del.icio.us Friday: Diet And Exercise Take Off Equal Pounds - But Do Not Stop Exercising - Fitness Mantra : A Health and Fitness Blog

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A pretty controversial study-result was announced this week: Diet and exercise take off equal pounds. In my opinion, what’s controversial is not the result itself (we already know a calorie is just a calorie, and you will lose weight either by burning off your extra ones or reducing your intake of new ones) - rather it’s the evaluation and reporting of this result that I find misleading. My biggest concern? People might take this study to mean they can simply give up on exercise if they just stick to a reduced calorie meal.

gym chest fly dumbells Now reducing calories by itself is an admirable effort and if one can sustain that for extended periods of time, one is bound to lose weight. The problem lies in the maintaining of this program which becomes more and more difficult over time. Exercise almost always builds muscle while dieting will never do that (infact you run the risk of losing some lean muscle as well, although the study says you don’t lose much of it).

Muscle gives your body a sculpted look and improves your ability to perform your daily activities much more easily. With a better-looking body you greatly improve your morale and this will keep you motivated to pursue your fitness goals.

What’s surprising is that the article concludes with the author accepting that he believes exercise is crucial to health - “For overall health, an appropriate program of diet and exercise is still the best,” he says.

Tom Venuto, a well-known body-builder and fitness enthusiast writes at the Burn The Fat Blog and I think his response to this controversy, titled “New Study Says “Exercise Doesn’t Matter For Weight Loss”… So Now What?“, is pretty thorough. He covers not only the points I have raised here but also talks about other studies that conversely show the benefits of exercise (over plain dieting alone) and finally mentions why you as an individual should continue with what works best for you.

If you are exercising regularly and find that not only are you more energetic and strong, but your mirror is showing you changes in your body that motivate you even further, then what earthly reason could there be to change this healthful, beneficial lifestyle? I strongly encourage you to read his entire article.

Here are the top health stories for this week:

New PSA’s Feature ‘Shrek’ Characters Urging Kids to ‘Get Up And Play’: The new PSAs, using the slogan “Be a Player: Get up and play an hour a day,” urge all children to engage in physical activity.
Mood-food connection: We eat more and less-healthy comfort foods when we feel down: People feeling sad tend to eat more of less-healthy comfort foods than when they feel happy, finds a new study co-authored by a Cornell food marketing expert.
W.Va. to plug in arcade game for weight loss: West Virginia, which has the worst childhood obesity problem in the United States, is stepping up plans to use Konami Corp.’s “Dance Dance Revolution” to battle the bulge in its schools.
Erectile dysfunction affects 18 percent of U.S. men: A study published Thursday found that about 18 percent of U.S. men age 20 and up suffer from erectile dysfunction — and the condition is strongly linked to a sedentary lifestyle of little physical exercise, poor diet and lots of television.
Bush urges parents to get kids outdoors: One way for this nation to cope with the issue of obesity is to get people outside — whether it be through sports or hiking or conservation,”
Burger King plans to dump trans fats: Burger King Holdings Inc. has begun testing cooking oils without trans fats in its fast food restaurants with plans for a national rollout by late next year.
Satisfaction guaranteed: How certain foods help you feel full: Although environment is a powerful factor that drives people to eat, certain nutrients — most notably protein, fiber, and water — can help tilt our internal scales toward “full” before we reach the red line.
Bingeing Now Seen As Most Common Eating Disorder: It turns out, for example, that the most common eating disorder is neither anorexia nor bulimia — it is binge eating, by far.
Grape juice good for the heart: Grape juice seems to have the same protective effect against heart disease as red wine, French scientists said on Wednesday.
Exercise Won’t Up Knee Arthritis Risk: Moderate exercise doesn’t increase the risk of developing arthritis in the knees of older adults, even if they are overweight
More than 100,000 new yorkers face complications due to seriously out-of-control diabetes: More than 100,000 New York City adults are at high risk of heart attack, blindness, amputations, and other serious complications because of very poorly controlled diabetes, according to unprecedented survey data released today by the New York City Health
Cannabis drug may help fight obesity: Human trials of an experimental treatment for obesity derived from cannabis, which is commonly associated with stimulating hunger, are scheduled to begin in the second half of this year, Britain’s GW Pharmaceuticals Plc announced Tuesday.
Retailers to stop trans-fat use: Major UK retailers plan to stop adding harmful trans-fats to their own-brand products by the end of the year.
Six states get an ‘A’ for work against kids’ obesity: This year, for the first time, six states — California, Illinois, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Tennessee — received A’s for their legislative and public-policy work to control obesity in children.
Reviewing the School Cupcake Ban: Many parents and health advocates wish schools would devote as much energy to reforming the quality of lunch fare as they’ve invested in ridding campuses of sodas and snacks.
Study: 100% juices beneficial to health as fruits, vegetables: One hundred percent fruit and vegetable juices do help reduce risk factors related to certain diseases, according to a European study published in the International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition.
Half The Country Has Diabetes Gene: About half the U.S. population has the gene that puts them at greater risk of developing diabetes, a study from Saint Louis University said.
Study: Most kids making bad health choices: Only 2 percent of kids ages 11 to 15 met the guidelines for diet, physical activity and sedentary risk behaviors as laid out in Healthy People 2010, a national effort to combat the most preventable health threats Americans face.
America’s healthy living habits: How do you compare?: The survey found that, for the most part, people were well versed in nutrition issues.
Obesity ads aim to jolt parents: The images are not subtle. One billboard shows an overweight child’s lower legs and feet on a scale next to the words, “Fat Chance,” along with a list of the health risks of obesity
Expectant mums ‘getting too fat’: Rising obesity trends mean that by 2010, half of all UK mums-to-be could be above ideal weight and a fifth obese, experts warn.
Unhappy Meals: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy.
W.Va. turns to Weight Watchers to slim down: Facing more than $100 million in annual costs linked to obesity, the Medicaid program in one of the country’s most overweight states is turning to a familiar name to help residents slim down.
Too little fat ‘can make children overweight’: Researchers in Sweden discovered that eating the right sort of fat kept the weight of children down.
Diet, exercise take off equal pounds, study finds: Eating less and exercising more are equally good at helping take off the pounds, U.S. researchers said Friday in a study that challenges many of the popular tenets of the multibillion dollar diet and fitness industry.