Border Line Purge To Fitness

You may have read a recent press article saying that moderate exercise is not sufficient to enable overweight people to lose weight. The implication being that there is no point doing exercise as it does you no good.

Can that really be the case?

Of course not! It may be true that moderate exercise does not use up enough calories to make a significant difference to your weight. But that's only part of the story.

So tell me more.

First, and most important, exercise is essential for your health. Any level of exercise will help your health. Obviously more is better. But even starting with a small amount, such as 30 minutes walking 5 times a week, will improve your health. In the 1990s, a famous American study showed that starting to exercise was the single most effective thing you could do to reduce your risk of premature death. Exercise is better at preventing premature death than dieting, or any other single action. So even if you remain overweight, exercise is still doing you more good than anything else you can try.

Wow!

Yes. Doing even relatively small amounts of exercise is the single best thing you can do to reduce your risk of premature death. And there is no contradiction between this fact, and the results of the new study mentioned at the start. It only talked about losing weight, and the inference in the media was that low weight = good health. The media do tend to get obsessed about these things. Also it makes popular copy to say that 'there's no point doing any exercise'. How wrong!

Go on.

The second important point from this sorry case of misinterpretation is that many seriously overweight people are unable to exercise at a high enough level to make an impact on their weight…

Well, that's me.

…to start with. One of the miracles of the human body is it that it's adaptive. That means that if you keep eating all the wrong foods and do no exercise at all, it still finds some way to keep on working (just about) for some time, when really it shouldn't. More importantly, just because you are not able to manage a particular physical feat today, it does not mean that you won't ever be able to do it. The evidence shows quite the reverse.

Really?

When you watch the London Marathon on TV, how many times have you been amazed at some of the stories of the runners? People in their 50s and 60s, who were overweight and ate all the wrong things, who changed into athletes. If they can do it, anyone can. It may take some time, but we all have the capability to adapt over a period of time to do things we couldn't imagine doing now. How else do mountaineers conquer Everest without oxygen? How else do Olympic athletes keep running faster, and faster?

What if I don't want to go up Everest or enter the Olympics?

If you are overweight and start to take exercise, even a small amount, you will start to improve your health. As you get fitter and fitter, you can start to work at a higher level of exertion. This in turn uses more calories. So now, instead of just getting fitter, and reducing your risk of dying early, you should be getting close to building up a calorie deficit, so you can start making an impact on your weight. This cycle of good continues. As you start feeling the benefits of your efforts, you feel better about yourself, and this gives you the enthusiasm to put more effort into it. You'll be amazed at how motivating it is to feel that your efforts are making a difference. Then you just want to do more.

Are you sure?

Yes! Maybe you start thinking about changing your diet. No, not 'going on a diet'. We all know that's a grind that makes life really hard. Also, when you finish a diet, you start putting on weight again. Instead it's much better to think about the things that you are eating, and just choose to moderate them. Smaller portions. Less animal fats. More vegetable fats. This doesn't mean that anything is banned. We all know that if you forbid a child from having something, that one thing is all they will crave. Instead, it's just about increasing your knowledge, and making better choices. Forever. You can have a bad day, where you eat all the wrong things, but on average you will be heading in the right direction.

Sounds good.

It does. Exercise is good for you. Even if it doesn't help you lose weight, it will improve your health. And as you get fitter, you get more motivated to do more, and think about what you eat. So the 'new you' automatically starts losing weight as well as being healthier. Couldn't be easier really, could it?

So, where do I go from here?

Make a start – it's easier than you think!

©2007 Rob Knowles All rights reserved