Facing the truth about obesity (Part 2): Can you lose weight by exercising more?

Americans have been getting steadily fatter over the past few decades. Many authorities, including the World Health Organization, say this is because we are becoming more inactive and sitting more. In fact, as obesity is becoming increasingly prevalent, various physical activities are also becoming a trend. For example, the health club industry was estimated to have revenues of just $200 million in 1972, but had ballooned 17-fold to $16 billion in 2005. The first Boston Marathon in 1964 attracted more than 300 participants. By 2009, there were more than 26,000 male and female runners. In 1970, the New York City Marathon had only 137 runners, 16,000 in 1980, and 39,000 in 2008, with an even higher number of applicants of 60,000. "America appears to be in the midst of a movement," The New York Times reported in 1977.

(Photo provided by Rong Pharmacist)

If exercise can help you lose weight, then in the past few decades there should be a lot of thin people. But why are there so many fat people instead?

Moderate exercise actually burns very few calories. And the effort of exercise can be easily offset by just a little careless eating. In 1942, Louis of the University of Michigan. A study by Louis Newburgh pointed out that a 113 kg man can only burn 3 calories by climbing one floor of stairs, so "to burn off the calories in a slice of bread, you have to climb 20 floors"!

The belief that exercising burns calories is based on an assumption - that consuming more calories does not increase our calorie intake. In fact, once we increase physical activity, it stimulates appetite, and our body will increase calorie intake to compensate for the increase in consumption. In 1940, Hugo of Northwestern University. Hugo Rony once said: "Intense muscle activity usually makes people want to eat a lot immediately. The amount of calories consumed remains the same, and the appetite will also remain the same. Statistics show that lumberjacks consume an average of more than 5,000 calories a day, while tailors only need about 2,500 calories. But if a tailor becomes a lumberjack, his appetite will become as big as that of a lumberjack."

(Situational picture/provided)

In 1989, a Danish research team published a research report in which they trained physically inactive people to run marathons. After 18 months of training, the 18 men who participated in the test lost an average of 2.26 kg of body fat; however, no changes in body composition were observed in the other 9 female subjects (they did not lose weight).

Paul, a statistics expert at Berkeley National Laboratory. Williams and Peter, a Stanford University researcher who studies the effects of exercise on health. A research report published by Peter Wood in 2006. They collected detailed data on nearly 13,000 joggers (all subscribers to Runner's World magazine) and compared their weekly mileage with their annual weight changes. As a result, all the joggers gained weight year by year, even those who ran 63 kilometers a week.

The researchers suggest that even the most avid joggers should increase their weekly mileage each year if they want to maintain their weight. Men need to increase their weekly mileage by 3.21 kilometers per year and women need to increase their weekly mileage by 4.82 kilometers per year, which may help them maintain their weight. Suppose there is a man in his twenties who jogs about 32 kilometers per week. He jogs five days a week, so he runs 6.4 kilometers a day. By the time he was in his forties, he had to run 12 miles a day (nearly half a marathon) to maintain his weight.

Experts want us to exercise more. The "Physical Activity and Health Guidelines" published by the American Heart Association and the American College of Sports Medicine in August 2007 state that 30 minutes of moderate physical activity five days a week is necessary to "maintain and promote good health." They also said: "It is reasonable to assume that people who consume more calories per day may be less likely to gain weight than those who consume fewer calories. However, the data to date are not particularly convincing in supporting this hypothesis."

There is simply no evidence to support the idea that exercising more can increase calorie expenditure in order to address obesity.

This article comes from: Diabetes Life Guide

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