recommending seven to nine hours of good quality sleep for most adults.Why Exercise Matters During Weight Loss
As a dietitian and exercise physiologist, one of the most important messages I give people is that the best weight loss result is not necessarily the largest reduction on the scales. When we reduce energy intake, particularly during more intensive periods of weight loss, we want as much of that weight reduction as possible to come from body fat while protecting metabolically important lean tissue.This is where exercise becomes particularly important. A 2025 systematic review and meta analysis of 25 randomised controlled trials found that adding resistance exercise to dietary weight loss did not produce a substantially greater reduction in total body weight compared with diet alone.However, it protected fat free mass, increased fat mass loss and improved muscular strength. This is an important distinction. Two people may lose a similar amount on the scales, but the person who retains more muscle and loses a greater proportion of body fat may achieve the better body composition outcome.There is also specific evidence for exercise during very low energy dietary approaches. A 2025 systematic review examining adults undertaking very low energy diets found that including exercise resulted in significantly greater retention of fat free mass compared with diet alone. Across the studies included in the meta analysis, exercise was associated with approximately 0.83 kg greater retention of fat free mass.Your Muscle Is Metabolically Important
Muscle is sometimes talked about purely in terms of strength or appearance, but skeletal muscle is also an important metabolic organ. It is a major site for glucose uptake and has an important role in insulin sensitivity and blood glucose regulation. This is one reason maintaining muscle becomes increasingly important during weight loss and as we age.When muscles contract during exercise, they increase their demand for glucose and energy. Regular exercise also improves the ability of muscle tissue to respond to insulin. From a metabolic perspective, this is why I would never look at nutrition and exercise as completely separate strategies. A structured eating program can address energy intake and food quality, while exercise helps support muscle function, glucose metabolism, fitness and body composition.For someone following a lower energy, high protein nutrition program, the objective should therefore not be to simply add hours of punishing exercise in an attempt to burn as many calories as possible. The objective is to provide the body with an appropriate exercise stimulus while allowing adequate recovery.Strength Training Should Be Part of the Plan
The new Australian guidelines recommend muscle strengthening activity on at least two days each week, and I think this is particularly important for anyone actively losing weight.During an energy deficit, the body needs a reason to retain muscle. Resistance exercise provides that stimulus. Examples include weights, resistance machines, resistance bands and appropriately programmed body weight exercises. For someone starting out, two whole body resistance sessions each week can be an excellent foundation.The aim is not necessarily to exhaust yourself. A well designed program that trains the major muscle groups and gradually increases resistance as strength improves can be very effective. The science increasingly supports resistance exercise as an important adjunct to dietary weight loss because it helps shift the emphasis from simply becoming lighter to improving body composition.Walking Is More Powerful Than Many People Realise
Formal exercise is only one part of your total daily movement. Your metabolism also responds to what you do during the other hours of your day.This is why the updated Australian guidelines specifically recommend accumulating several hours of light intensity activity and breaking up prolonged sitting.A recent 2026 systematic review and meta analysis involving 39 studies found that interrupting prolonged sitting with brief activity breaks reduced post meal glucose and insulin responses. Walking breaks produced particularly favourable results.Practically, this could be as simple as getting up from your desk regularly, walking while taking a phone call, taking the stairs, parking further away, completing a short walk after a meal or adding another few thousand steps across your day. These activities may not feel like a traditional workout, but accumulated movement matters.A person who completes a 45 minute exercise session and then sits for the remaining waking hours is metabolically experiencing a very different day from someone who exercises and continues to move regularly.Moderate Cardio Can Complement Your Program
The Australian recommendation of at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity on most days provides a useful target. Moderate intensity means you are working hard enough to increase your breathing and heart rate while still being able to maintain the activity. Brisk walking, cycling and swimming are all good examples.If you are undertaking an intensive weight loss program, however, more exercise is not automatically better. Energy intake, current fitness, medical conditions, medications and previous training history all need to be considered. Someone who is already highly trained will tolerate a very different exercise load from someone beginning exercise after a prolonged sedentary period.During a lower energy phase, I would generally prioritise regular walking and sensible resistance training rather than suddenly introducing large volumes of very high intensity exercise. The aim is to support fat loss and muscle retention without creating excessive fatigue or making the nutrition program unnecessarily difficult to sustain.Do Not Forget About Sitting
One of the biggest changes in our understanding of physical activity is recognising that exercise and sedentary behaviour are not the same thing.You can technically complete your exercise session and still spend too much of the remainder of the day sitting. The Australian Government specifically recommends limiting total sedentary time and breaking up prolonged periods of sitting as often as possible.There is good metabolic reasoning behind this. A 2026 meta analysis found that short activity breaks during prolonged sitting significantly improved post meal glucose and insulin responses compared with uninterrupted sitting. This means that improving metabolic health is not only about finding 30 minutes to exercise. It is also about what you do with the remaining hours of your day.Exercise Does Not Replace Nutrition
It is also important to be realistic about what exercise can and cannot do. Exercise is extraordinarily important for health, but it should not be viewed as a way of compensating for an inconsistent diet.When the goal is weight loss, nutrition remains one of the major determinants of the energy deficit. Exercise then adds benefits that extend well beyond simply increasing calorie expenditure. It can help protect muscle, improve strength, improve insulin sensitivity, increase fitness and support better long term metabolic health.This is particularly relevant when following a structured Be Fit Food program. Our Metabolism Reset approach provides a controlled, high protein, lower carbohydrate whole food eating structure designed to create a substantial energy deficit. Adding appropriate movement does not mean trying to double the size of that deficit through excessive exercise. It means using exercise strategically to help protect the tissues and metabolic functions we want to preserve while body fat is reduced.My Formula for Maximising Your Results
For most people, I would start with a relatively simple exercise structure alongside a weight loss program. Aim for around 30 minutes of moderate activity on most days, with walking being an excellent starting point. Include at least two resistance training sessions each week and train the major muscle groups. Keep moving outside your formal exercise sessions by increasing your daily steps and regularly interrupting sitting.Gradually progress your exercise as fitness improves rather than beginning with an unsustainable workload.I would also pay attention to recovery. The new Australian guidelines recognise sleep as part of a healthy 24 hour movement pattern, with seven to nine hours recommended for adults. Recovery matters particularly when energy intake is reduced, because the objective is to give your body an appropriate stimulus and then allow it to recover from that stimulus.If you are new to exercise, have a chronic health condition, are taking medications that influence blood glucose or blood pressure, or have been advised to undertake a very low energy diet for medical reasons, exercise should be individually prescribed with advice from an appropriate health professional.Think Beyond the Scales
Grand Final week might showcase elite athletes at the highest level of physical performance, but the lesson for the rest of us is much simpler. Our bodies are designed to move, and movement should be part of any strategy aimed at improving metabolic health.If you are working on your weight, do not measure success only by how quickly the scales move. Think about whether you are reducing body fat, maintaining muscle, getting stronger, moving more easily and improving the way your body manages glucose and energy.Nutrition and exercise perform different jobs, and we achieve better health outcomes when we use them together.Eat to create the right nutritional environment. Move to protect your muscle and metabolic health. Recover so your body can adapt.
That is how I would think about maximising your results.Kate Save
Accredited Practising Dietitian
Accredited Exercise Physiologist
Diabetes Educator
Co Founder and CEO, Be Fit FoodReferences
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