There was an article in Time magazine over the Summer titled "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin". I just recently stumbled upon it and, while my initial reaction was to immediately condemn it, I've decided to look at it with more of an open mind and see if what the author is saying has any merit. The author gives us 4 pages of drivel with lots of references to studies funded by various organizations with agendas as well as a person who is the "chair of health wisdom" at a prominent college, in addition to references to his own workout routine that doesn't produce results. Shocking that he is still admittedly overweight considering the "cardio" day he spends with the elliptical machine and stair climber, I know. His point is this, people that exercise at a level more strenuous than simply walking, will eat more to compensate for the strenuous activity and will spend more of the rest of their time not moving at all. This will counteract their weight loss goals with most people either not losing weight, or even gaining weight.
Remember now, this is me keeping an open mind.. The author is right about one thing, and we see it all the time. You walk into Starbucks and you see the overweight group of people in their workout clothes having obviously just come in from a walk or jog, munching on muffins and scones, drinking those big foamy lattes. Go hike an easily accessible mountain peak (easily accessible means anybody can get up to the top) and watch the mountain buffalo unload their backpacks with packages of cookies and chips, washing it down with 20oz bottles of Gatorade. These are people who are burning maybe a few hundred calories, think they're burning about 100x more than that because they're actually doing something active, and compensate by eating crap because they "deserve it". They take in way more calories than they're burning with the result of either no weight loss or even weight gain.
The author of the piece points out the obvious that strenuous exercise makes you hungry, blames people's self-control (which he compares to a muscle that gets weaker every time you use it) when they eat too much effectively over-compensating for the bout of exercise, and comes to the conclusion that little to no exercise more strenuous than walking or gardening along with not eating extra crap will get you the weight loss you desire. Genius! I would also like to throw out there that if your body's metabolism requires 2000 calories a day to maintain the weight you're at today with your sedentary lifestyle and that you eat nothing but 1500 calories worth of Twinkies every day, you will lose 1lb of fat per week until you die of diabetes, cancer, or heart disease. Whichever one wins the race. Hmmm, maybe I'll write an article for Time regarding the weight loss benefits of the Twinkie diet.
The problem with articles like these is that it gives people yet another excuse not to work out. This article was brought to my attention the other day in a conversation by somebody who said "I haven't been in the gym since I read the Time article that said strenuous exercise is bad for you and makes you gain weight.". Sounds retarded, I know. But for most people, if there's an "out" to having to go work out they're going to latch on to it.
The biggest part of the problem is related to lifestyle. If you want to keep the same type of lifestyle that got you fat, and think that 3 or 4 workouts a week is all that's needed to fix it, you're wrong. It gets even worse when people think the 3 or 4 workouts a week are going to allow them to increase the poor choices they've been making.
Strenuous exercise makes the body strong. It makes the mind strong, it increases your energy levels, it defends the body from heart disease and cancer, it increases your metabolism. It makes everything in your life better. Alternatively, lack of strenuous exercise makes you weak. Why would you want to be weak? But strenuous exercise is only a part of it. The nutrition part is huge and so is the lifestyle. If you have a healthy, active lifestyle, make the right nutrition choices, and exercise hard then it is an absolute guarantee that you will not be fat and weak.
People who write crap like this piece in Time are pandering to the population's never ending search for the easy way out. It sells magazines. Nobody wants to hear that they have to actually work hard to get in shape and stay in shape. Nobody wants to hear they can't eat ice cream, cookies, cake and drink as much wine and beer as they want. So they eat these articles up, they latch onto the bogus message that, "if I just don't exercise too much I'll stop gaining so much friggin weight.". People need to stop looking in magazines to reinforce their lack of self control, willpower, and commitment to an active and healthy lifestyle. If you want to be strong and healthy it takes hard work and self control. Anybody that tells you different is full of shit. There are no shortcuts.
Best,
kevin
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