An Education, Part 3. The "Exercise" Myth

Is the primary reason why you exercise to maintain your lean figure, or to one day (hopefully) obtain a lean figure? What if I said exercise has absolutely nothing to do with weight (fat) loss, and by exercising alone as a tool to "control" your weight, you will only make yourself fatter and weaker?

Pretty crazy, huh? Yeah, until about 7 months ago, I thought exercise was totally necessary in order to lose weight. I thought that I could balance the crap I ate by exercising more, by following the laws of thermodynamics (calories in - calories out = fat lost or gained). NOT TRUE, as we learned in An Education, Part 2, hormones are responsible for fat storage.

So when we exercise, (specifically long bouts of cardio only) what is actually getting lost? Lean muscle tissue is the first thing to get used by the body since its more readily available to convert to energy, as the body tends to hold onto fat for survival. This is how eating less and exercising more makes you fatter and weaker. Losing lean muscle tissue is a tricky bastard. As you lose lean muscle, your body requires less calories to maintain itself. So, you have to keep eating less calories to maintain your losses. Its a horrible place to be...depending on the number on the scale to dictate success rather than the percentage of fat in your body, or how your clothes fit.

Taking the information from An Education Part 1, we know that fat does not make us fat, and that fat is a dietary necessity. Taking the information from An Education Part 2, we know that hormones are responsible for fat storage and fat loss. Now, we know that exercise plays no part in fat loss...so where does that leave us?

What goes into our mouths is the most important factor in losing weight (fat). The best things to put into our mouths are items that do not cause a spike in blood sugar, and therefore a release in insulin, elevating insulin levels. Eating fat is more important then eating carbohydrates.

Much information for this post was taken from this article:
http://nymag.com/news/sports/38001/

See also:
http://www.garytaubes.com/blog/