Monday, July 19, 2010
Here's the problem. Experts like me tell you to exercise and we often offer all types of formulas and recommendations. The latest recipe for health (and weight loss) is to workout aerobically, a minimum of an hour, most days of the week, and really focus on increasing your heart rate for ...
Seven Myths About Obesity 
9 Facts About Obesity and Weight Loss 
What Does BMI Really Tell You? 
How Did We Get So Big: Five aspects of the obesity crisis in America 
I have to say. While I agree with what your overall sentiment is. I think what you're communicating or what you're ultimately going to end up doing is reducing peoples willingness to committ to even an hour a day. An hour a day is better than zero hours a day? Can we agree on that? What positive impact does this article have?
Hi Preston-
Yes ANYTHINg is better than nothing and we do know that 30 minutes of exercise most days of the week imparts health benefits - if not weight loss.
But I am also a health professional and the expectation of most people who commit to exercise is that the payoff "is huge." It is if you are also generally active and moving about much of the day and you then add in that commitment of pulse-raising exercise. But the medical community realizes that if you exercise for an hour in the am and then sit for most of 8 hours for a sedentary job and then go home and watch TV and eat - that one hour of exercise cannot offset all those "other hours." But for sure it amounts to helping offset excess calories eaten to some degree, and helping your heart as well as providing other health benefits.
The point of the column was to get people aware that our lifestyles, as a whole, have become so sedentary, that even those of us who commit to that hour of aerobic and/or weight training fitness experiences - need to find ways to also move during the day - a quick 10 minute lunch walk, an after dinner walk, a bike ride for 30 minutes at the the day, walking stairs - the body needs movement despite the committed effort of "an hour a day." (which is stellar)
And I confess, then there's the "effort" you make during that hour. Many exercisers over-estimate calories burned or intensity of effort. I can tell from your tone, you don't want to hear that either!! But yes, any effort is a good start - we just need people "building on that small effort" and facing the science truths that may be hard to swallow.