Exercise is wasting our time???

TrailRunner61

Maybe they can explain how I lost 40lbs by walking 3.8 miles per day for 4 months??

Cindy393

Who wrote it? Can you site the article? You really have to consider the source here. Just because it's written, doesn't mean it is scientific fact.

I was just going to post the same. Link please.

This is a pdf file I received from a friend. I quoted the main parts of the study. How can I post a pdf file?

Spiritwarrior3000

I got this from answers.com to help reassure the worried!

No, exercise speeds up your metabolism. Usually this is temporary, though. Your metabolism is what helps your body digest food, store fat cells, use energy, and so on. (Naturally, people can have a wide range of very fast to pretty slow metabolisms.) As you exerciese, your heart pumps faster and you lungs breathe more to keep your body circulated with fresh blood and oxygen to sustain the exercise. It also uses mre energy, burning calories, and increasing your metabolism.

jonnythan

"I meet very few overweight people who feel that exercise has ever helped them lose much or any weight."

I wonder how many normal-weight people he meets that feel exercise helped them lose weight.

Cindy393

without a doubt i didnt really think that i lost fat, from reading posts on here i realized it was probably water lost. But this kinda goes along with what a lot of lifters preach, abot keep cardio to a minimum and concentrate on muscle building. I would love to know what that study says about increase in muscle mass effect on BMR

That's the part that gets me. It says nothing at all about increasing muscle mass!

flynnfinn

Exercise is an INEFFICIENT method of weight loss. Simply because the amount of time and energy that it takes to burn some calories is nothing compared to how easy it is to eat those calories back.

Run for an hour, you have maybe 2 slices of pizza burned.

ain't that the TRUTH!! this is the most intelligent post on this thread!

carrieous

exercise is beneficial for everyone and increases your life span even if you are overweight

Mexicanbigfoot

Hmmm, interesting article. I try to stay within my calories goals everyday. I'm losing weight very slowly. I go to the gym 3-4 days a week and walk at home the other days. I don't exercise just to lose weight, I feel good about toning my body and it's also a natural high for me (I have a long history of depression and exercise really does make me feel better) I say if it's not broke, don't fix it

DanaDark

Article is full of dog crap.

FrnkLft

That article talks about a *starving* person... we already know that when you are not eating enough (with or without exercise) your metabolism slows down.

They are just taking it a step further and blaming exercise so lazy weight-loss-wannabes will buy their product.

We are built with muscle for a reason, sedentary people and their little problems frustrate me.

Kudos to you for lifting and being active, keep it up!

TBirdColorado

Another study came out suggesting that exercise is ONLY effective for people maintaining weight. It isn't beneficial for people trying to LOSE weight:

"Very simply, it appears that exercise lowers metabolism, and it does so to such a degree that it almost exactly compensates for calories burned during exercise. In other words, if you burn 400 calories doing an exercise, your metabolism slows so that you burn 400 calories less."

"I meet very few overweight people who feel that exercise has ever helped them lose much or any weight. This includes people that have taken up very light exercise, but also includes many people who have hired personal trainers, and worked at great intensity for a long time. Indeed when one consults the scientific literature, there is very little evidence to support the notion that exercise is a terribly effective means of weight loss".

This article also no way implies that building muscle revs up our metabolism. I am really upset by all of this. I exercise because it makes me feel good. The article also suggests that people that work out lose at the same rate as someone "sitting and doing suduko puzzles".

With that being said, why do we have trainers like Bob Harper, Shaun T, Jillian Michaels etc. telling is to move? I know there are numerous health benefits to exercise, but seriously? Telling me you won't lose weight by working out?

Exercise is beneficial, PERIOD.
Sitting on your butt is NOT beneficial.

End of story.

mzjessicaxo

If you read it on the internet it must be true! LMFAO.

joliefrijole

Take a look at all of us who replied on this topic, who have lost weight through diet and exercise. We are living proof of debunking that so called article!

LoraF83

This isn't a study - it's an advertisement. Always consider the source.

http://www.hollandclinic.com/About-the-Medical-Weight-Loss-Program-at-Holland-Clinic/exercise-weight-loss/exercise-may-not-improve-weight-loss

^This. If someone wants to sell you something, they'll tell you anything to do it.

Also, personal anecdote time: I exercised fairly regularly for several months and lost no weight. I thought exercise was a bad way to lose weight too. Guess what was really going on? I was eating over my TDEE (including the exercise calories I had burned). You can exercise all you want, but if your still consuming more than you burn, it doesn't matter. I'm guess that's what was happening to all those overweight people mentioned in the article.

JeneticTraining

Not at all. It lowers our risk of CVD and other diseases. It is vital to one's health.

Lisa1971

I think cardio is a waste of time for the most part but lifting is definitely important.

Says the girl with the oh-so-awesome guns!!!!!

Cindy393

thank you all for the interesting and valuable info. I refuse to stop anyway simply because it makes me feel great. I have energy, I look leaner and it's a habit I'm not willing to break. I can't seem to get the article to paste on here. Here is the other little "blurb" I found:

4. Exercise does not burn off pounds
TRUE: It's hard to believe, but in a study of 411 women, those who worked out for over one, two, or three hours a week for six months didn't lose significantly more weight than those who'd devoted themselves to Sudoku or other sedentary pursuits. You'd think this finding was a fluke, but a recent review of 15 studies came to the same conclusion: Moderate workouts don't lead to weight loss, possibly because they make us hungrier. But there's also a biological explanation: As with weight loss, one of the ways your body adapts to an increase in exercise is to lower your resting metabolic rate about 7%, so you actually end up burning fewer calories - anywhere from 50 to 75 fewer per day, the review found.
Make this work for you: While exercise doesn't burn off the bulge, "it does boost your PFF: Pants Fit Factor," says Diana M. Thomas, Ph.D., of Montclair State University in New Jersey. "It helps reduce your waist and gives you a firmer, leaner-looking shape overall." What's more, a dwindling waistline is a key indicator that you're losing belly fat - the dangerous fat type that's linked to health problems like heart disease and diabetes.

