Dieting vs. Exercise for Weight Loss
Posted: August 2, 2012 Filed under: Food and it's Impact on Our Health 16 CommentsWhy Exercise has Little Effect on Weight Loss…
Two groundbreaking new studies address the irksome question of why so many of us who work out remain so heavy, a concern that carries special resonance at the moment, as lean Olympians slip through the air and water, inspiring countless viewers to want to become similarly sleek.
Gretchen Reynolds on the science of fitness;
And in a just world, frequent physical activity should make us slim. But repeated studies have shown that many people who begin an exercise program lose little or no weight. Some gain.
To better understand why, anthropologists leading one of the new studies began with a research trip to Tanzania. There, they recruited volunteers from the Hadza tribe, whose members still live by hunting and gathering.
Providing these tribes people with a crash course in modern field-study technology, the researchers fitted them with GPS units, to scrupulously measure how many miles each walked daily while searching for food. They also asked them to swallow so-called doubly labeled water, a liquid in which the normal hydrogen and oxygen molecules have been replaced with versions containing tracers. By studying these elements later in a person’s urine, researchers can precisely determine someone’s energy expenditure and metabolic rate.
The researchers gathered data for 11 days, then calculated the participants’ typical daily physical activity, energy expenditure and resting metabolic rates. They then compared those numbers with the same measures for an average male and female Westerner.
It’s long been believed that a hunter-gatherer lifestyle involves considerable physical activity and therefore burns many calories, far more than are incinerated by your average American office worker each day. And it was true, the scientists determined, that the Hadza people in general moved more than many Americans do, with the men walking about seven miles a day and the women about three.
But it was not true that they were burning far more calories. In fact, the scientists calculated, the Hadza’s average metabolic rate, or the number of calories that they were burning over the course of a day, was about the same as the average metabolic rate for Westerners.
The implication, the scientists concluded, is that “active, ‘traditional’ lifestyles may not protect against obesity if diets change to promote increased caloric consumption.” That is, even active people will pack on pounds if they eat like most of us in the West.
The underlying and rather disheartening message of that finding, of course, is that physical activity by itself is not going to make and keep you thin. (It’s worth noting that the Hadza people were almost uniformly slight.)
Addition Reading;
WHY EXERCISE HAS LITTLE EFFECT ON WEIGHT LOSS
THE WHOLE GRAIN LIE – LOOKING BEYOND GLUTEN
AMERICANS ARE STARVED FOR FATS
For a 30 Day Guide with Menus and Recipes on how to lose 25 pounds in a month, safely- The Criterion Diet
Anyone who would be willing to exercise in a room heated to over 100
degrees should have their head examined, or so I once
thought. Now promoters say it can also make you look younger.
When some people think of yoga, they imagine having to stretch like a gymnast.
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Exercising in a gym or playing a game you like is an excellent way
to get rid of tension, anxiety and any negative thoughts.
s a possibility that could yield profound results both for the individual and for society at virtually no cost, and with great side-benefits for each of the individuals involved.
When some people think of yoga, they imagine having to stretch like a gymnast.
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