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Obesity and excercise
Keiō Line
Posts: 12,979 Forum Member
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-32417699
Make no mistake, exercise has tremendous health benefits, but weight loss is not one of them. (although there is some evidence that it can keep stop you gaining weight).
Once again another report that points to portion sizes as being THE cause of the problem. Needless sugar in drinks and food only has a minor affect on the nations weight problem.
The government has its work cut out when in order to increase its profits the food industry is increasing portion sizes. Billions spent getting people to eat more and 2.3 million spent to tell them not to. I suspect I know who the winner will be and the evidence is all around us.
Physical activity has little role in tackling obesity - and instead public health messages should squarely focus on unhealthy eating, doctors say.
Make no mistake, exercise has tremendous health benefits, but weight loss is not one of them. (although there is some evidence that it can keep stop you gaining weight).
Once again another report that points to portion sizes as being THE cause of the problem. Needless sugar in drinks and food only has a minor affect on the nations weight problem.
The government has its work cut out when in order to increase its profits the food industry is increasing portion sizes. Billions spent getting people to eat more and 2.3 million spent to tell them not to. I suspect I know who the winner will be and the evidence is all around us.
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But the difference is there is a sharp increase in people not walking anywhere and lots more cars on the road for even short journeys and children no longer play out as much or leave the house much at all. . .
(I know this is about a lot more than children just an observation)
Yes we need to eat well, but exercise should be a fundamental part of everybody's routine. To give anybody encouragement not to bother is as harmful as those darned celebrities endorsing soft drinks.
It is never wrong to tell the truth. If research points one way, that is the way it should be reported. No one has said that we should not exercise. Of course it is related to good health. It is just not particularly related to obesity.
And anecdotally, we surely all know that. We all know people as slender as reeds who appear to expend about a calorie a day. Will they be healthy, long-term? Probably not.
Anecdotally again, i belonged to a gym for maybe 15 years and was a very faithful attender. I used to mentally divide the other regulars (omitting the keen body builders, who had their own section) into the fatter 'baggy tee shirt and leggings' gym bunnies and the thinner 'lycra crop tops and shorts' gym bunnies. Only over the years I never seemed to see anyone move from one group to the other.
A year ago I was 18 stone .. And on my way to 19 ... I started exercising and the weight dropped off after continung to excercise and a healthy eating diet in down to 13.11 ... Which I would never done with diet alone
Exercise isn't going to help you lose weight if you're still consuming more calories than your body needs. Diet is by far the most important thing for weight loss. Of course the ideal is to have a combination of the 2.
As an example, one hour cycling burns approximately 400 - 500 calories (depending on your weight and effort involved) and that's (roughly) the equivalent to a couple of slices of buttered toast.
Exercise certainly helped me lose weight, but alongside a much better diet.
My plan is simple. I just eat moderately, and sometimes have a splurge ( life is too short not to) and exercise as much as I can.
Don't understand the method of a diet. All it means is a short term eating plan that is not meant to be stuck to permanently. So what happens after the term has been completed.
Go back to what you did before? Which is what people generally do isn't it? Hence why they're never off diets at all!
Slightly off topic, but yesterday I bought my first adult skipping rope..........
Haven't skipped in years, not since infants and juniors. Someone told me it was great for toning.
Anyone agree, or am I just wasting my time?
I do think public health campaigns face a big challenge. It is easy enough to put out loads of advertisements telling people to eat '5 a day', but that hardly scratches the surface. How DO you persuade people to eat less than they want, and particularly less of the yummiest, most tempting food, every day for the rest of their lives? Sweet foods, in particular, have a powerful emotional place in peoples' lives. They are both reward and comfort, celebration and expression of love. Go on, treat yourself. Naughty but nice. I've bought a lovely easter egg for the children. What a horrible day, I need a brownie. I'll come, and I'l bring a cake. I'm really sorry, have this box of Belgian chocolates. I'm so knackered, I just need to sit down with a cup of coffee and some shortbread. Apart from my banana-a-day, I haven't had sugar for a year, and it has been no picnic (at least not one of those nice picnics with home made cake.)
I think they are correct if they believe being light is a goal in itself, purely because people don't realise how much calories are in simple foods, and how much exercise they have to do to burn that off. You can spend 30 minutes jogging on a treadmill, and some people believe that entitles them to a slap-up meal, whereas it really only buys you a Digestive or a bit of cheese crumbled on your pasta. In that sense, you can do a lot more good, more easily by reducing calories in than by trying to increase calories out.
However, being light isn't a goal in itself, and being healthy is more important. No point being light if you can't summon up the energy to go for a good walk or bike ride, and that's where exercise comes into it.
