Fitness Healts

“The Myth About Exercise” is the cover story for the Aug. 17 issue of Time magazine. The myth, it seems, is that exercise can make you lose weight. In fact, according to the article, exercise can make you gain weight, because it makes you hungry and you then eat more. It makes sense, if this is true, that the more you exercise the more weight you will gain. The New York Marathon is Nov. 1 this year and Chicago is Oct. 11. You may want to watch one of these and see all those fat distance runners. 
The author of the article has a scientific study to back him up, as well as his own experience of getting hungry, apparently for sweets, after exercise. He does not mention the large number of studies that show that exercise, while helpful in weight loss, is vital to keeping the weight off after you lose it. As far as anecdotal stories go, you can find plenty of those in publications like Runners World from people who became serious about exercise and took off large amounts of weight because of that. 
Individuals vary, of course, but most people do not get hungry right after exercise. In fact, there are good reasons to eat certain things after a hard workout, race, or game, and there are products in liquid form designed for that purpose because the athlete or exerciser may not want solid food. 
The article emphasizes that how many calories you burn depends on your overall activity, not just formal exercise. This, of course, is true. If you are someone who drives around for 15 minutes to find a parking place close to the gym so you won’t have to walk, you may want to re-evaluate your activities. And it does emphasize that exercise is good for your health, so you should do it even if you don’t lose weight. The author tells us there is a growing body of evidence that for prevention of certain diseases, weight loss is more important than fitness. He doesn’t mention that there is a growing body of evidence that fitness is more important than weight loss for preventing or postponing some other conditions (like death). 
Here are a couple of other things. He talks about converting fat to muscle. That doesn’t happen, as they are different types of tissue. You can lose weight and gain muscle, or vice versa, but not convert one to the other. And it shouldn’t be surprising that heavy people may burn more calories than slender people. It takes more energy just to move the heavier body. 
Some of this article is inaccurate and some is just oversimplified. They even devote much of a double-page spread to illustrating the tiresome oversimplification that you have to exercise x minutes to burn off that muffin you just ate. The truth is both activity/exercise and diet are important for weight loss, gain, or management, as are the type and duration of activity and the composition and amount of food. All of this varies somewhat by individual, but you can figure it out for yourself with some accurate information. Just don’t believe everything you read, even in usually reliable publications.