What do you want to believe about Exercise?

A recent TIME article, titled "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin" was picked up by a TON of different media outlets ranging from the LA Times (with a good counter-point article) and CNN.com to BioSingularity (a blog), LifeHacker (blog) and even the creator of Dilbert, Scott Adams, on his blog.

Unfortunately, the TIME article by John Cloud is a classic example of people believing that they want to believe and finding information around them that meets their view of the world. It is much easier to live with convenient misconceptions instead of dealing with the truth and developing the strength of character required to get the results that you truly want.

The article states...

One of the most widely accepted, commonly repeated assumptions in our culture is that if you exercise, you will lose weight. But I exercise all the time, and since I ended that relationship and cut most of those desserts, my weight has returned to the same 163 lb. it has been most of my adult life. I still have gut fat that hangs over my belt when I sit. Why isn't all the exercise wiping it out?

[Answer: You are not exercising enough or at a high enough level to increase your metabolism AND your eating contains foods that work against you. In short, you are not "in shape".]

The rest of the article goes on to say that when you work out, you are more likely to be hungry and make bad food choices which means you won't lose weight.

Duh !

If you eat poorly, you won't lose weight. Today's processed foods are designed to be extra sweet, e.g. check to see how many things contain high fructose corn syrup, and this is like running your body on jet fuel. It burns brightly for a few seconds but you need more and more to get any motion at all.

We are diesel engines.

We need slower release foods... complex carbs, fruits & vegetables with built-in fiber. The problem is that most processed foods combat the "jet fuel problem" by adding fat which burns more slowly... but also ends up on our hips and stomachs when we become addicted to the sweet rush of "jet fuel". Do you see the downward spiral of processed foods?

Back to the article....

Could pushing people to exercise more actually be contributing to our obesity problem?

In some respects, yes. Because exercise depletes not just the body's muscles but the brain's self-control "muscle" as well, many of us will feel greater entitlement to eat a bag of chips during that lazy time after we get back from the gym.

This explains why exercise could make you heavier - or at least why even my wretched four hours of exercise a week aren't eliminating all my fat. It's likely that I am more sedentary during my nonexercise hours than I would be if I didn't exercise with such Puritan fury. If I exercised less, I might feel like walking more instead of hopping into a cab; I might have enough energy to shop for food, cook and then clean instead of ordering a satisfyingly greasy burrito.

Insert sarcastic comments here...

"Exercise depletes ...the brain's self-control 'muscle' ".... WOW, that is an excellent excuse and I wish I had thought of it. It is almost like a "get out of jail free" card ! "I don't have to eat healthy since I exercised ... a little... today." [can you sense the sarcasm in my voice?]

Clearly, the author does not understand that willpower and self discipline are things that can be cultivated and developed. If he saw his workouts as an opportunity to exercise not just his body but also expand his personal control, he would be less likely to splurge on a muffin after the workout.

It is called "self-regulation"...

Senia Maymin, Editor of Positive Psychology News Daily, adds "Self-regulation is a really important discipline to develop, and the best way to develop it is by doing small incremental things. If you want to start exercising, start by doing something small each day at the same time, same place. For example, when you wake up, walk for three minutes away from your house, and then three minutes back to your house. Voila! Exercise." Senia also has a blog about positive psychology at Senia.com and her article on self-regulation (click here) is worth reading.

Now, let's get to the "good" part of the TIME article....

The problem ultimately is about not exercise itself but the way we've come to define it. Many obesity researchers now believe that very frequent, low-level physical activity - the kind humans did for tens of thousands of years before the leaf blower was invented - may actually work better for us than the occasional bouts of exercise you get as a gym rat.

"You cannot sit still all day long and then have 30 minutes of exercise without producing stress on the muscles," says Hans-Rudolf Berthoud, a neurobiologist at LSU's Pennington Biomedical Research Center who has studied nutrition for 20 years. "The muscles will ache, and you may not want to move after. But to burn calories, the muscle movements don't have to be extreme. It would be better to distribute the movements throughout the day."

A good example ....

Recently I drove about 9 hours to New Brunswick Canada for a Toastmasters conference and expected that my fitness would get worse after days of driving followed by days of sitting in a conference. To counteract this, I made a conscious effort to ride an exercise bike for 5-10 minutes each morning and take the stairs whenever possible. My meetings were on the sixth floor and I was staying on the 3rd floor so I had a good amount to stair climbing during the 2 days that I was there. [Of course most of the stairs were downward since I didn't want to climb up 6 floors and arrive all sweaty for a meeting. ]

After the conference, I "vacationed" by driving around Nova Scotia for a couple more days and continued the morning bike exercise (with no stairs... they weren't any where I stayed on these days). Finally, I drove the 9 hours back home and the next day, when I went for my first run in many days, I was amazed at the energy that I had as well as my fitness level. It had actually increased ... even with the long trip!

Micro-Exercising...

What this means is that we all have opportunities for "micro exercise" sessions throughout our day and these can add up to significant improvements over the long haul. It also should be noted that "micro exercise" is part of the "thin person mentality" or "thinking like a thin person". Fat people avoid these opportunities and thin people don't even hesitate to take them.

What do you believe?

Does exercise improve your life? How do you react when you are given small opportunities to move your body? Are you using exercise as an excuse to eat poorly?

These are certainly things that every overweight person should think about. Let's just hope that they don't jump to the conclusion that exercise isn't an important part of the weight loss formula because they would lose an important tool in their quest for a better life.

d.Mark "Dave" Wheeler