So, based on my experience, I simply can not agree.
Just as exercising cannot offset massive overconsumption of food, massive underconsumption of food will make one that is dieting feel terrible, and thus not as likely to continue.
In addition the amount of exercise done is never going to really offset a sedentary job. Someone walking on their feet all day vs me being at a desk is going to consume much more energy than me even if I workout after work intensely for an hour. So I am still going to need to consume less than them. But if I did not do the hour of exercise, my body would break down from not being used, and my overall feeling of health would decline.
I noticed there were unforseen changes in behaviour due to diet that I still find strange. Things like quitting pop. I used to grab McDonald's food more often, but since quitting pop I avoid the place. Sometimes I still grab a burger from there, like 5 times or so over the last 14 years, but I'll never get a pop and I don't have a desire to go there and still avoid it with ease.
I still think diet changes are the single most important thing, but I just don't think I could have gotten there without exercise.
I do crave it still tho, I have not found myself avoiding fast food either. With two kids under 2, it just kind of makes life easier when I make them good meals and can pick up something quick.
Ideally you and your family can get on the same page in terms of diet, but I imagine with kids that can be extremely challenging. It's worth it if you can do it.
BTW, almost all water served at restaurants in China is lemon flavored. The best halfway point I've seen is flavored soda water. Fizzy, slightly flavored, gives you some of the feeling of pop without the sugar. Still, put coke in the same fridge, and it requires some willpower to take the flavored soda water.
We can agree to disagree regarding what decision gets the credit for shedding those pounds, but in any case, congratulations on your weight loss. That's a real accomplishment.
Thanks :)
Ah well. Not terribly important when faced with the end result - you lost the weight, and that's all that matters!
I'm about to start something like this as I have the 'losing weight but losing it from the wrong bits' issue mentioned in another post.
I am physically active, I don't drive, I walk around 3 to 4 miles a day as part of my commute, I go up and down three or four flights of stairs quite a lot of times a day (I'm a teacher and timetabling systems seem to have a Saltationist bias as they have us jumping between lessons) and I work mostly standing up and moving around a large room. So I imagine a vaguely similar activity profile to the hunter gatherers mentioned - I'd love more detail on miles walked per day &c.
During the first month I did 5 min of stretching and then 20 min of jogging in one shot for the day. Every 3 days I would try to add 5 min. Sometimes I could, sometimes I had to back off and try a few days later. After a month I got to 45 min. I then did only 30 seconds of stretching before the jog. I did't think I needed it anymore (probably should have).
As I understand it the first 20 min of jogging doesn't really help you lose much weight, it's every minute after, for the session, that really burns fat.
As for miles walked, this was 14 years ago I didn't think or care about miles walked.
Probably not helping you, but that was my experience.
Are you a biology teacher? I had to look that one up...
http://us-store.bouncelifestyle.com/collections/balls/produc...
I don't see how you say you simply can not agree with the article tho.
The article stipulates that exercise itself has less effect than diet. Maybe exercise helps to keep a good diet, but exercise + keeping same crapy diet won't be as effective as what you did yourself.
Whenever I tried doing cardio exercises, I remember I would come back from the gym so hungry, I would eat a horse. And, I did. I couldn't stop -- I would eat whatever I could lay my hands on.
A couple of weeks later, my weight had in fact, increased. In my life, I have found I have been able to reduce weight only through two methods:
1. Strength training exercises + Protein (read meat) heavy diet 2. Small amount of vegetarian food three times a day
The exercise and better diet follow pretty easily from that.
Forgot to mention what you did, 45 mins of continuous activity will trigger endorphins. Cheapest way to feel euphoria (even in low intensity).
Just last week I walked back from the grocery store, taking random turns, with a steep hill at the end. Google Fit[1] tracking some data. 5 miles only, but I felt sweating in a good relaxing way.
[1] Google Fit is a very low barrier way to start tracking your exercises. It interprets accelerations good enough to distinguish car, foot or bike move. And you're happy when you get that notification buzz telling you did your planned distance|time.
I kind of agree with the article that the diet changes are more important for the weight loss angle. However, when it comes to being healthy overall, I actually think exercise is more important. You can be overweight by BMI, physically fit, and better off overall health-wise than a thin person who is a couch potato. http://healthland.time.com/2012/09/05/can-you-be-fat-and-fit...
Anecdotally, I know someone who has gone from 300lbs to 140lbs using a combination of exercise (walking) and diet changes (Weight Watchers). I think both were equally important to her success, personally.
Some of the article to me was, er, a bit of a stretch. Take point 7: "Exercise may cause physiological changes that help us conserve energy". And the only linked citation is to a paper outlining that people with different genetic composition respond differently to exercise, and a meta study that involved both diet and exercise? "Starvation mode" to extreme diets is well documented, so where's the paper that links to just exercise causing slower metabolic change? I mean, perhaps it's possible, but it runs against the consensus I've heard, so basically, [Citation needed], because what was provided doesn't say what that paragraph said.
I do agree with the article that policy should focus on the low-quality food angle.