This is my plan too. For the most part I have my 3 meals a day, don't snack much but for me, most importantly, I reduced my meal portions by about a third several years ago. I went from size 12-14 down to a 10 and have stayed there ever since, I do like to walk everywhere to try and be fit.
I've no idea if these latest reports are correct. Though I've always believed that the more exercise you do, the better off you'll be.
Not sure if I have smaller portions now, though I've cut back so much on sweets and chocolate etc, though it's less to do with my health, and more to do with my teeth!
I mean, you certainly don't see any obese athletes do you?
And the other thing is that, when my Mum was a girl at school, she always said that there were so few fat kids in her class, and it really was different to see it. And that was of an era where kids were always out and about, and playing loads of sport at school, whereas now, it's almost gone completely the other way, and we've got real problems of obesity amongst kids.....
So not being an expert, although I do see an obvious link there!
That's what I find amusing. Travel in a vehicle for journeys that are miles and miles away, but not for short distances. Exercise supposedly opens up the arteries. I hardly ever saw any overweight people outside when I was a school kid. I suspect some people out there comfort eat and that's why they're very overweight. There'll also be those who might have a medical condition that stops them being able to lose weight.
I didn't say school, I said outside. I hardly saw any really overweight people when outside when I was a school kid. I hardly saw any really overweight people in my local town and now, about a quarter of the people I see could be classed as being 'weighty'.
I agree. But certainly for girls we seem to have lost our way. There must be 1000 girls who would like to look like Miley Cyrus for every one who would like to look like Venus Williams. Who wants to be athletic and strong, when they could be (apparently) 50kg? Note that I am not saying there is anything wrong with Miley Cyrus's body. I am saying there is something very wrong with girls thinking that is the only desirable shape.
However, a lot of people think that 'exercising' say for an hour a day and then being inactive for the rest of the day will be sufficient, when it probably won't. Especially if they aren't very fit to start with, so that hour of exercise won't be very intense.
Just as an example, how many people go swimming, swim a few lengths (quite slowly) then stand chatting at the end of the pool for the rest of the hour? Then go and have a snack from the vending machines and drive home.
Really for exercise to be effective you have to be as active as possible during the day (walking, climbing stairs instead of using lifts) as well as doing some intensive exercise.
As for exercise and diet, surely if a person consumes, for example, 2,500 calories a day and does no exercise, that 2,500 calories is sitting in their body and turning into something else. If they exercise and burn off 500 calories, they then have only technically consumed 2,000 calories, a much healthier scenario.
Obviously exercise is good in other ways - it gives you energy, it keeps your muscles toned - especially that heart muscle - and, together with a healthy eating lifestyle, makes for a healthier person all around surely?
Sure, the portions we eat are important. I've cut down greatly on what I eat since my diabetes diagnosis, but I still don't exercise (I started but then injured my achilles tendon which is still very painful when walking). I lost 2 stone easily, but now that I'm nearing that 3 stone mark, my weight has levelled and frustratingly remained the same since Christmas. I would imagine exercise would help me to get the weight moving down again, I'm looking into methods that are cheap and don't use my achilles tendon
My daughter struggles being a hungry teen but a rather inactive one, due mostly to her disability. I struggle knowing how much I should let her eat as a growing young woman, it's a constant source of worry. I want her to be more active and have enrolled her in an inclusive sports club, I do feel the activity is important for body and mind - not JUST because of the calories burned versus calories taken in.
The fitness girl image is becoming far more popular these days. More young women then ever before are lifting weights and going for that sporty toned look. I think we're moving away from the emaciated and underweight look.
Even as I'm sitting replying to your post, I'm doing my bum clenches. Of course I can only do it whilst noone is looking otherwise it'd look like I'm trying to hold in a fart!:D
Very good point Wonkey. It's sad that being toned, strong and athletic is seen as being unfeminine by so many people. A lot of girls seem to lose interest in sports as they reach their mid teens.
Lol, well they can do one. I don't even particularly object to laziness - it seems to me that there are far worse human characteristics - but no one sane, surely, thinks it is a failing that thin people do not show just as much.
I went out and bought one yesterday. I remember skipping from my child years and knowing how easy it must be..............
After tripping up on the rope several times, I start to do some skipping.
I then get over confident and start to skip with both feet off the ground......
Guess how many I did? I reached 5.
I couldn't believe it, as I've always thought I'm fairly fit, and always love to walk everywhere, and jog, but that skipping is a whole different kettle.......
The normal way, as in one foot, then the other, that is fine, though really really boring, so put music on first, but when you start to jump the rope using two feet at the same time, it's hell on earth. Well it is for me anyway
I'm going to try and do high octane skipping for 5 minutes a day :cool: