BODY: Getting the Runaround on Losing Weight

Getting the runaround
Originally uploaded by van heland

By Carl Chancellor

I’m lifting weights. I’m burning up the miles on the treadmill. So why aren’t the pounds just melting away?

The reality is that without changing your diet and monitoring your caloric intake you are not going to shed those extra pounds.

Thinking that you will be able to gorge yourself at the kitchen table and then jog off the after effects of over indulgence is just not going to happen.

Researchers have found that people who exercise don’t necessarily lose weight. A study recently published in the The British Journal of Sports Medicine documents that disappointing but very real fact.

The study followed 58 overweight people as they underwent 12 weeks of supervised aerobic training without changing their diets. The results: the group lost an average of around seven pounds. Some of the study subjects lost less than four pounds.

How can that be? Hard exercise for 12 straight weeks and barely shed a few pounds. I mean, doesn’t exercise burn calories?

The quick answer is, yes. The problem is that most people only burn 200 to 300 calories in a typical 30-minute exercise session. You will put almost that many calories right back into your body when you reach for that bottle of Gatorade to cool off.

The only way to lose weight is through a combination of exercise and diet.

Push-ups ain’t going to help if you don’t push yourself away from the table first.