I read the most ridiculous article in the world the other day. It was all about how exercise doesn’t help you lose weight. That was actually the title of the article. Seriously! This is what people are writing about? This is supposed to be helpful? Telling people there is no point to exercise because it takes a lot of exercise to burn calories. That’s the theory. If you have to work out for an hour and only burn off one piece of pizza it’s just not helpful. Well, is it better to NOT burn off the calories?
The other part, that seemed to have been forgotten, is that exercise boosts metabolism, builds muscle and increases endorphins, all of which helps to not only lose weight, but also makes you actually feel better.
Exercise also helps with things like cholesterol and blood sugar levels. That’s why I started my exercise routine. After my father passed from complications from diabetes and I got the news from my doctor that my cholesterol levels were all wonky (bad too high, good too low), I knew I had to do something. I signed up for boxing classes, and my whole world started changing. As well as my perspective on health and weight. I was working out pretty consistently for about 2 or 3 months and feeling really discouraged because I wasn’t really losing any weight. I was talking to my boyfriend and he reassured me that he could definitely see a difference in my body. I decided to re-take my measurements and I was shocked. I was down about 3 inches in both my waist and my hips.
I always knew that muscle weighed more than fat, but it didn’t occur to me that the reason I wasn’t actually “losing weight” was because for every lb of fat I was losing I was gaining a lb of muscle. It made the scale stay the same, but my body change. Which is the point after-all.
The other thing that the “science” article said was that when you exercise it makes you more hungry which is counter-intuitive to weight-loss, but in reality in order to lose weight you do need to eat… often. It’s just a matter of what you eat. Sure, if you exercise and then go eat a whole pizza you’re not going to lose fat, but if you exercise and eat fruits and veggies, whole grains and healthy proteins the fat will just fall off and the muscle will make you stronger and healthier than ever.
There are no tricks or shortcuts to health. You can’t exercise your eating habits away, and you can’t diet your lazy butt to health. You need to treat your body to both.
I was talking to one of my friends and he said that he was wanting to get in better shape. He’s in his 50s and in the last few years has just kind of let himself go. We were discussing different ways that he could get more exercise and he was hesitant to try anything because he was afraid of what other people would say about him.
Katrina Michelle Russell 