I hope you didn’t rush to open this email because you thought you were going to learn about some breakthrough diet plan that would allow you to eat junk food and see remarkable results. I know you are smarter than that. But I wonder how many of you saw the recent cover of Time magazine with the title “The Myth About Exercise” and thought that maybe you didn’t need to exercise after all.
I read the entire article (here is the link) and found it to be misleading at best and dangerous at worst. Now you may think I am biased, being a fitness professional, and you are probably correct, but I am not the only one who had this reaction. When I went searching the web to see what others had to say about the article, I could not find one person who agreed with the article!
Here are some other reactions, stated more eloquently than I could ever write:
Runner’s World: “First, it’s important to note that no one is claiming that exercise will make the pounds “melt” off your body or anything like that. Quite the opposite. It takes hard work, a serious commitment to long-term exercise, and a re-evaluation of your eating habits.
… But exercise alone is a very hard way to lose weight. The American College of Sports Medicine says: “Few studies with sedentary overweight or obese individuals using Physical Activity as the only intervention result in ≥3% decreases of baseline weight. Therefore, most individuals who require substantial weight loss may need additional interventions (i.e., energy restriction) to meet their weight loss needs.”
… In other words, you’ve got to combine both exercise and intelligent, aware eating. When you try one without the other, you chances of succeeding drop sharply. This is particularly true in the long term: the rest of your life. Some of the best support for exercise and weight-loss comes from studies that have examined individuals who lost weight and kept the weight off. A very high percent of these folks are committed exercisers.”
LA Times: “… most research suggests that exercise and dieting are both important for weight loss and that exercise is critical for weight maintenance. It’s difficult, but not impossible. Research not cited by the Time article shows that people who have maintained a significant weight loss over a sustained period of time largely rely on exercise to do so. This effort, studies suggest, can eventually retrain the body to respond appropriately to food and activity. Moreover, these people also carefully watch what they eat. In other words, they know that eating a blueberry muffin after their workout will undermine their goals. This evidence was detailed in a 2008 story in the Los Angeles Times’ special Health section on weight loss.
… The American College of Sports Medicine released a statement Friday saying it takes “strong exception” to the Time story’s conclusions. “[P]hysical activity is one of the most important behavioral factors in enhancing weight loss maintenance and improving long-term weight loss outcomes,” said John Jakicic, who chairs the ACSM’s committee on obesity prevention.
…One expert quoted in the Time piece, Dr. Timothy Church, said his professional opinions were misrepresented, according to the ACSM statement. Church noted that weight maintenance is different than weight loss. Virtually all people who lose weight and keep it off are exercising to maintain weight, he said.
… Another ACSM member, Dr. Janet Rankin, said: “A practical response to the claim that exercise makes you eat more and gain weight is to look around. If this were the case, wouldn’t those who regularly exercise be the fattest? Obviously, that isn’t the case.”
John Berardi of Precision Nutrition: John, who has a PhD in exercise biology and nutrient biochemistry, actually points out that there is some merit to the Time article, in that merely exercising alone will do little for weight loss if you ignore what you are eating (note that this is also pointed out in the articles from Runner’s World and the LA Times), but Berardi has actually written on this very subject before. Here’s more of what John has to say:
“Exercise provides a myriad of benefits:
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It preserves muscle mass with advancing age – a key factor in independence into our senior years;
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It leads to enhanced aerobic and anaerobic fitness – two other key factors in successful aging;
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It creates important biochemical changes – reducing disease risk and mortality rates;
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It improves cognitive function and mood – resulting in an enhanced quality of life.
Of course, I do agree that exercise – without a good nutrition plan – doesn’t deliver on weight loss promises. Yet let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Exercise – with a solid nutrition plan – has been repeatedly shown to improve muscle strength, boost lean mass, and slash body fat. And both the research and the real world evidence has borne this out time and time again.”
So there’s just a small sample of what I found on the web. I must admit that the Time article was probably quite successful in one of its objectives – it probably sold a lot of magazines and got people talking. It’s just a shame that they had to resort to half-truths and misleading claims in order to do so.
To your health and happiness (and sorry if I got some of you excited about the junk food promise…)
