Exercise and weight loss

[betpchem]

I was just listening to this podcast called "Part-Time Genius" (which I recommend, by the way) and the current episode is about how exercise does not work as a weight loss mechanism. There are still many benefits to exercise, of course, such as heart health, but it's not good for weight loss. I thought I would share the link here:

http://www.parttimegenius.show/podcasts/is-exercising-lose-weight-myth.htm

[Bill_k]

I listened to only about half of it because it's a whole hour and honestly IMO it's just hooey.

There are a lot of things that sound bogus .

[GershonSurge]

I'll admit I didn't listen to the podcast. There have been many studies where people's calorie input and calories burned have been tightly controlled. The calorie equation does work. However, added exercise may not translate into real life weight loss . For many people, exercise can increase appetite. This causes the benefits for weight loss disappear.

I find it significant that the doctors who recommend a whole foods, plant based way of eating almost universally do not recommend increased exercise for weight loss. The exception is Dr. Ken Cooper, father of the aerobics program.  (He allows some animal products.) They have found weight loss is a byproduct of a healthy diet. On the other hand, all these doctors are fairly active.

The most significant studies I've seen were by Dr. James Levine. Using tightly controlled diets and forbidding formal exercise, he found a wide range in calories burned. The difference was Non-exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT).  That's movement outside of exercise. Think 10,000 steps. You can read about it here:

Get Up!: Why Your Chair is Killing You and What You Can Do About It
by James A. Levine
Link: http://a.co/f4C843O

In my opinion, health and fitness rests on three legs.

The first is food: I support a starch based, whole foods plant based way of eating. This way of eating will prevent, arrest, or cure most degenerative diseases. 

The second is formal aerobic exercise: The best book I've found on this subject is Ken Cooper's book, "Aerobics." It's out of print, but you can buy used copies on Amazon. It isolates the positive benefits of aerobic exercise. The fatal flaw is he didn't mention diet. He does in later books. The high point is he made aerobic point charts to determine how much exercise is necessary to improve health. Most professionals agree you can't outrun a poor diet.

The third is staying active during the day. I think a 10,000 step program excluding formal exercise is enough for this. Maybe a little less if a person does a lot of formal exercise.

For all three approaches, many positive benefits are experienced even before weight loss occurs. 

[betpchem]

I don't think it's "hooey". I think it's very sound reasoning. Did you hear the part about the study of hunter gatherers in Tanzania? They don't burn significantly more calories with their very active life style then we do with our much more sedentary ones, which seems weird and counterintuitive, but true. The author of the study explained that if they burned say, 4 times more calories than we did, but failed to bag any prey, then they would very quickly starve to death. Evolutionarily speaking, it makes sense. The reason why there is so much obesity today is not so much that we're eating the wrong things, but that food is so readily available. We're eating too much, often mindlessly. 

[GershonSurge]

Maybe I should have skipped the last post. Last year, I pulled a muscle in my back and also pulled my Achilles Tendon. I basically couldn't walk for six weeks. I was able to lift weights, but that doesn't burn many calories.

Here is my Trendweight graph for that period. I went from 177 lb to 168 lb. 

[GershonSurge]

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@betpchem wrote:

I don't think it's "hooey". I think it's very sound reasoning. Did you hear the part about the study of hunter gatherers in Tanzania? They don't burn significantly more calories with their very active life style then we do with our much more sedentary ones, which seems weird and counterintuitive, but true. The author of the study explained that if they burned say, 4 times more calories than we did, but failed to bag any prey, then they would very quickly starve to death. Evolutionarily speaking, it makes sense. The reason why there is so much obesity today is not so much that we're eating the wrong things, but that food is so readily available. We're eating too much, often mindlessly. 

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@betpchem,

Interesting point. I've read from a reliable source that indigenous tribes only eat about 2,200 calories a day. Meanwhile, based on their activity level, they burn much more. We can't discount the possibility they are more efficient at walking, etc., and actually don't burn more calories. 

I knew a woman who went to Tanzania to teach the people how to use condoms to prevent the spread of aids. Each morning, the women would walk 18 miles round trip to get water. We didn't talk about what they ate.