Fitness Fallacy Alert

Recently Time Magazine has published an article questioning the effectiveness of exercise as a strategy for weight loss. While the article makes some good points, one is tempted to draw some incorrect conclusions from it.

You can read the full article here:

Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin in Time Magazine On-Line (you will have to click back to return to this page)

Essentially the author is pointing out that with increased exercise appetite often increases, resulting in caloric intake that exceeds the expenditure. In other words, you are taking in more than you burn even with the exercise. While this can happen, the incorrect conclusion is to avoid exercise. Here's why:

• Exercise has temendous benefits that exceed beyond weight loss. It reduces likelihood of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, depression, anxiety...blah, blah, blah we all know this. Exercise = a longer life.
  
• Despite these innumerable benefits, exercise WILL help you loose weight if you use a little bit of self-control with your eating. If you earn a raise at work but then dramatically increase spending, you will end up broke. The key here is to watch what you eat AND exercise.
  
• In 10 years as a personal trainer, my clients who exercise without substantially changing their diet see wonderful changes in their body, but not the scale. Their clothes fit better and they look great. The only thing that doesn't change dramatically is the scale weight. A small number of lbs lost but many inches lost.
  
• Clients who increase exercise AND are disciplined with eating see the greatest changes.

Let's face it; at the end of the day Time is not going to sell magazines by telling you exercise is good for you. We all already know that. Researchers make a name for themselves by writing articles that fly in the face of common sense, and citing scientific evidence to support it.

Work on both ends of the equation. If you are a runner or triathlete you STILL MUST pay attention to your eating. And if you are desiring to lose some weight and change your body, BOTH exercise and diet should be part of the equation.