Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin
 

I just got finished reading this article and I wanted to share it with everyone and get some other opinions.

http://www.time.com/time/health/arti...4857-1,00.html

Personally, it makes me really mad :mad: but maybe because it's challenging what I've grown to accept as reality. Albeit, the author actually has his facts down and I don't necessarily disagree with anything he's saying (or do I? I don't recall)... it's a very discouraging.

Yet at the same time, it's another point of view and it isn't horrible to consider what he's saying... I don't know.

What do you guys think?

I've read the article before and it rings true to my personal experience with exercise. I get so hungry from working out that every time I tried to add it in in the past, I would gain weight from eating way more than I burned off.

I diet to lose weight. I exercise to become fit, strong and toned. I've only been able to successfully integrate exercise recently because I have my diet in an iron death grip.

That's just me though. I think there are definitely tons of success stories here where people use exercise primarily to lose weight, with diet being secondary.

Just another experiment of one :)

I think gym memberships have gone up as a response to obesity rates, but I don't think that attendance is up, fwiw.

Now, I will be the first to admit that I could exercise all day every day, but I didn't lose a pound until I fixed my diet. Our problem with obesity is mostly due to our diet, in my opinion.

BUT.

I can't ignore the fact that I have a much easier time maintaining when I keep up with my exercise. I feel better. I'm inspired to eat better. I look better (naked). I don't get depressed. All of these are components that help me make better choices that assist in maintenance. I have just found a ton of benefits to exercise, I guess.

I really hate articles like that :lol:

Hmmm, well, I do agree with a lot of things the author is saying. It's true that I have often ended up eating food after exercising in the past - I recall going to my karate classes during high school in the evenings after eating dinner, and then coming home hungry and eating a bowl of cereal or some pizza. Even now, when I've done a lot of exercise, I have a tendency to allow myself some extra goodies. So I suppose it is quite likely that people might compensate for all their exercise by eating more food.

However, back when I was going to my karate classes 3 times a week and eating a second evening meal afterwards, I was in the best shape of my entire life. I wasn't thin, mind you, but I lost a fair amount of weight over those two years (30 pounds) and went from a size 22 to a size 14. So I do think that exercise is still important for losing weight and changing your body shape.

I read somewhere on 3FC that weight loss is 80% diet/20% exercise. Also, I've read the saying "You can't out-exercise bad eating habits." I think both of these are true. I'd have to exercise for several hours a day if I wanted to even try to stay ahead of a diet of high fat, high calorie food. And who can exercise that much each day?
For me, exercise is a complement to my overall plan to be healthy. When I exercise, I eat better because I feel I am taking charge of my health. And of course, exercise releases stress and tones muscles so that our bodies are slimmer, even if our weight stays the same. Exercise keeps us flexible and stimulates the cardiovascular system and our brains as we age. Too many GOOD reasons to even list here.
Weight loss may not be exercise's top benefit, but I still rate exercise as a priority in my overall plan.

I completely agree that diet and exercise is 80% to 20%

I used to train my *** off 5 days a week and still eat like a pig - and did i lose any weight- no way!

But i can watch what i eat, and not exercise at all..and i will drop weight easily!

Exercise is still extremely beneficial to your health however, and makes you feel amazing.

I personally cant lose weight just from working out. Ive been working out for a year come july and to be honest I havent been serious about diet until the last month or so. And I havent lost much weight now that I watch what I eat im getting back on the right track. Working out isnt as hard as eating right if you ask me lol food is sooo my addiction but im working on it

For ME, it's exercise that makes the difference. But I notice when I read this article or even complaints from 3FC folks that are "working out but not losing weight" that the total exercise is only a few hours a week and often they are counting their strength training as exercise time. While I do some weight lifting and yoga, I don't count those as calorie burning exercise. I only "count" cardio and do at least 6 hours per week.

Not discounting the diet portion, but I didn't have to tweak my eating that much when I decided to lose weight. I definitely improved it, but not dramatically enough that would account for the weight loss I have had so far.

....first I must admit that I only skimmed the article. :o

On the site I use to count calories you get to eat more when you exercise. A lot of people get confused by this (you know, why the heck did I just burn all these calories if I'm just eating them back?!?) because it keeps you at a certain deficit. The whole 500 calories a day equals one pound a week, if you burn 200 that makes it 700, etc. The only problem with this is, of course, overestimating how many calories you've burned. But I lost 57 pounds exercising (and challenging myself with it) about 5 to 6 days a week and eating my exercise calories. And most weeks when I was correctly on plan I lost my targeted one pound a week. (Granted, there were many weeks I wasn't on plan at all and either didn't lose or maintained, and after a year of not keeping up with calories I'm back up several pounds. But that was all my own fault.)

So I think the issue isn't so much exercise can't "make you thin" but that it absolutely MUST be coupled with careful and healthful eating. And if the focus is on being a fit and healthy person and not just "thin" then exercise has to be incorporated into the mix, in my opinion.

I am sure there is something in this article that had a purpose. This to me was one of those things that we read that helps us not do the things that we know we should be doing like moving our fat *&*** around so that we feel better, look better and can move the furniture we out having to sound like we are having a heart attack. When we exercise the body does need fuel but it is the type of fuel we give it. Instead of having a candy bar or chips I drink a HMR shake that makes me full and I also know mentally that I didn't plow all the work I just accomplished. I also like when I can tell Lisa, my health educator, that I did 4500 PA for the week, that I did something FOR ME!

