Exercise Won’t Make You Thin – Time Magazine Proves that The Fitness Adviser is Ahead of the Curve
Someone recently sent me an article that Time Magazine published that has been making a lot of waves. In it, the author contends that exercise isn’t helpful at all for weight loss, but that the most important part of weight loss is your diet. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
[If the mouse had been reading The Fitness Adviser instead of Time Magazine, he wouldn't be in this kind of bad situation to start with.]
“”In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless,” says Eric Ravussin, chair in diabetes and metabolism at Louisiana State University and a prominent exercise researcher. Many recent studies have found that exercise isn’t as important in helping people lose weight as you hear so regularly in gym advertisements or on shows like The Biggest Loser — or, for that matter, from magazines like this one.”
So Time magazine is saying your diet is more important than exercising for weight loss. I wonder where I’ve heard that before? Wait, I remember now. Here it is:
“Exercise is important, it keeps you healthy, it keeps you young, and it feels good. But it’s not the ticket to fat loss. When you want to lose weight, you need to be completely focused on your diet, what you’re eating, and how much you’re eating.”
This last quote was written by yours truly, The Fitness Adviser himself, Rafi Bar-Lev, in an article on Rush Limbaugh’s diet. In other words, I’ve been talking about the importance of your diet since I’ve started blogging, and Time Magazine is only picking up on it now!
The article proves my suspicions that this site is way ahead of the curve and way ahead of the mainstream media. I wouldn’t even be surprised if the writers at Time Magazine get their ideas by reading this blog!
Now, just to clarify about dieting versus exercise. It is my opinion (now shared by Time Magazine) that dieting is the main factor in losing weight. That being said, I also believe that exercise is crucial to maintaining a healthy and happy lifestyle as well as toning your body.
There’s a huge difference between being a weak 160 pounds and being a strong, toned 160 pounds. People too often get swept up in this fad over what their weight is when the important thing is how you look, feel, and fit in your clothes. On top of toning up your body, exercise lightens your mood, makes you think about eating foods that have more nutritional factors, and gives you some order to your day.
All of these factors mean that when you finally do hit your ideal weight and don’t have to diet but only have to maintain your weight, exercise will help ensure that you don’t have a relapse and gain your weight back. So if you’re planning on getting into weight loss, understand that while diet is the main factor in losing weight, exercise plays a huge part in toning your body and helping you live a happy, energetic, and healthy lifestyle for life.
Right on. Exercise to stay fit and eat right for weight.
My worry with this type of article (although it all makes sense now since I have only had good results when I eat right as opposed to just exercise) is that many people will use it as an excuse not to exercise because “it doesn’t work anyway”. I hope not, but for many people things are very black and white…
Greg – Yep.
Jeremy – I agree, which is why I made a point of addressing the importance of exercise.
-Rafi
I agree for the most part. Diet is 70% of the battle. However, I think exercise is key to reinforcing your diet plan. After all, you don’t wanna end up being a “skinny fat” person.
Rahim – Yeah, exercise is extremely important.
I think that people who use the article as an “excuse” not to exercise would have eventually found some other excuse to stop anyway.
I used to tell my friends and colleagues what this article says and they would never believe me. Now I finally feel vindicated! Of course, like you said (and the article says too), exercise is still important, just not for fat loss. I read this phrase years ago, though I can’t remember where: “A proper diet adds years to your life. Exercise adds life to your years.”
Palidor – That’s a good point, people looking for excuses will find one. Glad you feel vindicated now.
-Rafi