From Time Magazine – Please Login or Register to see the link.

Exercise - or not?

The conventional wisdom that exercise is essential for shedding pounds is actually fairly new. As recently as the 1960s, doctors routinely advised against rigorous exercise, particularly for older adults who could injure themselves. Today doctors encourage even their oldest patients to exercise, which is sound advice for many reasons: People who regularly exercise are at significantly lower risk for all manner of diseases — those of the heart in particular. They less often develop cancer, diabetes and many other illnesses. But the past few years of obesity research show that the role of exercise in weight loss has been wildly overstated.

“In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless,” says Eric Ravussin, chair in diabetes and metabolism at Louisiana State University and a prominent exercise researcher. Many recent studies have found that exercise isn’t as important in helping people lose weight as you hear so regularly in gym advertisements or on shows like The Biggest Loser — or, for that matter, from magazines like this one.

The basic problem is that while it’s true that exercise burns calories and that you must burn calories to lose weight, exercise has another effect: it can stimulate hunger. That causes us to eat more, which in turn can negate the weight-loss benefits we just accrued. Exercise, in other words, isn’t necessarily helping us lose weight. It may even be making it harder.

I think the lesson is – exercise ALONE won’t make you thin. You have to have a healthy diet with moderate exercise in order to lose weight. You have to burn off more calories than you consume – and you have to eat HEALTHY FOODS. TIME is somewhat irresponsible in stating that exercise is pointless – exercise is a KEY component to regaining health.

The argument being used by the writer is that exercise makes you hungry. BUT that doesn’t mean you should turn to unhealthy foods to fill that hunger. It’s all about CALORIES IN vs. CALORIES OUT. If you create a calorie deficit through diet restrictions and exercise combined – you WILL lose weight.

Do you think the writer will give those of us battling our weight and obesity yet another excuse to stop exercising? Being heavy the majority of my adult life – the fatty in me wants to say “Woo Hoo!!! Exercise is BAD for me!! I don’t have to do it anymore!!” But the grown up me knows that I need to lower my weight to regain my overall health.

Bob Harpers comments of Facebook after seeing the article:

I’m upset with the front page of Time Magazine. Exercise is crucial to weight loss and more importantly, A HEALTHY HEART!!!

And he should be uspet – this one article could turn the fitness industry upside down.