Tag: weight loss

a holiday for losing weight

Obesity in America is a big problem, which needs a solution. Actually, we know the solution. Despite all the diet fads and bringing back the presidential fitness test and time-change chicanery, we know what the best answer is: eating less and exercising more. It’s that simple. It’s not easy, but it’s simple.

So what’s the problem with our solution here? We need people to know about this and then to do it. So if the government is serious about making a difference, here’s some ideas. (I’m not suggesting it’s the government’s business, but since they try to do something about it, it might as well be more effective. Well, we do need the FDA to protect us from harmful additives, but they shouldn’t legislate our health and fitness. But I digress…) Here’s the idea:

1) To bring awareness to the issue, create a national holiday (or even multiple days, like in the spring and fall). People can have a paid day off work IF they commit to getting physical exercise. There could be events setup to encourage people to do this together, like a 1-mile walk (but make it fun, perhaps without donuts for this one). This would help people get exercise, and hopefully they would realize it can be fun and help them feel better, so perhaps they will continue getting more exercise in the future. Various groups could schedule events on this day, like a free 10-minute introduction to pickleball or tennis or some other sport.

2) Provide a benefit for participating. Just getting a paid day off work is a huge benefit already, so there’s that. Perhaps some fitness-focused groups might want to setup some promotional benefits for people who participate in various exercise events. Maybe there could be a rebate from your health insurance for participating. (Some already do this for things like having a gym membership and going to the doctor for an annual physical checkup, so check your plan — they require you to fill out forms to get the rebate, but some do offer it.) The government could offer corporations a tax break for the day to encourage them to participate.

Do you have any more ideas?

Changing Daylight Saving Time Might Reduce Obesity

I knew it was because of Daylight Saving Time that I’m overweight! I just knew it! Okay, perhaps that’s a slight embellishment. My slightly-more-than-ideal weight might be partly due to what I eat and how much (or not much) I exercise. But according to a new study at Stanford University, if our government gets rid of Daylight Saving Time, it could provide incredible health benefits:

The researchers estimate that permanent standard time would prevent about 300,000 cases of stroke per year and reduce the number of people with obesity by 2.6 million, compared to biannual changes. Permanent daylight saving time would also be positive, although with a smaller impact.

So it’s the changing of time that matters, and to some degree, having more daylight. So apparently even if the government never changes the system officially, one could just ignore the time change and be less fat. Works for me! I could switch my sleep habits an hour if that helps me be less overweight. That would surely be easier than eating healthy and exercising more! 🙂

So far I’m having fun with this. However, it is an actual scientific study, and they used mathematical models to simulate this, trying to find the impact of time policies on light exposure and circadian rhythm (your body’s internal clock). But I’m skeptical. Normally I’m all for the use of math and the scientific method, but I think those numerical claims are vastly exaggerated. There might be a real benefit — I’m not arguing that — but preventing 2,600,000 cases of obesity? Whatever.

If we’re not going to change Daylight Saving Time, I’ve got some ideas to improve it, which I’ve discussed before: a better way to fix Daylight Savings Time. Most people would be for one of those plans, I think, but so far it has been ignored.

As far as reducing obesity in America (which is a big problem), I wish changing the clock would be a solution. But I think the best solution is still eating less and exercising more. That strategy is no secret, but perhaps we need a fresh approach to promoting it… (I have an idea, which will be in a future post.)

some say exercise won’t make you thin

The blogosphere has been abuzz lately about an article in TIME magazine called Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin.  It is interesting, because we’ve joked about such things before, yet here’s an article in a credible magazine suggesting it.  But before we dig into it, let me mention that the author of this article exercises regularly and talks about how he isn’t losing fat, yet he weighs only 163 pounds.  Unless he’s abnormally short, that’s not a bad weight for an adult male to be at.   I don’t see how he could be considered fat or obese.  Actually, my “ideal weight” is supposedly 190-200 for my height, so 163 seems too skinny to me.  Anyway, let’s get to the article.

First, let’s start with the author’s premise for his hypothesis:

Like many other people, I get hungry after I exercise, so I often eat more on the days I work out than on the days I don’t.  Could exercise actually be keeping me from losing weight? ~ John Cloud

He also quotes some other experts who back his claim: “In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless,” says Eric Ravussin, chair in diabetes and metabolism at Louisiana State University and a prominent exercise researcher.  That sounds extreme to me, but I’ll keep reading.

The notion that we eat more because exercise makes us more hungry and thus exercise makes it harder to lose weight sure sounds like something the “Important Doctor” came up with.  The article also mentions the idea that intense sessions of exercise may cause people to reward themselves by eating what they want.  I can see that — it’s much easier to justify a milkshake or snack if you’ve worked out.

Some scientists imply that it’s evolution’s fault that humans can easily get fat.  We don’t have much “brown fat”.  Rats, among other species, have a lot of it, which turns off their mitochondria (which are the cells’ power plants), so they don’t get an energy boost from eating too much — they just get warmer, which helps the calories burn effortlessly.  So for animals like that, it’s really difficult for them to get fat, even if they overeat.  In contrast, humans can barely overeat and yet gain weight, because unused calories get stored in regular “white fat” cells.

One example cited in the article explains why our compensation for exercise keeps us from losing weight:

A standard 20-oz. bottle of Gatorade contains 130 calories.  If you’re hot and thirsty after a 20-minute run in summer heat, it’s easy to guzzle that bottle in 20 seconds, in which case the caloric expenditure and the caloric intake are probably a wash.  From a weight-loss perspective, you would have been better off sitting on the sofa knitting.

Well, few people knit these days, but I think it would be fair to replace that part of the example with sitting on the sofa playing video games.  So there’s your proof that playing video games can help you lose more weight than running! (That definitely sounds like something from the “Important Doctor”.)

The article also says that self-control is like a muscle, that it gets weaker when you use it too much.  So if you force yourself to jog for an hour, your capacity for self-control becomes weakened, and you’re more likely to eat pizza than a salad.  (Although I’m always more likely to eat pizza than a salad, given those choices.)

Steven Gortmaker, who heads Harvard’s Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity, agrees that exercising makes you more hungry, therefore he’s suspicious of the playgrounds at fast-food restaurants: “Why would they build those?  I know it sounds kind of like conspiracy theory, but you have to think, if a kid plays five minutes and burns 50 calories, he might then go inside and consume 500 calories or even 1,000.”   One study has shown that exercise causes kids to eat an average of 100 calories more than they had just burned.

Of course, some sites have countered the TIME article, with one even saying it is an “Epic Fail”.  The TIME article makes some points, but we don’t have to give in to overeating because we exercise.  And I don’t think self-control is like a muscle from a physiological sense, but the analogy may work if you carry it out further.  The more you resist something, the stronger you get, instead of weaker — after a while.  For example, if you give up cokes, it may be hard for a few days, but eventually you don’t even miss them anymore.  (I know, because I gave them up.)

I reckon what all this debate results in is that you can find a study that backs up whatever lifestyle you want to live.   If you don’t want to exercise, then you shouldn’t, because it makes you gain weight.   But if you want to lose weight, well, it’s hopeless.  (Of course the last one isn’t true — but if you want to blame it on evolution or misinformation or whatever, there’s an excuse.)  To me, it still seems really simple — if you burn more calories than you take in, you will lose weight.  Maybe that seems too-good-to-be-true, but it adds up, if you do the math.