Getting Started With Exercise: Fix Appetite, Start Slow, Build Strength

Medically reviewed by Dr. Tro Kalayjian and Dr. Laura Buchanan.

Exercise is one of the best things you can do for your health, but “eat less and exercise more” is not a complete weight-loss strategy. It reduces a complex problem to willpower and ignores hunger, food quality, metabolic health, physical limitations and the body’s response to weight loss.

My approach is more practical: get nutrition and appetite under control, begin with movement your body can tolerate, and build from there. You do not need to punish yourself in a gym. You need a plan you can repeat.

Fix appetite first—but do not wait for perfection

For someone with severe obesity, significant pain or very low exercise tolerance, an aggressive workout plan can become one more barrier. In clinical practice, I often make nutrition and appetite the first priority. Some patients spend the first several weeks establishing a sustainable way of eating before adding structured exercise.

That does not mean becoming completely inactive. Walking, biking, swimming, chair-based movement and other tolerable activity can begin at any level. The point is to avoid using exercise as punishment or as a way to compensate for food.

Low-carbohydrate nutrition can make this transition easier for many people. In a two-year randomized trial, people assigned to a low-carbohydrate diet reported larger reductions in carbohydrate and starch cravings and were less bothered by hunger than those assigned to a low-fat diet.[1] Another randomized trial found that a low-carbohydrate diet better preserved peptide YY, a satiety-related hormone, during weight loss.[2]

If exercise makes you hungry, respond with a meal built around protein and satisfying whole foods—not the assumption that the workout “earned” highly processed food.

Start with a habit you can keep

For beginners, walking is enough to start. I lost my first 80 pounds while binge-watching Netflix on my iPad and walking leisurely on a treadmill. I first built the habit and protected the time. Later, when my body was ready, I increased the intensity.

This simple approach is supported by randomized evidence. In the eight-month STRRIDE trial, even the lower-volume exercise groups improved body weight, fat mass and waist measurements compared with an inactive control group. The moderate-intensity program was approximately equivalent to walking 12 miles per week, while a higher amount of exercise produced larger changes.[3]

The best starting exercise is therefore not the program that looks hardest. It is the one you can perform safely this week and repeat next week.

Exercise and nutrition do different jobs

Nutrition is usually the strongest lever for controlling hunger and creating the conditions for substantial fat loss. Exercise adds benefits that diet alone cannot fully replace:

• Aerobic activity builds cardiovascular fitness and work capacity.
• Resistance training builds strength and helps preserve muscle during weight loss.
• Regular movement supports mobility, sleep, mood and day-to-day function.
• Training lets you progress from simply losing weight toward improving body composition and physical capability.

A 2025 meta-analysis of 25 randomized trials found that adding resistance exercise to dietary weight loss did not materially change the number on the scale, but it preserved more fat-free mass, increased fat loss and improved strength compared with diet alone.[4] That is why resistance training matters even when scale weight is not moving faster: it improves the quality of the weight-loss result.

Zone 2 and HIIT are not the same workout

The original versions of this article grouped Zone 2 and high-intensity interval training together. They serve different purposes.

Zone 2 or easy aerobic training is a steady pace that you can sustain. You are breathing faster but can still speak in sentences. Brisk walking, easy cycling, rowing, swimming and an elliptical can all work.

High-intensity interval training, or HIIT, alternates short, hard efforts with longer periods of easier recovery. It can improve fitness efficiently, but it is optional—not a requirement for fat loss and not where most beginners need to start.

In a 12-week randomized trial in adults with obesity, HIIT and moderate-intensity continuous training produced similar reductions in weight and fat. HIIT produced a larger improvement in peak aerobic capacity while requiring less training time.[5] The useful advantage is efficiency and fitness—not a promise that intervals uniquely accelerate fat loss.

Exercise also does not automatically increase appetite or cause overeating. Responses vary. In a 2026 randomized crossover trial of 58 adults with overweight or obesity, with and without type 2 diabetes, a bout of high-intensity interval exercise reduced food intake at the next meal and did not produce compensatory eating over the following 24 hours.[6]

Resistance training should be part of the plan

Resistance training is how you build strength and maintain muscle while losing fat. Beginners can use machines, bands, dumbbells or bodyweight movements. The equipment matters less than using movements that fit your body and progressing them over time.

A simple full-body session can include:

• A knee-dominant movement, such as a chair squat, goblet squat, step-up or leg press.
• A hip-dominant movement, such as a hip bridge, Romanian deadlift or back extension.
• A push, such as a wall push-up, dumbbell press or chest-press machine.
• A pull, such as a band row, cable row or lat pulldown.
• A carry or core movement, such as a farmer carry, plank or dead bug.

Begin with one or two controlled sets of 8 to 15 repetitions for each movement. Finish most sets while you could still perform about two good repetitions. When you can reach the top of the range with good technique, add a small amount of resistance.

