One of the things that I enjoy about blogging is that I get to write about all the things I observe about human behavior.
For example today, I went to the gym to do my exercise and I always notice that there are a lot of overweight people in the gym working out, just like there are a lot of overweight people who buy skim milk (watch this when you go to the grocery store next time.)
I began to notice this phenomena when I joined the gym that I presently attend in August, 2006. I would see quite of few obese people exercising, including myself, and wondering why they are still fat. I mean they would work out everyday, sweating really hard. It just did not make any sense. Conventional Wisdom says the more you exercise, you will lose weight, just like on the TV show The Biggest Loser.
That is when I began to question the exercise leads to weight loss theory. I was not seeing the results with myself and I was definitely not seeing it with people at the gym.
This argument that Americans do not exercise enough goes back at least 50-60 years when there wasn’t an obesity crisis. President Eisenhower was concerned that American children were not as fit as European kids so he started the President’s Council on Physical Fitness in 1956. John F. Kennedy was so perturbed about Americans becoming fatties, he wrote an essay for Sports Illustrated in 1960 titled “The Soft American.” So the argument that Americans do not exercise enough does not hold water with me because we did not exercise enough 5o-60 years ago and we did not have an obesity crisis back then. As a matter of fact, I bet we exercise more now than we did 50-60 years ago. If you want to read more about this topic, read Gina Kolata’s book Ultimate Fitness: The Quest for Truth About Exercise and Health.
When I figured out that dropping weight is 80% diet that is when I stopped exercising so much. Do I still exercise? Yes I do because I am one of the few people who is insulin sensitive, meaning if I eat a lot carbohydrates, I put on weight like crazy. Exercise keeps my blood sugar levels low. And if my blood sugar levels are low, I will burn fat.I know this for a fact now because I bought one of those blood glucose meters. Yes, I know that is anal, however one of my readers suggested I do this to find out if I was truly sensitive to carbs. The information it gave me was truly valuable and now I know if I want to get the rest of the weight off of me and not become diabetic, I got to keep my blood sugar levels low and exercise will help me with that.
However, if I ate all the high carb, sugary food that I want, will exercise help me? No it will not and that is what I mean a person must exercise smarter, not harder. That is the mistake that thousands of people make. They eat a lot of processed, low-fat sugary foods believing exercise will counter balance that. Exercise will not. Your diet has to be very tight. I often hear overweight people say the reason they are overweight is because they do not exercise enough. I want to say to them,”No, the reason you are overweight is because you are eating poor quality food.”
For those of you who believe you must exercise more to drop the pounds, I would say stop doing that. Become more diligent about your diet. I am now exercising 4-5 days a week, no more than 1 hour, now that I know for a fact that I am insulin sensitive. That is it. No more, no less. I also planning on taking up tennis for fun. I do not see the need for a person to spend 2 hours a day at the gym working out. To me, that is a waste of time and energy. Spinning classes seem pointless to me when what most people need is a nice walk.
I found this interesting topic from CBS Early Show about exercise which sums up my blog post.
Also, here is another post about exercise that I wrote earlier this year.
