Friday, January 21, 2011

Diet and exercise ... and diet

Just in case you weren't convinced that About.com  is full of idiots, along comes Jennifer R. Scott with this "nugget" of wisdom:
Experts agree that it's easier to exercise than to cut the same number of calories that exercise shaves off. In other words, it's just plain easier for us to be a little more active than to do without more food to achieve the same calorie reduction.
I'm sorry, but W.T.F.A.Y.T.A? Not one sentence above, we get this:
For example, a 180-pound person who walks at a brisk 3 mph will burn just over 250 calories in 45 minutes.
Guess what else is 250 calories? A chocolate bar. How long does it take to eat? A few minutes. So what is more effective for losing weight? Jennifer, put your hand down. Let the adults answer.

Why is exercise associated with weight loss? The two have very little to do with one another. For example, whenever they show ads for The Biggest Loser, they show an obese person jogging on the beach and then chowing down on a sub. The only thing that jogging will do for an obese person is destroy their knees. The only reason the two are linked, that I can think of, is very active people tend to be skinny. But correlation does not equal causation.

If common sense wasn't enough, how about some studies. After a brief 24.8 second search on the Internet, I found this link which outlines several studies, all of which show that exercise "is not a major factor" in weight loss. I would look further, but I'm losing Rant Energy.

So next time you see an ad or a news story on weight loss and they show people exercising, do what I do, shake you fist at the TV. And think about how dumb Jennifer is.

P.S. I don't know Jennifer and the quality of her other post. She may or may not be an idiot*.

*Note: she is an idiot.

2 comments:

karen said...

hi there! my name is is living proof. nice to meet you! good thing you caught on.. this argument was getting boring ;)

Joseph D. Smith said...

Thank you! My point exactly. Although you have to wonder, what really causes obesity, and how do you solve the problem?