This is just all we need, isn't it? Here we are, working on the ellipitical or walking around the neighborhood, counting our calories or carbs and offsetting our food with exercise so we can lose weight. And now TIME Magazine comes along and tells us that's not the deal at all.
Other than the fact that the couch potatoes among us now have a fun new reason to say "See, I told you I could exercise by using the remote control alone," the rest of us are probably groaning. Maybe it took us a while to accept exercise as a regular part of our lifestyle. Maybe we don't really enjoy it, but we're trying to lose weight and we knew it was part of the process. Exercise affects your metabolism, which affects your calorie-burning, right? Exercise builds muscle, which uses more calories than fat, right? And to lose weight, we hear it over and over and OVER again: Diet and exercise. Diet and exercise. Diet and exercise. The two might as well be married.
OK. I'm getting over my tantrum now. The point of the article is not to say that exercise is useless; exactly the opposite, in fact. Exercise is important and vital for a strong, healthy body. The point of the article was to say that it's not necessarily integral to weight loss.
Here's some evidence. 45 million of us belong to health clubs, paying an enormous $19 billion a year. And yet more and more of us are overweight than ever.
Here's an excerpt from the article:
""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...
"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."
Hmmmm.
My eyebrow is raised. It does make sense, and I am hungrier on days when I exercise than I am on days when I don't. But I am still skeptical. What about building muscle to burn more calories?
The TIME reporter anticipates my concerns. He goes on to explain.
"The muscle-fat relationship is often misunderstood. According to calculations published in the journal Obesity Research by a Columbia University team in 2001, a pound of muscle burns approximately six calories a day in a resting body, compared with the two calories that a pound of fat burns. Which means that after you work out hard enough to convert, say, 10 lb. of fat to muscle — a major achievement — you would be able to eat only an extra 40 calories per day, about the amount in a teaspoon of butter, before beginning to gain weight. Good luck with that."
I am beginning to listen.
"All this helps explain why our herculean exercise over the past 30 years — all the personal trainers, StairMasters and VersaClimbers; all the Pilates classes and yoga retreats and fat camps — hasn't made us thinner. After we exercise, we often crave sugary calories like those in muffins or in "sports" drinks like Gatorade. A standard 20-oz. bottle of Gatorade contains 130 calories. If you're hot and thirsty after a 20-minute run in summer heat, it's easy to guzzle that bottle in 20 seconds, in which case the caloric expenditure and the caloric intake are probably a wash. From a weight-loss perspective, you would have been better off sitting on the sofa knitting," the reporter writes.
So what to do? Exercise, but do it for your health. Eat less and eat nutritiously, with an eye toward calories, if you're trying to lose weight. And after those 30 minutes on the elliptical, don't fool yourself into thinking there's a donut in your future. Apparently, it just doesn't add up.
Here's the entire TIME article:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914857-1,00.html
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Add a Comment16 Comments
Hi, Jim,
Thanks so much for your helpful comment. I'm the partnership manager with EmpowHer and would love to talk with you. Could you please email me at your convenience at [email protected]?
Warm regards,
August 13, 2009 - 3:08pmKristin
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I'd like to clear something up for those of you reading this. One cannot "CONVERT" fat to muscle. That is physically impossible, they are two structurally different components of the body. Exercise will burn the fat and build the muscle but DOES NOT change fat to muscle. A proper diet aids in faster recovery and results! The two go hand in hand. People need to stop making excuses and get tough!
August 12, 2009 - 5:47pmThis Comment
I keep trying, lol! I'm not losing an ounce, but my body shape is improving.
The carbs are good for pre- and re-fueling workouts. But, a balance of protein with carbs post-workout helps muscle recovery.
August 6, 2009 - 5:51pmThis Comment
Yes, you have to do both -- watch your diet and incorporate regular exercise in your life in order to be at a healthy weight. I think it might be easy for people to assume they can go after the carbs and sugar-filled drinks when they've worked out, as if the burned up calories somehow magically cancel out the additional carbs/sugar, but it doesn't work that way.
August 6, 2009 - 5:26pmThis Comment
your citing the "45 million of us belong to health clubs..." is misleading. The author provides no evidence that the 45 million are part of the obese demographic. In fact they could the the proportion that *aren't* in that demographic. This article only says exercise alone isn't the key, that isn't anything new. Exercise and diet, especially the latter is the key
August 6, 2009 - 2:46pmThis Comment
This is interesting! And yes...annoying! But the good thing is that working out DOES tighten and give firmness and shape to the body which makes one look better as well as feel great. I know a lot of thin, flabby people who eat nothing and don't work out and also some firm, muscular people who work out and look waaaaayyyy better.
August 6, 2009 - 10:29amTo get shape, definition and tone, you can't do THAT with diet alone...you need to pump a little iron.
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