10 Tips About Exercise And Weight Loss

The general consensus is that good eating habits AND exercise combined is the best way to lose weight, and stay healthy. A recent article "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin", by John Cloud, published in Time magazine in August, sparked vigorous debate on exercise and weight loss. His article concludes that exercise by itself, without any change in eating habits, is unlikely to make you lose weight. The amount of exercise required to lose any significant amount of calories is quite astonishing. However, combined with a 'diet' of some sort, exercise is definitely a big contributor to successful weight loss. Here are 10 reasons you should include exercise as part of your weight loss program.

1. To lose 1 pound of fat a week, you would have to reduce your calorie intake by 500 calories a day. To do that with exercise alone is a lot more difficult than you would think - swimming laps for 1 hour, stationary rowing for 1 hour, or high impact aerobics for 1 hour will each burn 500 calories.

2. Exercise does burn calories - but not enough to cause the weight loss you will get from reducing your calorie intake from food. It takes a lot of exercise to burn off very few calories.

3. Exercise helps to counteract the 'starvation' effect on your body that a reduced calorie diet often triggers.

4. Exercise does increase your metabolism, and muscle uses more energy to maintain even when you're asleep.

5. Exercise can make you hungry and susceptible to cravings post-workout. This is particularly true of longer, more vigorous workouts, and some experts suggest that more frequent, low-level activity may be more beneficial for weight loss.

6. That said, it's a lot easier to lose weight and stick to a diet if exercise is helping to burn some of the calories.

7. Exercise has a lot of psychological benefits - you feel better about yourself, it's great for stress management and is even found to relieve depression and anxiety.

8. Exercise has been found to help with long-term maintenance of weight loss.

9. The overall health benefits of exercise cannot be overlooked - whether you're trying to lose weight or not, exercise helps reduce our risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, back pain and osteoporosis, among others.

10. Your social life will improve too! Even if you're just walking around the neighbourhood, in the gym, or at the local sports club, you'll meet new people and make new friends.

The point is, if you do not change your eating habits, it is extremely difficult to lose weight. The amount of exercise you would need to do to achieve the same weight loss is considerable, similar to that of professional athletes. For most of us, combining some sort of healthy diet with exercise is still the best way to go.

By: Annee

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