WEIGHING THE EVIDENCE ON EXERCISE

The New York Times just ran an article titled Weighing the Evidence on Exercise in which it discusses the effects that exercise has on bodyweight.  All in all, I thought it was a really good article.  The author presents the latest evidence from the scientific community, but excludes the sensationalism and personal anecdotes that were littered throughout that terrible article from TIME Magazine titled Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin (don’t forget about my blog post about that article HERE).

A couple of my favorite parts:

“Exercise burns calories, no one doubts that, and so it should, in theory, produce weight loss, a fact that has prompted countless people to undertake exercise programs to shed pounds. Without significantly changing their diets, few succeed.”

“…a growing body of science suggests that exercise does have an important role in weight loss. That role, however, is different from what many people expect and probably wish.  The newest science suggests that exercise alone will not make you thin, but it may determine whether you stay thin, if you can achieve that state.” [emphasis mine]

“In a study published late last month in The Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers from Harvard University looked at the weight-change histories of more than 34,000 participants in a women’s health study. The women began the study middle-aged (at an average of about 54 years) and were followed for 13 years. During that time, the women gained, on average, six pounds. Some packed on considerably more. But a small subset gained far less, coming close to maintaining the body size with which they started the study. Those were the women who reported exercising almost every day for an hour or so.” [emphasis mine]

“…if you can somehow pry off the pounds, exercise may be the most important element in keeping the weight off.”

I really liked the fact that the author simply presented the evidence as is and lets the reader decide how (if at all) to apply it to their own lifestyle.  Providing a blanket exercise or diet prescription to a large population will never work because those two concepts are highly variable among individuals.

The truth is there are no universal truths.

This article was from the PHYS ED section of the NY Times Health Blogs.  I have only glanced at the article archives, but it appears to be a pretty solid source.  Here are a few others that caught my eye:

Risks for Youths Who Eat What They Watch

How Exercising Keeps Your Cells Young