Haul Buns

TIME To Throw In The Towel?

August 12, 2009 at 6:18 pm Leave a comment

At first glance, Time magazine’s Aug.17 cover story, “Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin,” is enough to make you want to hurt an elliptical machine through a plate-glass window. Seriously?, you might think, I’m busting my buns at the gym or logging miles on the road or twisting myself into Gordian knots at yoga just for the heck of it?

But John Cloud’s piece isn’t actually advocating the abandonment of all workouts. Instead, he drives home a no-duh point… that 99.9 percent of us exercisers have ignored at some point: Those of us who move our bodies vigorously often eat more because of it. At best, we’re nullifying our workouts. At worst, we’re adding on hundreds of calories in addition to those we’ve burned.

And here we thought we were doing so well! Bummer, right? But don’t set fire to your Nikes just yet. “Public-health officials have been reluctant to downplay exercise,” Cloud writes, “because those who are more physically active are, overall, healthier.” What’s more, “In addition to enhancing heart health and helping prevent disease, exercise improves your mental health and cognitive ability.”

What are your thoughts? Do you tend to eat more if you’ve worked out that day? I work really hard not to overeat my exercise, but it definitely happens from time to time. Do you reward yourself for energy expended? Tricks to avoid doing so? Leave a message and confess all!

Entry filed under: Reasons Why. Tags: Research.