From the article: "If a hypothetical 200-pound man added 60 minutes of medium intensity running four days per week while keeping his calorie intake the same, an

From the article: "If a hypothetical 200-pound man added 60 minutes of medium intensity running four days per week while keeping his calorie intake the same, and he did this for 30 days, he'd lose five pounds. 'If this person decided to increase food intake or relax more to recover from the added exercise, then even less weight would be lost,' Hall added. (More on these 'compensatory mechanisms' later.) So if one is overweight or obese, and presumably trying to lose dozens of pounds, it would take an incredible amount of time, will, and effort to make a real impact through exercise.” OK. I exercise more than that every month and have for years. It's painless to do because it's the only time I spend watching TV shows like Game Of Thrones--I look forward to my exercise sessions. So, this article is telling me that (unless I exhibit compensatory mechanisms' such as eating more than I do), and if I started at 200 lbs, I'd lose 5 lbs a month, just doing what I actually want to do (because I enjoy watching entertaining TV shows like GoT). I'd go from 200 lbs to not being overweight in less than a year. The article's take on this is "it would take an incredible amount of time , will, and effort to make a real impact through exercise". That seems like an incredible amount of negative spin the authors are trying to put on it. To me, it sounds like a fantastic deal. And one I've taken advantage of. My own weight loss path is pretty complicated, but I was at 225 and now my weight stays between 173 and 183, generally up and down depending on life events and whether I have temporarily keep more sodas in the fridge than I normally do. EDIT: I just want to emphasize that the key for me is that I enjoy my exercise sessions, because I look forward to watching the most entertaining TV produced in the English language. So it takes almost no will power or effort. It's a matter of choosing not to watch that TV when not exercising, which gets to be a habit--similar to not picking up an apple pie every time I go to the grocery store so there's no such pie sitting around the house. If if DID take willpower and effort to do that exercise, I probably wouldn't do it! It helps enormously that I have an elliptical trainer in the house. But that's a small investment compared to the health benefits--not just weight loss and maintenance, but the fact that exercising is great for the brain, and many other benefits as well, including a reduction in cancer risk. EDIT 2: I don't even know if I'd find that TV all that enjoyable if I wasn't exercising. I can imagining thinking "why am I wasting this time watching this crap when I could be doing something useful??" But when exercising, there are so many benefits that I give myself total permission to watch it, and I do enjoy it!