The Myth About Exercise

• In the August 12, 2009 edition of Time magazine, the front page story was titled 'The Myth About Exercise'
• About exercise, Time's statement was:
  'Of course it's good for you, but it won't make you lose weight. Why it's what you eat that really counts.'
• See the Aug. 17 2009, cover of time magazine and read the article --- just click on the following link:
  Time: The Myth About Exercise

Why can't you lose weight with aerobic exercise?

• Numerous research studies have shown that individuals 'compensate' for their vigorous activity longing for those salty french fries or a blueberry muffin with a cappuccino after vigorous exercise^13,14,15. There are great business synergies to be had by locating gyms in or near shopping malls --- all those cafes and fast-food outlets just a short stroll from the gym.
• Looking at how much vigorous exercise it takes to burn off the number of calories in a medium sized French fries or a blueberry muffin [see below], it is no wonder that putting on weight is so easy. 
• Many individuals perform steady-state exercises on a long-term basis such as jogging or the use of steppers or treadmills. Such exercises result in muscle loss [atrophy] in the long run resulting in a decreased basal metabolic rate¹³.
• Stress hormones produced from frequent strenuous activity and overtraining can also lead to fat storage.
• It takes willpower not to eat after exercise or eat the number of calories that will maintain a negative energy balance enabling you to tap into your fat stores.
• The book featured above, Body by Science provides a working example of how you can go backwards in terms of fat loss by steady-state aerobic activity.

How can NutriDesk help?

• The diets in NutriDesk have portion sizes calculated automatically for you depending on your activity level.
• This gives you firm guidelines in terms of what you can and can't have to help you lose weight.
• The diets are highly affordable enabling recalculation of quantities when goals have been met or when caloric intake needs to be adjusted to either put on weight or keep losing weight. See Weight Management Diet

• Steady-state activity such as running or treadmill, steppers or riding a bike does not place a great demand on the muscles involved in the activity.
• This lack of demand on the muscle is why this type of activity can be performed for so long without excessive fatigue.
• These types of exercise activate only a small percentage of the weakest slow-twitch muscle fibres on a repetitive basis.
• This sends a signal to the body that other muscle fibres are redundant and are essentially ‘dead-weight’
• This results in atrophy of these muscle fibres and atrophy of the whole muscle group in general
• A ½ kg of muscle it has been calculated, requires 50 – 100 calories a day just to keep it alive¹³.
• When muscle atrophy [muscle loss] occurs, your ability to burn off extra calories will also decrease making fat gain even more likely.

References:

Just join NutriDesk to have access to the reference database - Join now

Exercise and Sports References