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
Anyone who says exercise is useless is an idiot. Has it ever occurred that the people who exercise for a living have the best bodies among all human beings, i.e. gymnsts, professional athletes, and personal trainers? Having been to Brazil and China, where people value health and don't gorge while eating, people look thinner and EXTREMELY more attractive. And lastly, before referencing shows like "The Biggest Loser", those trainers explain that progress is more often measured in inches/shape than pounds. Again, toughen up and quit making excuses.
November 23, 2009 - 6:40amThis Comment
Absolutely, Anon. No one would suggest that exercise is useless. It does countless good things for our bodies, our health and our minds. Those who do not get enough of it in their lives are fatter, sicker and more likely to feel depressed or anxious.
But I think the surprise of it was this, at least for me: That once you are a regular exerciser, you can't overestimate its affect on simply your weight. Because often, when we exercise, we see it as an excuse to be able to eat more.
Just Saturday I went rock climbing with a girlfriend (who is thin, by the way), who said "I am going to have a lot of pie on Thanksgivng!" What she meant was that she was paying it forward -- she knew that Thanksgiving was a food challenge up ahead, and she was doing something about it ahead of time.
We have to eat better, regardless of what else we do. And that, I think, is the true message of the magazine article. We can't simply hit the gym three times a week and then go on to eat anything we want. We have to change our diet and eat less if we want to lose weight. Exercise is a tool, and a valuable one, but it's not a panacea if we don't change the core of what we eat.
What you describe in Brazil and China is true in Europe as well. People simply eat less, eat better, and move more. And they are thinner and, yes, more attractive because of it. I can't imagine what it seems like when people from those countries come to visit here, where we are nearing a 40% obesity mark. The ability to get French fries on every corner is undermining us in more ways than we know.
November 24, 2009 - 8:55amThis Comment
Good article for discussion. Diet and exercise go hand in hand, you can't do one without the other. Or should I say you CAN do one without the other but you won't be satisfied with the results.
I have to disagree with abolishing cardio altogether. Cardio, like everything else should be done in moderation. A lifetime of strength training ONLY will leave me looking like someone I have never desired to look like. I like lean muscle, not bulk muscle. For that, light to moderate weights AND cardio are required.
I have too often heard the big misconception of turning Fat to Muscle-- I've even heard personal trainers make that statement. Fat is fat and muscle is muscle. We can build muscle and we can burn fat-- but we should learn to distinguish the two as separate entities and not turn them into one.
Sadly losing weight is not nearly as easy as gaining it, but by far rewarding when we achieve our goals!
Again, great post Diane!
September 11, 2009 - 9:07amThis Comment
Diane P, thank you so much for posting this and also giving us the link to this article. I had heard about the story and I'm glad I got the chance to read it. I think everyone posting has made some excellent points. I've always loved to dance and I can certainly see the difference in my body when I'm doing it regularly versus when I take time off. But I have a good friend who recently lost a ton of weight and she virtually whispered to me over her latte one day that she didn't feel exercise was a huge part of her success. She did exercise and she does think it's definitely important for overall health, but as a calorie burner she didn't think it was making that much of a difference for her. So I guess there are two sides for sure to this article, which sometimes depend on your own experiences. Thanks again everyone for your insight--this has been a great discussion! Michelle
September 7, 2009 - 11:12pmThis Comment
If someone can't control their bad eating habits, how is exercise to blame for their obesity? This article is pointless. As for the number of people who have a gym membership, well, how many of them actually show up to the gym on a daily basis? It's a known fact that people usually stop going after 2 or 3 months but usually sign contracts on a yearly bases. If you eat the appropriate amount of calories and exercise on a daily basis, you will lose weight. By the way, exercise is not a 15 min walk or a set of 10 crunches. You have to exercise for 30 minutes or more, otherwise you are just warming up your muscles. Articles like the one on time magazine do more damage than anything else. The problem here comes down once again to personal responsibility. No one ever points the finger at that. The real culprit here is the amount of fast food people eat, the large portions, and the lack of proper exercise. Making excuses to sit on the couch and eat like a pig will only make you fatter. Time to grow up and stop making excuses. Exercise and eat properly and you will lose weight guaranteed!
September 7, 2009 - 10:06amThis Comment
I do a lot of long distance running, including many half-marathons, and have been a runner for about two decades. I've just started adding some weight training over the past year and my body has become a lot leaner, stronger, and I feel like I have greater endurance as a result. It seems like all of the cardio I've been doing over the years has actually decreased my muscle tone. I've heard people say that it can "eat" up your muscles, and from my experience I think that's true. I've also had a lot of foot and joint pain in recent years due to the stress of running. I think you have to find a happy medium and not do just one form of exercise.
August 17, 2009 - 10:53amThis Comment
I also believe cardio is very important. Cardio is wonderful for the heart as well as strengthens your mind and body. I agree with bfree, don't give it up. There are certainly benefits from any exercise regime.
Just read this information from about.com in regards to the benefits
•Weight loss
•Stronger heart and lungs
•Increased bone density
•Reduced stress
•Reduced risk of heart disease and some types of cancer
•Temporary relief from depression and anxiety
•More confidence about how you feel and how you look
•Better sleep
•More energy
•Setting a good example for your kids to stay active as they get older
You can read more on their website here http://exercise.about.com/od/cardioworkouts/a/cardio_exercise.htm.
Don't give in ladies, keep the cardio pumping.
August 15, 2009 - 8:23amThis Comment
This is hog wash. Basically they are saying that if you can't control your eating habits...give up on cardio and all the benefits it provides such as improved lipid and blood glucose profiles, stronger heart, blah, blah! NEWSFLASH..strength training makes people hungry too. This is nothing more than some fad that has been perpuated by some strength people who want to sell some books and some Kettle Bells. Keep your cardio.
August 15, 2009 - 7:20amThis Comment
The article lost all credibility when the author stated "...convert...fat to muscle...." which is not physiologically possible. Fat cells can't simply un-differentiate and re-differentiate as another tissue. That's akin to skin cells converting to hair cells. It's obvious he has either misunderstood or simply failed to perform any research, and this article is drawn from his own misdirected opinion.
August 14, 2009 - 7:30amThis Comment
Hi, I'm Jim Karas, the author of the New York Times bestseller, "The Cardio-Free Diet."
I believe classic cardiovascular exercise is a COMPLETE waste of time if your goal is weight loss. With 22 years experience in this industry, I totally agree that cardio makes you hungry AND that you don't burn nearly as many calories as you think.
BUT, I strongly disagree that one pound of muscle only burns 6 calories a day. Tufts University has a great deal of research that proves that you can boost your metabolism by up to 15% by strength training. NOTICE, only strength training builds muscle, cardio can actually burn muscle, which is why cardio should be abolished.
When you want to lose weight, you restrict calories. When you do so, you will lose fat AND muscle, and for that reason, your metabolism will go down. Only strength training will build that muscle back or just maintain it. That is why it must be done concurrently with a diet. There is no other option.
Once again, cardio should be abolished if your goal is weight loss.
Jim Karas
August 13, 2009 - 3:03pmThis Comment