This week's Time magazine piqued our interest. The cover headline reads "The Myth About Exercise: Of course it's good for you, but it won't make you lose weight. Why it's what you eat that really counts." Of course, we wanted to know more about the reasons why exercise fuels hunger, not weight loss.
Leaving health researchers to now ask, "Is exercise really needed for weight loss?"
The answer may surprise you.
John Cloud, the author of this Time magazine cover story cites a breakthrough study in which overweight women were assigned to four different exercise groups, three of which exercised and one did not. The results were eye-opening: The women who exercised for six months with a personal trainer did not lose significantly more weight than those women who did not exercise.
Other researchers have drawn similar conclusions. Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories, makes a similar argument citing additional studies. Primarily, that to lose weight, exercise may not be the magic bullet it was once thought to be. However, for maintenance of a healthy weight and body, some form of moderate exercise every day, even just moving more by walking to do errands or biking to work, might help to keep us lean more so than hitting the gym a few evenings each week.
According to this Time article by John Cloud, we need to look to our ancestors for the answers. Their movement was consistent throughout the day, not at heart-racing rates, but steady motions like walking, laboring and performing daily chores. In fact, as Cloud suggests, researchers have shown that our practice of sitting behind desks all day and then sweating it out at the gym may not be working to our advantage. Instead, he suggests engaging in regular bouts of physical activity throughout the day might be more effective for keeping off weight.
This rather surprising news that exercise may not be as mandatory as we thought in our quest to lose weight comes with perils. Information like this can quickly be misconstrued and misinterpreted by the general public. With 34 percent of the U.S. population obese and 32 percent overweight, Americans surely do not need to be told to exercise less in order to improve their health. Exercise has very clear and well-documented benefits. From improving mood to supporting lean muscle mass and enhancing sleep quality, the benefits of exercise cannot and should not be underestimated.
Public health and medical professionals should remain vocal about keeping the public informed about the benefits of regular physical activity as a mainstay component of a healthy lifestyle.
Learn more about maintaining a healthy diet at DietsInReview.com.
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