Monday, September 21, 2009

Exercise does not help you lose weight!

COMO SAY WHAT? Yes, ladies, according to a Time magazine article, exercise does not help you lose weight. The premise of the article is that basically only limiting your calorie intake will help you lose weight and when you start to exercise, you burn more calories and therefore, are hungrier and HENCE may take in more calories. Which KINDA makes sense...but let me throw some facts out there:

Obesity rates in adults in the US has risen from 13% in the 1960s to 32% in 2004 and are projected to be as high as 41% in 2015.
The number of people in the US with type II diabetes has DOUBLED between 1990 and 2005.

WHOA!! Do you think we have a problem in the US? Fast food, pasta, bread, potatoes, rice, cookies, candy, ETC ETC are all part of the regular American diet these days. Of course, I know that many of you know this, but here is my problem with ANY type of article like this...the average JOE SCHMO is going to read it and go, YEP, GOOD, now I don't have to get off the couch as he/she eats another potato chip.

Let me boil it down to the regular Americans TV vocabulary, if exercise didn't help you lose weight, do you think they would feature it on The Biggest Loser?

Exercise is hard and yes, guess what you sweat and probably hurt, but to tell people that it doesn't help lose weight is just alarming. I am sure that you can ask any athlete or dancer if their physical activity helps them lose weight/keep weight off and they will all give you a resounding YES! I personally have been teaching Jazzercise for almost 12 years now and recently when I increased the number of classes I was teaching (and didn't really change my diet) I....WAIT FOR IT.....I lost weight.

MEDIA PEOPLE, seriously, stop writing articles like this, it sends the wrong message. And as I wrote in a a VERY early blog, there is only one way to lose weight/keep weight off! EAT LESS, EXERCISE MORE. Not just eat less, not just the Atkins diet, not just Pilates. Americans are always looking for an excuse not to exercise, articles like this one are simply one more reason.

This has been a public service announcement from JZZRGRL. Cheers and CIAO BELLAS.

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