"Why exercise won't make you thin"

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Article

I am not certain what to make of it, but I do have a few comments. I think the suggested correlation between the increase in exercise and obesity, is dubious at best.

I think there is a lot of /facepalm too e.g. eating a high calorie muffin after a 20 minute run negates the calories burned, no shit? And how the more you use your will power, the weaker it gets. It should not be about will power, but about habits. You change bad habits for good ones. Also, as often sited here, the will power issue is perhaps best dealt with, by having a cheat day every week.

Interested to hear what some of our better fitness educated members have to say.

 

[Megatomic]

I've seen that article hacked apart in a couple of places now. It's ridiculous at best. To waste time dissecting it would be giving the article too much credit.

 

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Originally posted by: Megatomic
I've seen that article hacked apart in a couple of places now. It's ridiculous at best. To waste time dissecting it would be giving the article too much credit.

LInk to one of them? I'd like to read the criticisms. Thanks!

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Well, no crap, Times. I've seen some of the articles Megatomic is talking about. It's called if you eat away your caloric deficit - you won't lose any weight. Weight loss is a diet problem. Exercise CAN be the factor to alleviate that. However, diet is the one thing that will control weight no matter what. It frustrates me how dense people are. Exercising clearly burns calories. If you burn enough calories to start losing weight, then exercise alone can and will help. If you eat so much that you have no caloric deficit, what do you think is going to happen?

Although it may not help you lose weight, especially if you're eating too much, it will decrease risk of certain health factors, no matter your weight. You still may be at an elevated risk compared to others at a healthier weight, but in a specific weight bracket, those who exercise will be healthier.

 

[Megatomic]

Here's the best one I can find quickly. I get his newsletter, he seems to have a lot of good information. IMHO of course.

Text

There were discussions at Runner's World forum of course, if I can find one of those links I'll post it as well.

 

[Unmoosical]

But but but, I run around the track like 4 times and drink 3 Gatorades. I don't know what the problem is...

 

[Firebot]

What a stupid article. It's trying to pass as if exercise doesn't make you thin, when the problem is calorie deficiency and stupid people. If you have no control over yourself and gorge yourself whenever you do a little exercise simply because you are hungry, of course you won't lose weight. It really sounds like the author of the article is a fat cow who's seen exercise not work for him since he's gorging his face, and decided to make an article to reasurre his own failures are really not his fault.

 

[Chebago]

When I read this a month or so ago, I thought the best part of the article was the related articles, specifically this one, which came to this conclusion:

"exercise was more strongly associated with weight loss than any other factor, including diet. Overall, the more the women exercised, the more weight they lost."

The two articles being related made me laugh enough to save them...

 

[Kaido]

From what I've seen, it pretty much boils down to 2 options:

1. Eat clean, and you'll automatically lose weight
2. Exercise for crazy amounts of time, and eat whatever you want, and you'll lose weight

For example:

-You always see the overweight guy at the gym on an exercise bike, who's been there for years doing cardio every day, but refuses to change his eating habits and so he remains the same weight.
-Then you see the girls who don't eat at all, and also don't exercise at all, who are rail-thin.
-Then you see people who eat sensibly, but do little or no exercise and are healthily thin.
-Then you see people who run all the time, eat whatever they want, and are thin

So either eat right and do some or no exercise and you'll lose weight, or do crazy amounts of exercise, eat whatever you want, and lose weight (maybe not as healthy this way haha). I know a girl locally who has a fitness plan she calls "eat whatever you want and then exercise 2 hours a day". This gives her the freedom to eat all the stuff she wants, and then she exercises for 120 minutes every morning and stays in shape. Personally I prefer the "eat right" method since it's a lot easier to do than trying to motivate myself to do long periods of exercise every day

 

[Cstefan]

Originally posted by: Kaido-You always see the overweight guy at the gym on an exercise bike, who's been there for years doing cardio every day, but refuses to change his eating habits and so he remains the same weight.

That was me! Eat 3000+ cals and do 800 cals worth of elliptical 4 times a week. I stayed in stasis for over a year.

 

[KingGheedora]

To me the point of the article was to highlight the fact that there's a large group of fools out there who overeat after exercising because they have no idea how many calories are in the foods they eat vs. how much they burn via exercise. The article doesn't provide any false information but it is a bit on the fluff side. The article could be better titled "Why exercise alone won't make you thin", and most of the attackers would be more chill.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: KingGheedora
To me the point of the article was to highlight the fact that there's a large group of fools out there who overeat after exercising because they have no idea how many calories are in the foods they eat vs. how much they burn via exercise. The article doesn't provide any false information but it is a bit on the fluff side. The article could be better titled "Why exercise alone won't make you thin", and most of the attackers would be more chill.

It wouldn't sell as many magazines if it had that title!

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Megatomic


Text

Good read, thanks.

Originally posted by: Chebago
When I read this a month or so ago, I thought the best part of the article was the related articles, specifically this one, which came to this conclusion:

"exercise was more strongly associated with weight loss than any other factor, including diet. Overall, the more the women exercised, the more weight they lost."

The two articles being related made me laugh enough to save them...

crazy ain't it?

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: Kaido
From what I've seen, it pretty much boils down to 2 options:

1. Eat clean, and you'll automatically lose weight

It probably goes without saying, but you can get fat from eating healthy foods. It's just that unhealthy foods tend to be much more calorically dense than healthy foods, so a typical portion of an unhealthy food is likely to contain many more calories than a healthy food.

I wish everyone would get acquainted with Fitday - it can't help with the willpower aspect of eating right and working out, but it can at least give people a methodical procedure for tracking what they eat each day and making adjustments as necessary.

 

[technologyslice]

New conclusion: Eating greasy fast food and not doing any physical activity will make you thin.

 

[StageLeft]

This is somewhat, though not quite as stupid as saying that water won't keep you alive and then illustrating a person who drinks 8 gallons of it a day and dies from hyponatremia. It's one tool. Just as building a house with only a hammer is rather impossible, it's still a tool that most home builders use. It's just that without the nails (or in this case not eating up your exercise induced deficit), the tool isn't so effective.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: Kaido
From what I've seen, it pretty much boils down to 2 options:

1. Eat clean, and you'll automatically lose weight

It probably goes without saying, but you can get fat from eating healthy foods. It's just that unhealthy foods tend to be much more calorically dense than healthy foods, so a typical portion of an unhealthy food is likely to contain many more calories than a healthy food.

I wish everyone would get acquainted with Fitday - it can't help with the willpower aspect of eating right and working out, but it can at least give people a methodical procedure for tracking what they eat each day and making adjustments as necessary.

You're right - I should amend that to say "Eat clean, with proper portion sizes" :thumbsup:

For me, the best meal plan I've ever been on is "six small, healthy meals a day, every 2-3 hours". First, I'm eating healthy, which is great for my body and helps me feel really good, instead of nasty and greasy like from McDonalds. Second, because I'm eating every few hours, I get consistent energy hits throughout the day that boosts my energy without ever letting it drop. Third, because of all those small meals, I never get a chance to feel "hungry", which is a plus both because I never have to feel super hungry and because it curbs my cravings for junk food because I'm always full!

 

[darkxshade]

I take my health & fitness advice from this journalist like I take gun safety advice from a child.

 

[Blackjack200]

I've spent most of my adult life well overweight and excercising constantly. I didn't lose weight until I reduced both my excercise and diet considerably (obviously, diet was cut more)

I find that there is a total lack of appreciation for what the dieter is going through when they are trying to lose weight. Individuals that are struggling to break sugar/fat/salt addictions that they've had their whole lives simply do not need another activity that will require additional willpower, and on top of that, drive their hunger even more. Also remember that an obese individual is almost certainly dealing with social problems, self-esteem issues, and health issues. But I guess instead of addressing that, it's easier to just make snide comments about muffins and Gatorade. Fine.

For years, psychologist Kelly Brownell ran a lab at Yale that treated obese patients with the standard, drilled-into-your-head combination of more exercise and less food. "What we found was that the treatment of obesity was very frustrating," he says. Only about 5% of participants could keep the weight off, and although those 5% were more likely to exercise than those who got fat again, Brownell says if he were running the program today, "I would probably reorient toward food and away from exercise." In 2005, Brownell co-founded Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, which focuses on food marketing and public policy ? not on encouraging more exercise.

That says it all. To be clear, I am not against excercise. But I no longer view it in the context of keeping my weight under control. I understand that that is controlled by my diet and my diet alone. I excercise because I enjoy the activity (hockey, soccer, softball) or because I like being outside and getting things done (yardwork and gardening etc.)

 

[SP33Demon]

Originally posted by: Special K

Originally posted by: Kaido
From what I've seen, it pretty much boils down to 2 options:

1. Eat clean, and you'll automatically lose weight

It probably goes without saying, but you can get fat from eating healthy foods. It's just that unhealthy foods tend to be much more calorically dense than healthy foods, so a typical portion of an unhealthy food is likely to contain many more calories than a healthy food.

I wish everyone would get acquainted with Fitday - it can't help with the willpower aspect of eating right and working out, but it can at least give people a methodical procedure for tracking what they eat each day and making adjustments as necessary.

Thanks for the Fitday link, might help me a little even though I'm anal about counting calories.

 

[Industrial]

I'm sure the stuff they feed livestock to get big also gets into us, so in effect we pack on weight easier.

Also, all the pharmaceuticals that gets leached into our water I'm sure has some effect. They tested waters from multiple cities and found traces of it.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Blackjack200
I've spent most of my adult life well overweight and excercising constantly. I didn't lose weight until I reduced both my excercise and diet considerably (obviously, diet was cut more)

I find that there is a total lack of appreciation for what the dieter is going through when they are trying to lose weight. Individuals that are struggling to break sugar/fat/salt addictions that they've had their whole lives simply do not need another activity that will require additional willpower, and on top of that, drive their hunger even more. Also remember that an obese individual is almost certainly dealing with social problems, self-esteem issues, and health issues. But I guess instead of addressing that, it's easier to just make snide comments about muffins and Gatorade. Fine.

For years, psychologist Kelly Brownell ran a lab at Yale that treated obese patients with the standard, drilled-into-your-head combination of more exercise and less food. "What we found was that the treatment of obesity was very frustrating," he says. Only about 5% of participants could keep the weight off, and although those 5% were more likely to exercise than those who got fat again, Brownell says if he were running the program today, "I would probably reorient toward food and away from exercise." In 2005, Brownell co-founded Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, which focuses on food marketing and public policy ? not on encouraging more exercise.

That says it all. To be clear, I am not against excercise. But I no longer view it in the context of keeping my weight under control. I understand that that is controlled by my diet and my diet alone. I excercise because I enjoy the activity (hockey, soccer, softball) or because I like being outside and getting things done (yardwork and gardening etc.)

I do think food is most critical. I've never actually met or known anybody to lose a lot of weight, say from fat to really lean, simply by exercise without at least thinking about their diet.

 

[InflatableBuddha]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
I do think food is most critical. I've never actually met or known anybody to lose a lot of weight, say from fat to really lean, simply by exercise without at least thinking about their diet.

Someone linked a recent study in OT a few weeks ago which confirms this. Apparently the dramatic rise in obesity in the US over the past 30 years is linked to increased caloric intake. Overall, exercise frequency did not increase over the same period.

So I agree, eating healthy and in moderation will get you lean/thin. However, it will not make you fit (you need regular exercise to do that), and I think this is a concept that the author, and indeed most of the general public, fails to grasp.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: InflatableBuddha

. However, it will not make you fit (you need regular exercise to do that), and I think this is a concept that the author, and indeed most of the general public, fails to grasp.

And on that note, Moderate drinkers evidently exercise more than non-drinkers Question is: Were they lying in response to the gov. health survey? Just because you say you hit the gym or whatever, does not make it a fact. These "studies" all fail.

 

[evident]

i remember reading this on sunday and thinking it was written in such a trollbait way.