I kind of disagree…I think exercise (especially cardio) has really helped my weight loss. I’ve started running a little recently and the same scale that had been stuck for a week or so has started moving. My diet has not changed, so it’s a safe assumption to make that the increase or change in my exercise habits is at least partially to thank for that.

Also, when I exercise, I feel healthy and in charge and proud of myself. I’m much less likely to go home and eat a carton of ice cream after I get done walking 3 miles. In fact, most of my binges or overindulgences occur on days I have not worked out. I just feel lazy and bored and like a slug and like…why not?

Everyone is different, but I echo a lot of what caryesings said.

Hmm I think I'm one of the odd ones... exercise completely makes the difference for me and the number on the scale. I cannot lose weight by just dieting... the scale only moves if I exercise along with it. That was the main difference between success/failure for me this time when I successfully lost weight. Before I tried to diet and do minimal exercise, and would not get very far. Throwing in an intense cardio session (running) 40 minutes/4-5 days a week made the weight come off fairly easily.

There are SOME things that make me hungrier... like when I add in weight lifting, the day after my session I am ravenous... but I still try to eat as closely to my calories as possible. As long as no one is holding a gun to my head and forcing me to eat ben and jerry's, I still have control over what I put in my mouth. :)

This article made me roll my eyes a lot.

It basically repeats over and over again that working out and then deciding to treat yourself to extra fattening food because you've worked out won't help you lose weight.
Going for a 20 minute run, then guzzling a sugar and calorie-filled Gatorade will cancel out the work you've done, and you won't lose weight.

THEREFORE. VIS-A-VIS. We've come to the MIRACULOUS conclusion that exercise won't make you lose weight?

Well done, John Cloud of Time Magazine. I'm enthralled with your hereto unheard of logic.
If you simply reworded the article title from "Exercise won't make you lose weight" to "Exercise won't help you lose weight," they would be flat-out lying.

A calorie deficit equals weight loss. Exercise burns calories. If you create a deficit by eating a low-to-medium calorie diet, and burn enough calories through exercise, you will lose weight. It's as simple as that.

I exercise and eat fairly well to feel good, not to lose weight. This approach has helped me lose over 40lbs - slowly, yes, but it works for me. Better gone slowly than not at all!

I exercise and stay on a calorie controlled diet because once I do lose the weight, I don't want to be one of those unhealthy skinny people with no muscle tone and folds of skin hanging off of my body. I want to be the active one, the one who can hike with everyone, and feels comfortable in a bathing suit. That's why I exercise... ooh and to prevent those little jiggly arm things!

I think this is why this article makes me angry the most. :D I was (am?) the type of girl to look for any excuse to not exercise. And now that I am, and I go and read something like this... I start losing focus on what the point is if it's as unhelpful (and even a bit dangerous) as this guy points out.

Not that one measly little article will make me stop though.

I read this article a while back, there were like 4 other threads about it on here. I understand the argument that if you exercise and don't eat healthy, it won't work. But I can barely lose weight if I don't exercise. I HAVE to do both. What really annoyed me in the article is his whole theory of the "will power muscle" keeping you from making healthy food choices because you just used all of your will power to make yourself work out. You're bullsh*ting yourself dude.

oh, and an excellent response to that article: http://www.burnthefatblog.com/archiv...es_the_fit.php

Now, I will be the first to admit that I could exercise all day every day, but I didn't lose a pound until I fixed my diet. Our problem with obesity is mostly due to our diet, in my opinion.

BUT.

I can't ignore the fact that I have a much easier time maintaining when I keep up with my exercise. I feel better. I'm inspired to eat better. I look better (naked). I don't get depressed. All of these are components that help me make better choices that assist in maintenance. I have just found a ton of benefits to exercise, I guess.


I totally agree with this. I feel like crap when I don't work out and eat right. I think my body even got used to not eating junk food and I feel great. Recently I have totally slacked off, because I'm on vacation and the food everywhere seems good! But I totally agree that mixing exercise with good eating habits makes you feel good, because the healthy food we eat does give us strength and nutrition! :D

YES. This is what makes me a little upset. I'm not saying the article should lie and say that exercise helps you lose weight when it doesn't, but it seems to be giving people the excuse to not exercise, because experts are saying that it won't help. And although it does say there are other benefits to exercise, it's not really emphasizing that, and is rather talking about eating a bunch of unhealthy things after exercising.

But it seems to lose sight of the fact that basically what he is talking about in the article is caloric input > caloric output, and that's what makes people gain weight, not the exercising part. We shouldn't be blaming exercising as the culprit for not losing weight.

Do these kind of articles do more harm than good? I dunno. Not that I'm advocating censoring AT ALL, but realistically, what is the practicality in this?

And finally, an issue that I take wit this is that they say gym membership has gone up while obesity has climbed as well. Okay. Well, those numbers look to be damning, but TRULY, how many obese people are gym members? When I go to the gym, I see very few - some chubby, yes, but obese? Little to none. So . . . again, how statistics can be used to prove almost anything.



Alright, I'm off to do P90X.

Thank god Jelbb, I agree with you. Exercise makes you hungry? If you eat a s*** ton of food you'll gain weight? So exercise=hungry=weight gain? wtf?!? Are they saying that people who get hungry cant lose weight?! Seriously?!

And exercising decreases our self control later so we're more likely to eat those chips? So theres no hope for exercise? Oh COME ON. Here's an idea: IF YOU ARE GOING TO EXERCISE TO LOSE WEIGHT TRY NOT KEEPING CHIPS IN YOUR HOUSE.

I have to go wash my eyes out now