Chocolate good, chocolate bad. Red wine good, red wine bad. Coffee and carbs, too. Staying good, leaving bad. There is so much contradictory information in the media about everything. But who'd guess that research would suggest that exercise was not important for weight loss. How could this be. I wanted to know more and now you can too.
(1)
Researchers studied whether an increase your exercise without changing your diet would lead to weight loss? Wisdom would say "yes" if you're following the calories in/calories out formula. But, surprisingly, not so. Exercise without dieting will not make you thin. Exercise will, however, help you stay thin.
One group of subjects reduced their calories by 25% and the second group reduced their calories by 12.5% and increased their exercise by 12.5%. The two groups lost the same amount of weight, about 1 pound per week. Sounds reasonable to me. But, the exercise required by the second group was one hour a day at a moderate intensity activity. For many (or most) people that is a lot. Increasing exercise by walking 20 minutes a day, 5 times a week is barely doable for many. Additionally, increasing exercise makes us more hungry, especially women.(2) This was true for me when I was doing distance running. One would think that running up to 30 miles a week while training for a marathon would drop weight like falling home prices but, for me, no. Truth be known, I think I put on weight carbo loading before a run, then putting back carbs after the run. Scheesh.
Where's the good news, you ask? If you can pry the pounds off, exercise is the most important element in keeping weight off. Researchers asked 95 women to reduce their intake to 800 calories a day until they lost 27 lbs. Then, they were assigned to either walking, or weight training or no exercise at all. They all regained weight, but those in the exercise group gained less weight, especially fewer pounds at the waist.(3) Same results in rats. Rats with a genetic predisposition to weight gain were put on an "eat all you want" diet. After significant weight gain, they were put on a restrictive diet and lost weight, Then half were put on a treadmill regimen and the other half remained sedentary. Well, you can guess the results. The sedentary rats regained all the weight and then some. The exercising rats burned fat immediately after their meals as compared to the sedentary rats who stored fat. The study concluded that running had altered the rats' bodies so that they ate less.
Want more good news? You don't have to be a marathon runner to lose weight. Low expenditures of energy, even standing, can increase the calorie outgo without triggering the calorie compensation effect. Researchers found that the difference between sitting all day and standing all day was significant with the standers loosing hundreds of calories without an increase in the appetite hormones.
I expect that as soon as you read this there will be some new contradictory research stating that the only way to loose weight is to exercise. It's the yin/yang of do's/don'ts. If you've lost weight or are trying to loose weight, make sure you start or continue with your exercise. It will help the weight stay off and make you fitter. It's doesn't have to be a lot, but it's got to get done--often and regularly. Whether it's walking, biking, yogaing, skating, or even Cardioke, it's all good.
(1) Gretchen Reynolds, Weighing the Evidence on Exercise, The New York Times Magazine, April 10, 2010.
(2) Women have a biological need to maintain energy stores for reproduction. Exercise for many women increases the desire to eat.
(3) Abdominal fat contributes significantly to metabolic disruptions and heart disease.
(4) Billy Blanks Jr., son of the famed Tae Bo master has created Cardioke, a blend of karaoke and cardio exercise.
