4 ms·

Exercise is good, but it won't help you lose weight, say doctors

10 points by uxhacker 11y ago

dcherman 11y ago
I used to be obese when I was younger. It's true that I had a pretty horrendous diet, however I blame say 80-90% of the problem on my overconsumption of soda. After learning about nutrition, it was horrific just how easy it is to down 1000 ( or more! ) calories of soda every single day without breaking a sweat. At 3500 calories per pound of fat, that's 3.5 lbs/week or 182 lbs worth of fat each year. I still assert to this day that even if I completely let my diet go and ate like garbage, I doubt that I could eat enough junk to get back to the point where I was.
DanBC 11y ago
> The truth, they say, is that while physical activity is useful in reducing the risk of developing heart disease, dementia and other conditions, it “does not promote weight loss”. Hang on, that's a bit too strong. They're totally rightthat the food industry over-plays the usefulness of exercise. Here's a meta analysis from a well regarded organisation: http://www.cochrane.org/CD003817/ENDOC_exercise-for-overweight-or-obesity http://www.cochrane.org/CD003817/ENDOC_exercise-for-overweig... >> We found that exercise has a positive effect on body weight and cardiovascular disease risk factors in people with overweight or obesity, particularly when combined with diet, and that exercise improves health even if no weight is lost. > denounce “manipulative marketing” for sabotaging government efforts to introduce taxes on those drinks and to ban the advertising of junk food. One example: the food industry has voluntarily adjusted package sizes to smaller sizes for single serving foods. This means you can buy a snickers bar for 67 pence, or Snickers Duo (two smaller bars with total size bigger than single bar) for not much more and often a 4 pack of the single bar for £1 because "special offer". People are not good at resisting this kind of marketing message and the UK food industry uses similar tactics quite a lot.

10 points by uxhacker 11y ago

I used to be obese when I was younger. It's true that I had a pretty horrendous diet, however I blame say 80-90% of the problem on my overconsumption of soda. After learning about nutrition, it was horrific just how easy it is to down 1000 ( or more! ) calories of soda every single day without breaking a sweat. At 3500 calories per pound of fat, that's 3.5 lbs/week or 182 lbs worth of fat each year. I still assert to this day that even if I completely let my diet go and ate like garbage, I doubt that I could eat enough junk to get back to the point where I was.

DanBC 11y ago

> The truth, they say, is that while physical activity is useful in reducing the risk of developing heart disease, dementia and other conditions, it “does not promote weight loss”. Hang on, that's a bit too strong. They're totally rightthat the food industry over-plays the usefulness of exercise. Here's a meta analysis from a well regarded organisation: http://www.cochrane.org/CD003817/ENDOC_exercise-for-overweight-or-obesity http://www.cochrane.org/CD003817/ENDOC_exercise-for-overweig... >> We found that exercise has a positive effect on body weight and cardiovascular disease risk factors in people with overweight or obesity, particularly when combined with diet, and that exercise improves health even if no weight is lost. > denounce “manipulative marketing” for sabotaging government efforts to introduce taxes on those drinks and to ban the advertising of junk food. One example: the food industry has voluntarily adjusted package sizes to smaller sizes for single serving foods. This means you can buy a snickers bar for 67 pence, or Snickers Duo (two smaller bars with total size bigger than single bar) for not much more and often a 4 pack of the single bar for £1 because "special offer". People are not good at resisting this kind of marketing message and the UK food industry uses similar tactics quite a lot.