The Truth About Exercise & Weight Loss
Wednesday September 10, 2008
The theory behind weight loss is pretty simple: Burn more calories than you eat and you'll lose weight. Exercise is a great tool for that because it burns calories, right? It follows that starting an exercise program, even if you didn't change anything else, would lead to weight loss, right? Well, not exactly. The problem is, many beginners notice that the weight doesn't always come off as quickly as they expect, which can lead to excessive frustration and crankiness.
So, is it just a case of high expectations or are there other reasons you're not losing weight with exercise? In my latest article, The Truth About Exercise and Weight Loss, I explore some of the elements that can affect how many calories you burn with exercise. Some you can change with a few tweaks here and there, and some you can blame almost completely on your parents (always a bonus). Either way, learning more about how exercise really works can help you set more realistic goals and, just maybe, focus more on the process rather than the end result.
Comments
Pretty much old info and way to long. One fact was new. Gross Calories?
Your article well-summerized most of the scholarly research conducted during the past five years; well-written and informative. I addictively, read fitness and wellness stuff. I have been working out for over fifty years and remember the incredible ignorance of the fifties — I remember my college boxing team coach who had represented the US in the 1936 Olympics,telling me not to exercise with weights because it would make me — 5′10″ 145 lbs — “muscle-bound”. Despite scholary research, ignorance prevails today. When I can get it for next-to-nothing, I read a popular fitness magazine; and in one recent issue, I read on one page the report of a scholarly study saying that to build muscle most efficiently, one should rest the exercised muscles one day only, while in the rest of the magazine there were programs stipulating two to as many as five days of rest for the exercised muscles; so what’s the truth? While reading your article I hoped you would mention the study published several months ago, that seemed to indicate that regular exercisers (like me) who taunt their bodies with inadequate calories, risk having their bodies’ reacting to the imagined continuation of inadequate calories, by converting the received calories into fat.
“The Truth About Exercise & Weight Loss” is a precis of useful and valuable information. It provides a handy reference for people of all fitness levels. It needs to always be out there and easily accessible.
Paige’s website is potentially a major tool in the war against un-fitness, fatness, and ignorance about health.
The website is well-organized and logically laid out, not a trivial task considering the volume of in-depth material.
Paige’s obvious commitment to health and fitness are both admirable and commendable. I dub Paige’s website the Towne Hall of Health & Fitness.
I appreciate your sensible articles. It may be already-known info, but people like me need people like you to keep spelling it out to keep us sane! Thanks