We need to unhitch exercise from weight-management.

Exercise is great for health,
but weight-loss comes from the kitchen.

Exercise is Not Likely to Be Your Ticket
             to the Weight-Loss Express 

 Among the most commonly held misconceptions about obesity, perhaps none does more harm than the notion that exercise is responsible for the lion's share of weight management.

Sure, it's true that exercise does burn calories, and yes, if you burn more calories you ought to lose weight. But unfortunately, it's just not that simple.

To put exercise into some perspective, to lose a pound of weight each week would require roughly a marathon of effort each and every week, as the calories burned running those 26.2 miles would likely be in the neighborhood of a pound's worth. Of course, it would also necessitate that not once did you "eat because you exercised" – neither as an indulgence to reward yourself for all that running, nor as a consequence to any running-induced hunger. Seems to me that'd be pretty unlikely.

Looking at real-world studies of exercise and its impact on weight, the results are underwhelming to say the least. Take this 2007 study published in the journal Obesity. Researchers instructed 196 men and women to exercise an hour a day, six days a week, for a year! And researchers weren't just telling people to exercise, they were supervising them and instructing them as well.

Compliance was incredible – only seven study dropouts – and over the course of the year, men averaged 6.16 hours of weekly exercise, and women, 4.9 hours. So did the 320 hours of exercise for the men and the 254 hours for the women lead to weight loss? Yes, but probably less than you might have guessed. Men lost, on average, 3.5 pounds, and women, 2.6. That translates to 91.5 hours of exercise per pound lost.

Now, to be very clear, there is likely nothing better for your health than exercise – truly nothing. There's no pill you can take and no food you can include or avoid that will give you the health benefits of regular exercise. I exercise regularly, and I strongly encourage all of my patients to do so as well. But I also tell them that they can't outrun their forks.

The notion that moving more will translate to weight loss is a dangerous one. For individuals, it may effectively discourage exercise when results aren't seen on scales. For the media and entertainment industries, it often leads to the perpetuation of the "people-with-obesity-are-just-lazy" stereotype. For the food industry, it allows an embrace of exercise b...

 An Article Worth Reading.
 



 

It’s Not Even About My Fat
          by Ragen Chastain. Dancer, Choreographer, Writer, Speaker, Fat Person.

Ever since I posted about doing a marathon I’ve been getting tons of hate mail. I got an e-mail that said “A part of me sincerely hopes you die doing that marathon so that others will see you can’t be over 300lbs and act like it doesn’t matter, you need to lose weight!”

This illustrates something that people who fat bash for fun, profit, or pleasure often try to disguise behind claims that it’s “because of our health” or “for our own good.” A lot of fat bashing has almost nothing to do with us being fat per se.

For starters, let me take a shot at re-wording this person’s comment: “A part of me sincerely hopes you die doing something that you like to do, so that other fat people don’t get the idea that they can do things that they like to do, as if the shame and stigma that I want to heap upon all of you doesn’t matter. You need to hate yourself like I want you to and do what I say!”

A lot of the social stigma that fat people face can serve to make us second class citizens – clothing stores use our purposeful exclusion as a marketing strategy, hospitals don’t bother to purchase equipment that will help keep us alive, the government is actively encouraging our employers, friends, and families to stereotype us based on how we look.

When we refuse to bow to this and we live the lives we want to live – doing a marathon, wearing a fatkini, going to see that band we like, eating at the new restaurant- or engage in activism to make the world better for us, this can be seen as “rising above our station”. There are people who count on fat people trying to solve social stigma by changing ourselves. When we decide to solve social stigma by ending social stigma, the people who profit – monetarily and/or emotionally – from our attempt to change ourselves can start to get antsy. Or completely panicked and pissed off.

There are people for whom conforming to societal norms by getting as close as possible to the stereotype of beauty is incredibly important, and something at which they throw a tremendous amount of time, energy, and money. People are absolutely allowed to do that. It goes wrong when these people start to resent and become angry with those of us who make different choices.

I think that one of the most powerful types of activism fat people can do is live our lives unapologetically. In the world we live in, waking up and not hating ourselves is activism. So going to that show, or wearing the awesome sweater we crocheted, entering a 5k, getting a scooter and going to Vegas, or whatever we do that isn’t hating our bodies – are acts of revolution. Every single time a fat person refuses to be silenced, hidden, kept away, or kept out...

                     
For several seasons, I watched “The Biggest Loser”, as well as several other “weight-loss shows”, and I formed some personal opinions based on my focused attention. I’ve also read quite a few follow-up interviews by people involved in the show – including contestants.

As a result, I’ve now chosen to boycott this type of TV “reality” weight-loss program. The article below was written by an exercise professional, and it accurately reflects many of my own thoughts on this subject.

Fat Farm 
          by David Landau

In recent years Television has attempted to show the world what real life in America is all about. But in television unfortunately, there is not a control in order to turn up the brightness (intelligence). Be as it may, this is how many individuals do their research. Unfortunately many of them are stuck in television’s land of illusion. Much of what TV provides is promulgated half truths in the form of propaganda. The great philosopher Eric Hoffer once said, “Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.” Knowing this, witty TV producers have consequently spawned a variety of shows that have come under the umbrella of what is labeled “Reality Television.” Like TV hasn't had its fair share of providing a fountain of misinformation. So therefore the reality has to be real; sure!

This concept of Reality TV more or less involves a type of programming that supposedly mirrors real world situations which feature the unscripted documented lives of genuine common folk. But if this were to be really true, the TV viewing audience would quickly abort those channels and never venture back to them again. After all, they would be looking in the proverbial mirror at the same sad said pathetic scenes they have often seen in their own lives. To take this actuality a bit further, someone else said, “Television enables you to be entertained in your own home by people you wouldn't have in your home.” The truth is, TV becomes sociological nightmare that spawns a show of its own, that could be called, “As the Public Turns.”

People however; need and want to get away (at least for a while from their dreary lives), so they turn to television. But as someone once said, “Television is not the Truth. Television is god-damned amusement park. Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, sideshow freaks, lion tamers and football players. We're in the boredom killing business.” Regardless of the aforementioned warning, the allure of TV continually stays fresh, even though the entertainment is often the same ole, same ole.

The producers of the “reality” genre have in many cases cherry picked fledgling third rate actors/actresses to fall in with the rest of the so called common “real” folks. With the additional da...