Good News and Bad News...(exercise and diet)

[Slapshot]

Good news:

Diet is the strongest influencing factor on weight loss.

Bad news:

Exercise? Not so much: Exercise not likely to rev up your metabolism - Smart Fitness- msnbc.com

Melanson says other experts in his field have been “flabbergasted” by the results. “Bottom line is that we once thought that exercise would burn calories, especially fat calories, for a long period after a bout of exercise,” says exercise physiologist Gerald Endress, fitness director for the Duke University Diet and Fitness Center who was not involved in the research. “This does not seem to be the case.”...


The new paper offers additional evidence that exercise does not boost metabolism as much as widely believed, Endress says. In addition to the misperception that exercise greatly hikes fat burning after exercise, there is also the false belief that weight training dramatically increases metabolism by adding muscle, he notes.

Say what they want, exercise has helped me with my weight loss in very significant ways:

1. When I work out, I'm less inclined to cheat because I don't want to "undo" my hard work.
2. Exercising makes me feel great.
3. Exercising gives me more energy throughout the day, particularly when I exercise early in the AM.

[planetclaire]

I always say its 80% diet and 20% workout....for me, you can't have one without the other though.

Exercise is great but you will never have a six pack if you are drinking six-packs....you have to have a clean diet, that's the most important, what we put into our bodies. Few people realize that. My only concern is that someone might read an article like that and think "Oh, don't have to exercise, its not important"...it may not be the key for weight loss but it is the key for a long, healthy, productive life

[Lisa]

nothing beats putting one foot in front of the other and moving

[chinadoll]

"They" also say that drinking a lot of water doesn't factor in that much, but obviously noone has told my scale. Sooo, I will still walk/jog, do my weights, and drink my water.

[JohnSantos]

That study is ridiculous.

I visited Paris for three weeks, and ate like a pig. Three course dinners every night, big lunches and a big breakfast. But I had to walk EVERYWHERE so was actively moving 14 hours a day. I had lost 3 lbs when I returned home.

And all these really skinny women were stuffing their face with medium pizzas for dinner, too. They had a GREAT Italian restaurant beside my hotel. Their main specialty was a medium-sized pizza cooked to order. Everybody on every table almost had one, and ate the entire thing then started browsing the dessert menu.

Place was packed. If you didn't arrive early, you weren't getting a seat. Not a single overweight person in the joint.

[Ohbehave007]

I visited Paris for three weeks, and ate like a pig. Three course dinners every night, big lunches and a big breakfast. But I had to walk EVERYWHERE so was actively moving 14 hours a day. I had lost 3 lbs when I returned home.

I think it is like that in most parts of Europe. Living in Holland I am always walking places or even biking because it is way easier then going by car or bus. When I was younger I would eat and eat and never gain because I was always up and moving. (Other factors played in the weight gain role...the pill mostly, then a hormone imbalance after which I still medicate, with herbal medications and vitamins)

I drink my water and walk almost every day. Sometimes up to 6-10 kilometers and for someone with short legs like me, trying to keep up with people twice my height it is usually a brisk walk.

I still believe it helps with metabolism, and of course muscle gain.

[liv]

I think on OWL and maintenance exercising will help rise your CCLL too. So you can eat a few more carbs if you like.
But losing weight is a lot about what you eat.

[Slapshot]

Originally Posted by liv

I think on OWL and maintenance exercising will help rise your CCLL too. So you can eat a few more carbs if you like.
But losing weight is a lot about what you eat.

Good point. Putting aside the residual effects of fat burning after exercise is stopped, raising one's CCLL would make losing not only easier, but more enjoyable by broadening and deepening one's daily food choices.