http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1914974-1,00.html
I was looking through the archives of Time Magazine the other night for an assignment in another class and came across this article. The title of the article was what first caught my attention, as it probably would almost anyone, "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin". After reading and discussing all the lay articles we've looked at in class, I had my skeptical, scientist hat on and I figured that this article was bound to have some ridiculous-ness to it--and it did. I was actually quite entertained by some of the statements that the author makes. Like, "exercise turn[ing] fat into muscle" (like magic!) or categorizing walking while carrying groceries as moderately strenuous activity (what is this man buying at the grocery store?!). Like the other lay articles we looked at, this one seems to divert the fault of obesity to something other than ourselves. Hey, America! Stop with the excuses!!
As we saw in many of our other articles in class, Cloud does a good job of inserting names of various scientists from Universities around the world to make his article "credible". As a plus, he adds in a few quotes from some of them and talks about various experiments that have taken place. As far as the quotations go, he uses pretty general quotes and the reader doesn't know the context they were spoken in, but they are in fact true--like, "If you're more physically active, you're going to get hungry and eat more". To the lay reader, this article must seem very throughly researched and cited. No wonder the general public has all these crazy ideas about diet and exercise! These are the types of sources that they are getting their information from, and it makes me a little frustrated that facts can be construed in such a way that Cloud seems to make his point.
When I was an undergrad (and actually had some free time), I was a triathlon maniac and would come home from a 3 or 4 hour ride on the weekends and eat everything edible in the kitchen--no joke. Cloud argues that "being in shape" means that I have more muscle than fat (probably true) and that the fat that I've magically turned into muscle by working out will burn only 40 more calories than the fat will. I can't claim to know if these numbers are correct or not but Cloud, what about all the calories I burned during the 3 hours I spent on my bike compared to those who slept in? I'd be willing to bet that the difference in caloric expenditure between my 3 hour ride and your 3 hour sleep is over ten times the 40 calorie difference you claim exists between the lean and the sedentary. Additionally, after my workout I'll continue to burn extra calories during my EPOC (excess pose-exercise oxygen consumption) period, while the sedentary person will continue to burn calories at their normal rate. So, Triathlete Jessi could eat waaaay more calories (much more than 40!) than Grad Student Jessi while not becoming obese because of all calories that I was burning while I was working out AND recovering from those workouts. Cloud never addresses this extremely relavent and important fact!
The tired, lethargic post workout feeling that Cloud describes is most likely due to lack of nutrition before or during the workout! If you workout, your body needs nutrients! I can't believe that this man is not only telling the public not to exercise, but also that eating after exercise is what is bad about it!
I could probably rant a little more about this article, but let's here what you guys have to say about it!
Just as a brief thought- this is the type of mentality that is rampant in gyms and "health clubs" throughout the country. I have been a personal trainer for the past twelve years in Maryland and here in Arizona. I can't tell you how many clients I've had and others who I've discussed nutrition with that have some type of strange theory about physical fitness and/or nutrition. And to top it off, the person is always assuring me that this "information" is coming from some nutritional guru or even some doctor. However, when I have taken the time to actually delve into these tangents with people it seems to always turn out that the information may have a couple valid points but the main reasoning always seems to be jumping to a different universe and making assumptions or conclusions that are completely irrational.
ReplyDeleteThis past month I heard lots of questions and statements from people who were planning to try different cleanses, "the HcG Diet", various fad diets, etc. This all comes and goes with each year and different people's New Year's Resolutions. Also there is always the comment from someone that tells me/others that they've tried everything and the just can't lose any weight or get in shape. Whenever this statement comes up in my presence, I think of the diabetic patient who is doing regular check-ins with their doctor and reports regularly checking their blood sugar and monitoring their diet to a "T" as the doctor/dietitian has recommended. However whenever this patient gets their blood work done there is never any improvement in their blood sugar and they are many times gaining even more weight. I realize that there are many people out there who are struggling with many weight issues but I truly do believe that many of these people could find improved results if they only had some decent information and help. So along with what Jessi has stated...let's stop with the excuses! Yes, there are those with things like thyroid and metabolism defects but this is becoming similar to the over diagnosing of the youth of today with ADHD. A person needs to take responsibility for themselves and their intake of calories. If you go out to McDonald's daily and don't exercise there is a good chance you're going to gain weight and eventually may have some sort of cardiac morbidity. Everyone does have different genetics but the human metabolism is similar throughout our population. There is solid research out there and we need to stop looking for other reasons/excuses rather than actually accepting what we are really doing to ourselves.
I have to say, having studied physiology for 5 years and recently taken a exercise physiology class, this article made me really angry. The auothor manipulates and tweaks all the scientific evidence he presents to make it seem that exercise is not important. However, if you read it as Jessi said with "a skeptical, scientific hat on" you realize that the author doesn't truly understand the topic he is talking about.
ReplyDeletethe author continually states several times that evolution brought us up poorly to deal with fat. This is the most rediculous thing I have ever heard. Just by him saying that tells me he doesn't know how the human body evolved at all. First of all I get the frustration of putting in a lot of work to exercise and not seeing the results I want, but at the same time I understand why that is, after taking a biochemistry class. In this class I learned that the human body has been evolutionarily developed to retain fat. This is because for hundreds if not thousands of years food was not abundent. As a result our ancestors had to work exceptionally hard to get a meal, that meant tilling the fields for vegetables and fruit to grow, and running, jumping and swimming to catch land animals or fish. More to the point we weren't always succesful in these ventures, so there would be times when our ancestors would go without food for a short or long period of time.
As a result, our bodies developed to be able to store fat for a long time, so we could survive and still have an energy source to fuel us for the next attempted hunt. It is only recently that food has become abundent and as a result we don't have to work hard for it. This means we spend more time intaking calories than we do burning them. Furthermore, because our bodies are programed to retain fat, it naturally resists our attempts to exercise the fat away. This being one of the reasons why despite our hard effort at excersice we don't see the fast weight loss results we expect from having expended so much energy exercising.
Thus to a degree, I agree with the author when he states weight loss is more about watching what you eat than it is about exercising. However, I am not saying one should not exercise, I'm saying that one should not expect immediate results just because they exercise. Overall, I think the key to cracking the code of weightloss is watching what we eat, exercise and patience. We're too caught up in wanting immediate results from an exercise regime, and when we don't get it we tend to either give up or compensate by eating stuff that's bad for us. Also, like the author mentions we tend to like rewarding ourselves for having done an hour or so of exercise and don't realize that our rewards in some cases do negate the exercise we do.
Overall I think this article sends a terrible message to the general public, because it is a case of someone presenting a lot of knowledge, without the ability to properly break it down and analyze its true meaning. We all have different bodies and genetics, and some of us may just retain fat stronger than others, it doesn't mean we should just not exercise.
Health Tip: Something to consider if you are trying to lose weight. Many of the things we drink are loaded with calories that we just ignore because we believe that liquids can't make us gain weight. So if you want to improve your weight loss regime, make water your primary beverage. It has zero calories and is good for you.
I think that controlling and balancing what we eat and how much we are active physically are very crucial to consider for the healthier metabolism and lifestyle. If your goal is to lose weight, then eating healthier foods with lower calories and exercising (burning fat - cardiac exercise)is way to go from my personal experience. Also, psychologically, strong determination and committment are required to truely lose weight and maintain the fitting body. Also, I have to agree with the classmate above that drinking a lot of water pre and post workout is a must thing to do.
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