Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin and Why Time Magazine Is Wrong

Posted in Balanced Body, Most Popular | August 12, 2009 | 13 Comments

This post was written by Anastasiya. Follow me on Twitter or StumbleUpon and keep your life balanced!

“In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless,” that’s the excerpt that sums up a huge 4-page article in the last issue of Time Magazine. Here are some key points that will shed some light on the modern outlook on exercise shared by Time.

Exercise is an obsolete technique that became popular in 80s-90s and that has nothing to do with weight loss.
Actually exercise will make you gain weight because it will trigger your hunger and make you almost double your caloric intake.

Running, Pilates, Yoga, weight-lifting, and any other more or less strenuous workout is useless and even dangerous for your health.
Our ancestors were not exercising and they were perfectly fine by being just active and they definitely didn’t suffer from obesity.
In spite of the popularity of exercise the rates of obesity are growing all over the world reaching a whopping 30% in the United States.
Exercise for weight loss is a fad that has become popular just recently and has no scientific proof or background.
The recent guidelines of the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association state that “to lose weight … 60 to 90 minutes of physical activity may be necessary (on most days of the week)”and that is unrealistic for any normal person trying to make his/her living.
“Self-control is like a muscle: it weakens each day after you use it. If you force yourself to jog for an hour, your self-regulatory capacity is proportionately enfeebled.” (a quote from the article)

After reading this you have no choice but give up all kinds of exercise and enjoy that extra crispy cream doughnut as a compensation for being fooled for a few decades and for sweating in vain on that tread mill. I am sure millions of people who read this article (and still are going to read it in the next few weeks) will use it as a perfect excuse to stop exercising because “if Time magazine devoted the whole front page to this matter then it must be true”. Sometimes raw logic and common sense make more sense than all kinds of studies and research held by science quacks that are ready to prove anything as long as they get their research money.

So here is why Time Magazine is wrong and why you should still use exercise for weight loss.

If exercise has nothing to do with weight loss then how could thousands of people lose weight by doing aerobics with Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons in the 80s, get almost super-model bodies by working out with Cindy Crawford in the 90s and go beyond any weight loss boundaries with kick-boxing, running, Zumba and whatever else that has been around in the past decade? Exercise became popular because it produced results. Look around you; I am sure you can find at least 5 people among your friends and neighbors who lost weight through exercise (you can count me in because I did). And now somebody is going to tell you that exercise does not work for weight loss and that it is a thing from the past? Ridiculous!
Exercise does not make you hungrier but a lot of overweight people have weak will power and they want to “compensate for the sufferings” they’ve just had (meaning exercise). If you are looking for excuses to eat more, then no exercise and no diet will make you lose weight. You must be consistent in your program and do not give in to any temptation. By the way, for many people exercise has a hunger-suppressing affect (that’s my case) but this affect has not been studied properly yet. (Maybe that will be in the next issue of Time magazine:-))
No matter what you are doing you must be using your brain to exercise safely. Your doctor can tell you what workouts are suitable for you and which ones are not. All people are different and what works for one can be a potential danger for another. Start any routine slowly, be consistent, do not overtrain and listen to your body and you will get only positive results from your exercise.
Our ancestors were MUCH MORE active then we are today. How many people today are carrying huge stone blocks or rocks to build their houses (modern equivalent: weight-lifting)? How many people walk for 4 or 5 hours a day, ride horses or run to catch a deer or a rabbit for supper? And how often do you have to dig a hundred-foot-deep well to get water for irrigation of your fields and for your personal needs? Well, there is no way that we can get the type of exercise that our ancestors got years before but we can duplicate most any of these exercises in our completely mechanized modern world.
The rates of obesity grow proportionally with the sizes of portions at the restaurants, long hours spent in front of the computer, TV or behind the wheel. People who exercise regularly do not get obese and that’s a fact.
If anybody says that there is not enough data proving that exercise is beneficial for weight loss then they probably do not know what Google is. Try to google “exercise for weight loss” and you will be overwhelmed with the amount of information that you will get. Here are just a few studies if you have some time to look through them:
Exercise trumps diet for weight loss
Study confirms: Don’t reward yourself for calories burned
Modest exercise can prevent weight gain
Exercise for maintaining weight
The recent guidelines of the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association state we need 60 to 90 minutes of MODERATE exercise a day to lose weight. Moderate exercise includes walking, gardening, going up and down the stairs, vacuuming the house and even washing the car. It’s absolutely realistic to be moderately active for 60-90 minutes every day while living a busy life in a modern society.
If self-control is a muscle then it should be only strengthened every time you use it. Do your legs weaken every day after you walk or run? Quite the opposite, they only get stronger. So does your self-control and will power. It might be tough at the beginning and you will be more likely to give in to some cravings or to some laziness but after just a few weeks that blueberry muffin won’t look that appealing after a strenuous workout at the gym.

Exercise is an important part of a weight loss program, no matter what hungry-for-money-and-sensation writers at Time magazine want to tell us. It is true that the best weight loss results are achieved through a combination of diet and exercise and none of these components should be undervalued in a modern society. We eat too much, we move too little, we are inactive sedentary individuals and we should not be told that exercise is useless.

Keep it balanced!

Smart Thoughts (13)

Janelle says:

August 13, 2009 at 10:19 am

I absolutely agree with you that exercise DOES have to do with weight loss. The reason there is so much obesity in the world today is because the vast majority of people do nothing but go to work and then lead sedentary lifestyles the remainder of the time. Also, I’m glad you made the point about our ancestors being much more active in the past. I’m sure that if each of us had to hunt and gather our own food, we might actually burn off a few more calories than what we currently are. Finally, you can’t exercise without having a balanced diet. There are too many people out there who exercise for a set amount of time in order to burn a specified amount of calories (which most of the time is inaccurate) all so that they can binge eat on whatever they want after the fact. Now, what’s the sense in that?

Excellent article and great points made

-j
Anastasiya says:

August 13, 2009 at 11:28 am

Janelle,
I am glad you support my ideas about exercise and weight loss. Lately a lot of “experts” have been trying to push some “revolutionary” and ground-breaking ideas that will make them famous for a few days and put some money in their pockets. Also everybody tries to find an excuse as to why they do not need to exercise, they do not need to diet and do not need to do anything else other than sit on their … butt and be lazy. Everybody is looking for a fast and easy way that will make them slim and healthy without actually doing anything. And if you are still thinking with your brain and not your stomach and if you still have some type of common sense then you should realize that it’s not possible. I am glad there are still a lot of people (like you for example) who support the “old-fashioned” ideas about healthy living!
Janelle says:

August 13, 2009 at 11:42 am

Hi Anastasiya,

Definitely. Wasn’t there that saying about ‘no pain; no gain’? I hope that, eventually, people will realize that there is no ‘easy’ way to lose weight and stay fit. Not only that, but being active and eating right should be at the top of everyone’s list. We need to prioritize better!
Anastasiya says:

August 13, 2009 at 11:44 am

@Janelle

Definitely true and it really can’t be any simpler than that!
DonCarlin says:

August 18, 2009 at 12:45 pm

Hi! I am so glad to see people lashing out against Time for what has to be the biggest crock of pseudoscience I have seen written. I could not believe Time would even publish such a report. And, it is even worse than you think. According to Dr. Church of the LSU study this article is based on, the author deliberately left out all pertinent facts that would contradict the theme of the article!! Dr. Church needless to say was not pleased about that.

I am a successful weightloss story myself. I had to watch what I ate of course, but it was twice daily cardio I credit for dropping 80 pounds. And far from making me want to eat more, sticking with my workout plans GAVE me the will to stick with my eating plan (hate the word diet).

I must say, if the author only burns 130 calories after an hour’s jog, he must be in pretty pathetic shape….really want to take fitness advice from a guy like that?!?
Anastasiya says:

August 18, 2009 at 2:36 pm

@ DonCarlin
I am glad you shared your example. No matter what “experts” at Time want to tell us there are still real life stories that prove them wrong. And it’s the best proof you can get too. If a person is determined to lose weight then he/she will definitely succeed and exercise, diet (eating plan) and of course WILL POWER will help them do that.
Madeleine says:

September 1, 2009 at 3:04 pm

Terrific job of analyzing Time’s ridiculous cover story about exercise. I especially applaud your response to the statement that our ancesters didn’t exercise, and they were just fine because they were active. This is not just wrong; it’s really stupid.

For our very distant ancestors , it was a constant struggle to find something to eat before some ravenous beast caught and ate them. Even in much more recent times, before electricy was available in rural, farming areas of the U.S., peoople worked extremely hard from the minute they got up in the morning.

There’s a wonderful account of these times is in the book Farmer Boy by Laurie Ingalls Wilder (who also wrote Little House on the Prairie and other books). It is the true story of the childhood of Laura’s husband, Almanzo Wilder. It’s amazing how hard the whole family had to work to keep the farm going and how much delicious food they consumed to fuel all that activity. (BTW, this bookwas written for children. I read to my daughter when she was a little girl, but I also found it fascinating)
Bandit a la mode says:

October 12, 2009 at 6:01 pm

Thanks for this piece, great read and good research.

When I saw that article from Time I just couldn’t believe how ethically irresponsible they were being, pandering to their readers inner-tantrum-throwing-children instead of reporting the facts. It’s no wonder this country is facing so many health challenges, the media cant even furnish us with an ACCURATE perspective.
- Anastasiya says:
  
  October 12, 2009 at 10:13 pm
  
  I am glad you agree with me. I was really shocked when I read that article. I can’t believe that a serious publication like the Time magazine would publish such trash. I am sure that thousands of people who read it decided that it was the new “truth” and gave up on exercise.
James says:

October 12, 2009 at 6:35 pm

Wow, I’ve never bought a Time magazine and I guess I never will. What a piece of trash publication.
- Anastasiya says:
  
  October 12, 2009 at 10:17 pm
  
  Actually I’ve never bought the Time magazine myself but I found this article online because it was one of the most popular news for the day. I am not going to buy that magazine myself either. They are just after hype and sensations, at least that is how I felt after reading this article.
chompermom says:

November 7, 2009 at 4:48 pm

Wow…I don’t know who wrote that Time article, but they should bow their heads in shame. That all just goes against common sense. How are we supposed to lose weight then? Buy Hoodia and SlimFast and all that other crap?

I’m not where I want to be right now with my weight, but the times when I have lost weight (and really kept it off) are times when I was walking a mile or two everyday (for fun, or to get to the store because I didn’t have a car, or to the bus in Belize just to go shopping), doing hard work in the garden (turning beds, lifting 50 lb. sacks of apples) and doing Wii Fit. Even if exercise didn’t help you lose weight, it’s still good for your heart and well-being, a whole body uplifting, really. Grrr.. some people.

Gosh, I’ve got to stop reading your blog and get off of here. Almost time for bed here in France.
Collette McKee says:

December 16, 2009 at 3:56 pm

Great comments. In our sedentary society we do have to invent reasons to be active. I think many people have forgotten that exercise is about more than just losing weight. If you want to lose weight you really have to take a balanced approach. I know that I just feel better when I am exercising on a regular basis. In addition, exercise is a really good excuse to go outside and play.Thanks for your insightful comments.