Current resistance-training guidance emphasizes training the major muscle groups at least twice per week, gradual progression and consistent effort. It does not require taking every set to muscular failure.[7]

A realistic four-day starter plan

This schedule separates easy aerobic work, resistance training and optional intervals. If four days is too much, begin with the first two sessions and add the others when the routine feels manageable.

Day 1: Easy aerobic activity

• Walk, cycle, row or use an elliptical for 15 to 30 minutes.
• Use a conversational pace.
• Stop while you still feel capable of doing the session again later in the week.

Day 2: Full-body resistance training

• Choose one exercise from each of the five movement patterns above.
• Perform one or two sets of 8 to 15 controlled repetitions.
• Rest enough to keep your form consistent.

Day 3: Easy aerobic activity with optional intervals

• Begin with at least five minutes at an easy pace.
• Continue steadily for 15 to 30 minutes, or add four short intervals if you have already built a base.
• For an interval, work briskly for 15 to 30 seconds, then recover easily for two to three minutes.
• Start around 7 out of 10 effort. A beginner interval should be challenging but controlled—not an all-out sprint or an effort to complete exhaustion.

Day 4: Full-body resistance training

• Repeat the Day 2 movement patterns.
• Use the same exercises while learning them, or choose comfortable alternatives.
• Add repetitions or resistance gradually rather than making every session harder at once.

On other days, use light activity such as walking, biking, hiking or mobility work as tolerated. Rest is also part of the plan.

If you follow a low-carbohydrate or ketogenic diet

Exercise and carbohydrate restriction can work together. In an eight-week randomized trial, adults who combined structured exercise with a low-carbohydrate diet improved cardiorespiratory fitness and fat-mass index more than those who combined the same exercise program with a standard diet.[8]

The same trial also reinforces why resistance training, adequate protein and individual monitoring belong in the plan: people respond differently, and preserving lean tissue matters during weight loss. A low-carbohydrate or ketogenic diet does not eliminate the need to train muscle, recover and eat enough protein.

Watch Dr. Tro explain the approach

Exercise — Fix Appetite, Start Slow, HIIT · 7:17

The bottom line

Fix appetite. Start with movement you can repeat. Build aerobic capacity. Train your muscles. Add intensity when your body and your routine are ready for it.

Exercise does not have to drive weight loss to be valuable. We exercise to become stronger, fitter, more capable and healthier—and those benefits work alongside a sustainable way of eating.

References

1. Martin CK, Rosenbaum D, Han H, et al. Change in food cravings, food preferences, and appetite during a low-carbohydrate and low-fat diet. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2011;19(10):1963–1970. PubMed · Full text · doi:10.1038/oby.2011.62
2. Hu T, Yao L, Reynolds K, et al. The effects of a low-carbohydrate diet on appetite: a randomized controlled trial. Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases. 2016;26(6):476–488. PubMed · doi:10.1016/j.numecd.2015.11.011
3. Slentz CA, Duscha BD, Johnson JL, et al. Effects of the amount of exercise on body weight, body composition, and measures of central obesity: STRRIDE—a randomized controlled study. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2004;164(1):31–39. PubMed · doi:10.1001/archinte.164.1.31
4. Binmahfoz A, Dighriri A, Gray C, Gray SR. Effect of resistance exercise on body composition, muscle strength and cardiometabolic health during dietary weight loss in people living with overweight or obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine. 2025;11(3):e002363. PubMed · Full text · doi:10.1136/bmjsem-2024-002363
5. D'Amuri A, Sanz JM, Capatti E, et al. Effectiveness of high-intensity interval training for weight loss in adults with obesity: a randomised controlled non-inferiority trial. BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine. 2021;7(3):e001021. PubMed · Full text · doi:10.1136/bmjsem-2020-001021
6. Launbo NP, Jalking L, Jensen MM, et al. Effects of exercise and exercise timing on energy intake and appetite control: a randomised crossover trial in people with overweight or obesity with and without type 2 diabetes. EBioMedicine. 2026;129:106353. PubMed · Full text · doi:10.1016/j.ebiom.2026.106353
7. Currier BS, D'Souza AC, Fiatarone Singh MA, et al. American College of Sports Medicine Position Stand. Resistance Training Prescription for Muscle Function, Hypertrophy, and Physical Performance in Healthy Adults: An Overview of Reviews. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2026;58(4):851–872. PubMed · Full text · doi:10.1249/MSS.0000000000003897
8. Perissiou M, Borkoles E, Kobayashi K, Polman R. The effect of an 8 week prescribed exercise and low-carbohydrate diet on cardiorespiratory fitness, body composition and cardiometabolic risk factors in obese individuals: a randomised controlled trial. Nutrients. 2020;12(2):482. PubMed · Full text · doi:10.3390/nu12020482