The Myth of Moderate Exercise

I'm in good shape. To some people, it's a bit of a mystery how I'm much more physically fit than they are. They know I go to the gym, but, hey, they go to the gym sometimes, too, so what's the deal? Here's the secret:<p><i>I work really, really hard.</i><p>When I go to the gym, I push myself as far as I can take it mentally and physically that day. Some days it's more than others. But overall, I work much harder in the gym than most people I know.<p>Treat your exercise time as something to excel it, not a chore to do. It can make a world of difference.

I don't understand why people think staying fit is such a god damn mystery. Exercise a few hours a week, eat a well balanced diet, get enough sleep. How hard is that?

&#62; Within a few months, most of the participants had resorted to exercising as much as they chose to. That left researchers with a slightly different data set than they had planned for...<p>This self-selection tends to invalidate the study I think. It is possible that the people who chose not to exercise much were exactly the ones who needed it the most. The people who chose to exercise a lot are more likely to have been fitter in the first place.

Perhaps the problem is that the study only considered exercise is moderate.<p>&#60;antecdote&#62; I've found high intensity exercise for short periods of time (20-40 minutes, 3-4 times a week) has far more effect for me personally than moderate exercise (45-60 minutes, 5-6 times a week) I've seen more personal improvement doing CrossFit (www.crossfit.com) than I ever did previously going to the local gym. &#60;/antecdote&#62;

Read the book "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes. The scientific evidence supports the theory that carbos, especially refined carbs and sugars, are the cause of obesity and a raft of modern ailments. The most striking comment was that input (eating) and output (exercise) are dependent variables... something that these eatless/exercisemore approaches ignore.

A good read that provides a hacker's look at dieting:<p>The Hacker's Diet by John Walker<p><a href="http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/" rel="nofollow">http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/</a>

&#62; Research suggests that weight may largely be regulated by biology, which helps determine the body's "set point,"<p>So where did all the fatties come from? They didn't used to be here.<p>This is ridiculous. There are big, obvious changes in diet and exercise levels since the 70s that have correlated well with rising obesity.

Just don't eat when not hungry.<p>Most people eat large quantities of food all at once. Stop half way and wait 20 minutes and you might not be hungry anymore. If you eat too quickly then you don't know at what point you'd eaten enough to satisfy your hunger.

Yankee apologists are bad enough. Now we have fat people apologists. It really isn't hard: exercise moderately, take walk breaks, get enough sleep, consume primarily vegetables then fruit then meat/carbs. Eat five small meals a day and focus on lower calories.