Again, nothing about building muscle mass...

LoraF83

thank you all for the interesting and valuable info. I refuse to stop anyway simply because it makes me feel great. I have energy, I look leaner and it's a habit I'm not willing to break. I can't seem to get the article to paste on here. Here is the other little "blurb" I found:

4. Exercise does not burn off pounds
TRUE: It's hard to believe, but in a study of 411 women, those who worked out for over one, two, or three hours a week for six months didn't lose significantly more weight than those who'd devoted themselves to Sudoku or other sedentary pursuits. You'd think this finding was a fluke, but a recent review of 15 studies came to the same conclusion: Moderate workouts don't lead to weight loss, possibly because they make us hungrier. But there's also a biological explanation: As with weight loss, one of the ways your body adapts to an increase in exercise is to lower your resting metabolic rate about 7%, so you actually end up burning fewer calories - anywhere from 50 to 75 fewer per day, the review found.
Make this work for you: While exercise doesn't burn off the bulge, "it does boost your PFF: Pants Fit Factor," says Diana M. Thomas, Ph.D., of Montclair State University in New Jersey. "It helps reduce your waist and gives you a firmer, leaner-looking shape overall." What's more, a dwindling waistline is a key indicator that you're losing belly fat - the dangerous fat type that's linked to health problems like heart disease and diabetes.

Again, nothing about building muscle mass...

And nothing about calorie intake.

Kimsied

Another study came out suggesting that exercise is ONLY effective for people maintaining weight. It isn't beneficial for people trying to LOSE weight:

"Very simply, it appears that exercise lowers metabolism, and it does so to such a degree that it almost exactly compensates for calories burned during exercise. In other words, if you burn 400 calories doing an exercise, your metabolism slows so that you burn 400 calories less."

I haven't read the article but this quote already discredits it. Seriously, it says exercise helps maintain weight but not lose it. Maybe, I could be open to hearing that argument even though it is contrary to my personal experience. But then it says exercise slows metabolism. If that were the case it would not help maintain weight, it would cause the person to gain body fat. The contradiction makes me very skeptical of the authors interpretation of the data.

ksuh999

This is the article:

http://www.hollandclinic.com/About-the-Medical-Weight-Loss-Program-at-Holland-Clinic/exercise-weight-loss/exercise-may-not-improve-weight-loss

Which is actually full of crap, because it cites this article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/opinion/sunday/debunking-the-hunter-gatherer-workout.html

Which refers to this study:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0040503

I'll leave it at that. I presume that most of you won't be able to actually comprehend the study, so take from it what you will.

thinnerkate13

finally an answer that brings in the health aspects. While I'm losing weight I want to lower my cholesterol, strengthen my heart, improve my immune system and just plain old feel better. This all reminds me of the commercial about not believing everything you read on the internet. I can almost see the "French model" now!

Cmeitsmiss

This is the link to the yahoo article: http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/surprising-truth-8-common-diet-strategies-153500816.html

I too had read it yesterday and was in shock.

binknbaby

Just using common sense, though I'm not a scientist by any means, I would venture a guess that the "lower metabolism" they saw was not "lower" but merely "balanced out". It's the same reason why, over time, if you do the same exercises, sometimes your weight loss can stall, because your body gets used to that activity. Just like people who are obese/overweight yet they walk 8 hours a day for their job (prime example: my husband). Their body gets used to it, even though other people, who have desk jobs, might lose weight with the same exact activity. It's not that overall the metabolism slows, but that your body gets used to it, and it becomes "everyday" rather than strenuous activity that raises your heart rate. But the more weight you lose, the more your metabolism balances out and, though it's more efficient, it simply doesn't *need* to burn as much, so it "slows down" over time.

Cmeitsmiss

if the link doesn't work google: The Surprising Truth About 8 Common Diet Strategies | Healthy Living

shortchange1

Is this a peer reviewed study? How large was the group they were studying? Most likely none of this applies and the article was "cherry picking".

Exercise can boost metabolism, at least for a period right after a high intensity workout. This is known as EPOC, or "exercise post oxygen consumption".

mike_ny

I think that the inefficiency of exercise is a real incentive to eat less in the first place. When you first figure out that the 30 minutes of hard work and heavy sweating on a treadmill /bike/ski machine is about the same calories burned as a donut or bagel you start to look at those snack foods a lot differently and it's a lot easier for me to say no.

But, regardless of the not so high calorie burn of a workout, there's still some cool down period where your body is still working hard cooling you off until your heart rate and breathing return to normal (and burning more calories than your BMR to do so), and several other long term benefits that make it worthwhile regardless of the calorie burn.

xxghost

This sounds like something The Onion would write.

smantha32

They are just taking it a step further and blaming exercise so lazy weight-loss-wannabes will buy their product.

Word.

askeates

I exercise because it makes me feel good.

This is what you need to remember! If it makes you feel good, and it is healthy, then why care about this one article?

Keep on moving

belgerian

I dont know about you but Im trying to figue out where 100 lbs went it sure was not by hitting a calorie deficit and running 3-5 times a week by one hour. It must have been from the occasional ice cream ok maybe more than occasional or the occasional pizza I ate.