THERE is indeed a secret connection between exercise and weight loss. The secret is — exercise does not and will not functionally or sustainably help with weight loss.
Over the years I have given rational and calculations explaining the how and why, but this time I will put forward the latest study.
Walking 10,000 steps a day will not help with weight loss
Fit bands, Android and Apple watches everywhere have been ticking off their motion sensors, feeding their pedometer apps with millions of steps all around the world.
Individuals walking and marching on the spot in the belief that each step will bring them closer to that fitness industry stated magical number, convinced that they will be healthier and certainly slimmer for their numerically set target.
A recent study conducted at Brigham Young University found that an increased step count between 10,000 and 15,000 per day, six days per week over the course of 24 weeks, did not prevent the usual average gain of 3.4 pounds by students for that period.
For weight management, the steps were categorically useless.
Why people believe exercise will make them lose weight
In the 1970s, as more people began to gain weight and suffer from dietary-related illnesses, research was placing the cause squarely at the feet of the refined food industry.
In response, that industry helped to promote the idea that it is not what you are eating, but your own laziness that will kill you.
The solution, embrace the "bro" logic that movement requires energy, therefore more movement means more metabolism, resulting in less fat. Human efficiency and adaptability is not taken into consideration here, ignoring our ability to do more with less energy over time.
They told us to go to the gym and work off those pounds. In our imagination this fiction seems so logical, that even in the face of actual research, people, wrongly, cannot conceive anything else to be true.
This false idea persists in the hearts and minds of nations today and is still foolishly promoted by: Corporate wellness programmes; trainers; merchants; manufacturers; and television shows.
All influencing populations, diminishing the responsibility and focus from nutrition while protecting the processed foods industry and making millions for many in the fitness industry.
How is exercise useful?
Is exercise useless? No, exercise is most definitely useful, and is one of the best things you can do for your well-being.
Exercise can:
• Increase healthy muscle mass for long-term, increased metabolism and body weight management.
• Lengthen your life span.
• Create a mindset and culture to allow you to embrace a healthy diet and lifestyle.
• Manage moods and provide emotional benefits.
• Strengthen joints.
• Reduce pains.
• Increase and maintain fitness, mobility, balance, and functionality.
• Build heart, pulmonary and vascular health.
Exercise will do all that and much more, but because humans are extremely efficient and adaptive animals, it will not directly make you lose weight. You will never train away a poor diet.
Face the reality, embrace the discipline and get serious once and for all about your nutrition and change your life.
If you truly want to lower your body fat, change your body and health, get the fiction out of your head once and for all, and embrace the real knowledge of a fact-based wellness programme.
Fitz-George Rattray is the director of Intekai Academy, which is focused on helping people live a healthy lifestyle through nutrition and weight management. If you are interested in losing weight or living a healthier lifestyle, give them a call at 876-863- 5923, or visit their website at intekaiacademy.org.
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