Comments on: Is the obesity epidemic caused by too much exercise?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:46:53 +0000

Exercise can make people overweight… with muscle, which is healthy.

Indeed, initially sedentary and fat people trying to “lose weight” sometimes get frustrated after starting to exercise, because the muscle gain from exercise “cancels out” the fat loss on the scale, even though the increased muscle and reduced fat is healthier.

By: Kim

Kim — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:55:03 +0000

I love how the very first comment is someone bleating calories in -> calories out as if the human body was a coal-fired furnace. If it was that simple, would Cushing’s patients (endogenous or otherwise) gain weight? I’m not arguing that most Americans are shockingly uninformed about how many calories they’re taking in, but metabolism is clearly more complex than a campfire.

Anyway.

I doubt exercise is making anyone overweight, but there are many, many overweight and obese exercisers who aren’t losing any. In some cases the choice of exercise is less than valuable, in other cases people appear to be doing all the right things in the gym or on the sports field. Bodybuilders say “abs are made in the kitchen” for a reason.

One interesting little sideline that occurred to me reading this that those of us who do sports are often directed towards the same sport nutrition plans and products as highly trained athletes, which is probably counterproductive for the average overweight leisure exerciser or sportsman. I know I’ve struggled with reconciling a weight loss diet with the recommendations for my sport (which do without a doubt help performance…at the price of staying energy neutral or better, which would be important to an elite-level athlete in season, not so great for a 30+ casual athlete). This is obviously not a problem with exercise per se but it is a cultural issue to consider.

By: Greg

Greg — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:34:24 +0000

If anything the TIME article points out that exercise must be combined with proper diet and nutrition for maximum effect. This is not new information and seems pretty straightforward. For information on both diet and exercise log on to Holosfitness.com. The site has a wide array of diet, fitness, and health related-information, all of which is provided for free.

By: Evinx

Evinx — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:08:09 +0000

This is just another example of how the mainstream media consistently gets it wrong. Ask a r/e broker about some local r/e article and they will tell you the writer just got it wrong. Ask an insurance broker + the article on insurance mistated certain facts + therefore, formed incorrect conclusions. Medical articles – well, you know.
The best source of info is reading an assortment of blogs just like this one.

By: pcp

pcp — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:01:57 +0000

I meant to write that most people cannot do basic math.

Apparently some people cannot write basic english either

By: pcp

pcp — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:00:54 +0000

Articles such as these (the one in Time) pass as shocking or news because most people, especially in the US, can do basic math. The simple math of body weight is this: if calories in > calories burned then weight gain; if calories burned > calories in, then weight loss.