Exercise Can Beat Obesity Gene - Human Study

pamela wrote:

From MedPage Today...

One could claim that this reported study on the value of 1 hr of daily
exercise supports the recent 60 minutes a day of moderate or vigorous
exercise in recent guidelines for adolescents from the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services.

I've been pondering that recently. Exercise is only a little helpful
during the loss phases but it makes a gigantic difference for preventing
regain. I decided that even though calories are a poor approximation
they do work in some situations.

Roughly speaking running a marathon burns a pound of fat so that's about
150 calories per mile run or as much as 17 grams of fat per mile run
depending on how much other fuel types are burned. A three mile run
(5K) is about 50 grams of fat. With the maximum practical loss rate of
8 pounds per month a daily 3 mile run would account for less than half.
That's respectable but how many starting dieters are in shape to run 3
miles each day. The "Couch to 5K" plan takes a lot of weeks to build up
to it. This sure explains why folks who take up running drop weight
across a year but it also shows that it's possible for someone with a
lot to lose to lose it faster independent of exercise. As usual the key
to using is to start low carbing, start dropping the pounds, and to
build up the exercise plan as you're capable of it.

Running the numbers for regain I quickly come to an understanding of how
exercise works to prevent regain, though. Before I started low carbing
I tried low fat for 20 years and gained 50 pounds. That's 2.5 pounds
per year, 10K calories per year, 850 calories per month or a bit under
30 calories of gain per day. My eating was probably well over 30
calories too high per day. When I compare the 450ish calories for a 3
mile run with the 30 calorie net gain per day I can see that running
every other day would have been plenty to keep from gaining. Gain rates
are a lot slower than loss rates so the calories from the exercise
easily beats the gain.

Even falling off the plan I regained around 10 pounds per year for a net
of about 115 calories per day. Running a mile would cover that so a 3
mile run every day or even every other day would cover it.

The article says that 30 minutes of intense exercise prevents regain.
In the text it lists running as intense.

When I read in the national weight loss registry that folks who keep off
their loss are regular exercisers now that I have run the calorie
arithmetic I understand why that is.

I think its fair to say that a lot of what we consider "weight" is fat that is caused by muscles not
being used properly and being allowed to fall into disrepair.

Exercise is without a doubt one of the two key factors in losing weight (along with a proper diet).

People using pills or the latest fad to try and drop weight are just kidding themselves.