FDA_TrackerJim said:

Pet owner bonus of training: my dog is also losing weight because we're walking 2-3x more than before.

Gym confidence after training weight loss: walked into a gym for the first time in 10 years yesterday. Was terrified. But you know what? Nobody stared. Nobody judged. Everyone was focused on their own workout.

Started with 20 minutes on the treadmill and some machine-based resistance exercises. Nothing fancy. But I DID IT. And I'll go back tomorrow.

To anyone too intimidated to start: the hardest rep is walking through the door. Everything after that is just movement. 💪

Adding the numbers, since they settle part of this. Say what you would expect to see if you were wrong, before you look. It is a small discipline and it changes what you notice.

RetaRick_CA said:

Gym confidence after training weight loss: walked into a gym for the first time in 10 years yesterday.

Adding the part of the answer the thread has not reached. The honest answer is that the effect is real, the magnitude is contested, and the individual variation is larger than either. Those three things can all be true at once, and most arguments here are two people holding different parts of that.

One thing that is still open after PurityPaulOR’s answer:

How would you tell the difference between that and the alternative explanation?

Reporting back.

For the archive: it took about six weeks rather than the two I expected, and the difference between those two numbers was the whole of my problem.