The men who made us thin

Fozzi43

I watched it..I exercise because it makes me feel good, I eat carefully to lose weight.

bcattoes

Most scientists are clueless; I know, I used to be one and I have worked with hundreds. A lot of doctors are too. Anyway, if you move you use energy, exercise is vigorous movement. Bike for an hour a day and keep the same diet and you will see the weight fall off.

Must surely depend on "same diet"?

Full English for breakfast, couple of pints plus burger & chips in Weatherpsoon's for lunch, pie, chips & beans for dinner then maybe a cheese sarnie and a few pints down the pub, with perhaps a bag or so of pork scratchings or crisps later and maybe a Chinese or Indian takeaway on way home?

I doubt even if you rode bike to pub it would have much help with weight loss

OK I really know you meant sensible diet, but I took the programme to be saying that some seem to think, possibly ill informed , may be by deliberate omission in adverts & commercialism selling exercise, they can eat as above, go to gym, or ride bike, or whatever once a week and it will negate all the calories

Agree. If you are maintaining your weight, regardless of whether you are thin or fat, and you make no changes other than to add exercise, then you should lose weight because the exercise will create a deficit.

If you are actively gaining weight, then whether added exercise causes you to lose would depend on whether your daily surplus before the exercise was more than the added burn.

BHKLEIN

I haven't watched this, but what I assume they are trying to say in the typical sensationalized style of most documentaries, is that exercise alone is not enough to lose weight. First of all, most people over estimate the number of calories they burn with exercise. Then there's the misnomer that if I just exercise more, I can eat more. It doesn't work that way. You can lose a lot of weight without doing any cardio at all. What you should be doing is strength training so you don't end up at your goal weight with no muscle and a high body fat percentage.

That doesn't mean that cardio doesn't have it's place. It's good for your heart and it's been proven effective in elevating your mood. But, after about the first 20 minutes, the effectiveness of cardio begin to diminish so killing yourself doing 1 to 2 hours of cardio a day is pretty ineffectual. If you do it because you love then go for it but don't expect that to be enough to help you lose weight and more importantly, keep it off.

What's more important, is adding muscle and NEAT. The number of calories you burn through non-exercise activities. The more you fidget and move around during the day can have a significant impact on how many calories you burn, depending on the individual. Stand instead of sit. Park far away and walk. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Just getting on the treadmill for 30 minutes and then sitting on your *kitten* the rest of the day is not going to help you lose weight.

^^ This.... I feel this is very correct in most cases. Healthy calorie deficiency with a good diet and lots of moving is key for most to loose weight and change your lifestyle. Adding at least some muscle is important if you want to look fit and toned as you loose weight. No one wants to loose a bunch of weight and have extra skin hanging everywhere. I think a nice healthy mix of diet, cardio, strength training and stretching is the best way to get an all around healthier you! Exercise alone can help you loose weight, but it all depends on how much you are eatting and what kind of exercise you're doing as well. So, I think this documentary is not entirely true but it does point out that you need to combine methods for the best weight loss and not just exercise alone.

maillemaker

Exercise is good for you. It makes you healthy. But you can't out-train a bad diet.

I ride the recumbent Cybex bicycle at the gym in fat loss mode for 30 minutes on level 4 every trip to the gym. I typically burn 108 calories doing this.

That's not even equivalent to a bag of popcorn.

The key to weight loss is maintaining a calorie deficit. Exercise can help do this, but most people will find it takes far more effort to exercise off a Snicker's bar than it does to not eat the Snicker's bar in the first place.

InForBacon

Exercise and a clean diet 90% of the time are the only two things you need in order to lose weight/get in shape. There are millions of people who have done it that way, including myself. No magic pills/WW/JC needed. Nature has given us the tools. People need to stop over-complicating things.

LOL at needing to eat clean.

EvgeniZyntx

Watched a documentary earlier this week as above. A scientist was claiming that exercise won't make one lose weight because it can't be done on a big enough scale to make any difference. It also said that if one did some exercise during the day then one would compensate for the rest of the day and be less active. Well this is how I interpreted it.

Disappointed to hear this. What about exercise increasing muscle to fat ratios and raising metabolism?

Did anyone watch this? Have any opinions?

Ok, that's episode 2.

Yes, exercise is not an effective way to work off calories IF YOUR DIETARY INTAKE IS EXCESSIVE. This is what the documentary says. Basically you cannot work off a bad diet. Especially with mindless cardio in a gym.

If you focus on health and happiness - excercise has a great role.
If you want to focus on weight loss - cardio (and strength training) exercise can help on helping build a calorie deficit along with diet.
If you want to focus on looks - a balance of strength training (and some cardio for some) can help on body fat and composition.

The message I saw was focus on health goals and it all comes together.