We live in a country where up to 60% of the population don’t participate in regular exercise (30 mins of moderate intensity activity five days a week) and where at least a quarter of our population is overweight or obese. With these numbers growing, do you think we need to exercise less?
Reading through the article at Time “Why Exercise Won’t Make you Thin” by John Cloud I felt frustrated at the oversimplification of the issue. John addresses the importance of food and the effects it will have on your waist line. The gist of John’s article is that because of increased exercise you will start to feel hungrier and that you will use this feeling to have a meal you probably didn’t need. Of course if you are eating more food you’ll put on weight, but everyone knows this! However, I know this to be fact, with the right nutrition and exercise you will lose the centimetres. Remember food is a choice, you choose what you eat and when you eat. You choose to eat that extra meal that you don’t need!
If you are someone who wants to start making a change to the way you look and feel what you have to realise it doesn’t have to be as hard as you think. You don’t need to be chasing down the latest fad diets, exercises or catchy articles, no carbs, high carbs, soup, yoga, pilates, whatever it may be. There is a simple formula to follow, eat better and move more. With a healthy diet and regular exercise a man can expect to lose two to four centimetres of their waist and lady around half that, per week. It won’t take as long as you think.
Challenge this headline, “Exercise Will Make You Fat” and start making some simple changes to your lifestyle, whether it is getting started again into some fitness training or stepping up the intensity. Do you really think that if you started running three to five times a week for thirty minutes and started eating healthier that you would get fat? Remember, summer is only around the corner.
Guest contribution by Jonny “B Bad” @ www.jonnybbad.com – Creating a world that is all about you!
Editors note – Mr B Bad is located at Spring Hill in Queensland and is a lifestyle professional that with 3 simple rules will will give you a lifestyle plan that will last a lifetime.
PS: I choose to workout an additional 15 minutes to ensure I can continue eating Bacon on my museli bars.
I totally agree with Jonny b Bad. Exercise will not only help you lose weight, but will make you feel better! Everyone knows that muscle burns fat!
I only train once a fortnight, but come out of each session feeling
more alive and certainly not hungry for more food!
I’ve only been training for a few months, but no longer have to worry about the couple of extra kilos that used to appear at times.
Even a small amount of exercise is better than none! The extra winter kilos didn’t appear this year and I’m looking forward to summer.
Great article Jonny. Made me want to get up and out the door for a long walk.
I agree with you Jonny, the oversimplifaction of the article/study is more about the shock value than anything. Of course if you go out after exercising and decide to eat 10 chocolate muffins because you feel hungrier, you will probably put on weight or not lose the weight you are exercising to lose. Like everything with healthy lifestyle its all about choices and making the right choices for you and what you want to achieve, while I understand where the Times got their inspiration from, they neglect to look at the fact that a healthy lifestyle is about balance, and exercise must be apart of that balance because doing anything will help you in some way, shape or form….maybe the Times needs to look at the UK study done on exercise and how it burns fat.
As someone who has made the decision to change the way I look and feel by incorporating exercise into my life, I cannot agree more Jonny !
I never set out to change my body shape – I wanted to have fun and learn to box…..but because of THAT choice, I have completely changed the way I look ( smaller, stronger, more toned and healtier by far ) but also the way I feel ( confident, postive, energetic, more optimistic and much much happier within myself as a person…..) And the best part was – it almost happened without me even noticing it…..I was just having fun and enjoying making balanced diet and training a part of my life….and discovering a passion for fitness. I’m proof that making the changes that you talk about…..( and none of them are hard or complicated – they are just simple choices)… can change your life !