I can't stand articles like this. They tell you just enough to make people feel discouraged. It is crap like this that make thousands of people stop exercising after reading it. And this guy, "
"In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless," says Eric Ravussin, chair in diabetes and metabolism at Louisiana State University and a prominent exercise researcher." should be banned from public comment until he learns what the crap he's talking about. How do people get to positions of authority like this?!!! I can only hope that his comments were taken out of context.
But don't take my word for it...Here is a "short" list of quotes from research of the effects of physical activity and the pathology brought on by physical inactivity.
Basic needs
The recent Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health underscores the pivotal role physical activity plays in health promotion and disease prevention. It recommends that individuals accumulate 30 min of moderate physical activity on most days of the week. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Physical Activity and Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Washington, DC, U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1996)
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends 60-90 minutes of moderate activity per day to keep the weight off. (Jakicic JM, et al., American College of Sports Medicine position stand: appropriate intervention strategies for weight loss and prevention of weight regain for adults. Med Sci Sports Exerc 33 : 2145-2156,2001)
Exercise does not have to be daunting….Research suggests that total calories burned and not intensity or duration of exercise is most important for weight loss maintenance. Home-based workouts with or without the provision of equipment and/or focusing on short bouts of exercise are more effective for improving exercise adherence than is supervised group exercise, hiring a personal trainer, or emphasizing long bouts of exercise. (C. Garcia Ulen, M. M. Huizinga, B. Beech, and T. A. Elasy Weight Regain Prevention Clin. Diabetes, July 1, 2008; 26(3): 100 - 113.)
All Chronic Disease
In ancient times, Hippocrates stated that "the function of protecting and developing health must rank even above that of restoring it when it is impaired." (Mokdad AH, Marks JS, Stroup DF & Gerberding JL (2004). Actual causes of death in the United States, 2000. JAMA 291, 1238–1245.)
It is now recognized that the lack of regular exercise is an ‘actual’ cause of death. (Mokdad AH, Marks JS, Stroup DF & Gerberding JL (2004). Actual causes of death in the United States, 2000. JAMA 291, 1238–1245.) (see also Rector RS, Thyfault JP, et al. Cessation of daily exercise dramatically alters precursors of hepatic steatosis in Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) rats. J Physiol. 2008 Jul 10.)
“The average amount of human daily physical activity has declined alarmingly over the past century. It is now known that physical exercise beneficially affects the human body in a multifactorial manner. However, the number of chronic diseases and associated financial costs potentially produced by physical inactivity is still much larger than generally appreciated…we know of no single intervention with greater promise than physical exercise to reduce the risk of virtually all chronic diseases simultaneously.” (Booth FW, et al. Waging war on modern chronic diseases: primary prevention through exercise biology. J Appl Physiol. 2000 Feb;88(2):774-87.)
Epidemiological data have established that physical inactivity increases the incidence of at least 17 unhealthy conditions, almost all of which are chronic diseases or considered risk factors for chronic diseases. (Booth FW, et al. Waging war on modern chronic diseases: primary prevention through exercise biology. J Appl Physiol. 2000 Feb;88(2):774-87.)
“Clearly, there is overwhelming evidence linking most chronic diseases seen in the world today to physical inactivity…” (Roberts CK, Barnard RJ. Effects of exercise and diet on chronic disease. J Appl Physiol. 2005 Jan;98(1):3-30.)
“When it comes to reducing early deaths, “medical care” has a relatively minor role. Even if the entire U.S. population had access to excellent medical care only a small fraction of these deaths could be prevented. The single greatest opportunity to improve health and reduce premature deaths lies in personal behavior. In fact, behavioral causes account for nearly 40% of all deaths in the United States. Although there has been disagreement over the actual number of deaths that can be attributed to obesity and physical inactivity combined, it is clear that this pair of factors and smoking are the top two behavioral causes of premature death. (Schroeder SA. We Can Do Better -- Improving the Health of the American People. NEJM 2007;357:1221-1228.)
Humans living today inherited a genome that was programmed for daily physical activity and a high-fiber diet. (Eaton SB and Konner M. Paleolithic nutrition. A consideration of its nature and current implications. N Engl J Med 312: 283–289, 1985.).
“Medical spending attributable to obesity in the United States was estimated to be $92.6 billion in 2002 dollars, and between 112,000 and 400,000 deaths per year are attributable to overweight and lack of physical activity.8-10” (LaFontaine T. Physical Activity: The Epidemic of Obesity and Overweight Among Youth: Trends, Consequences, and Interventions. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine 2008; 2; 30)
“the nearly 3-fold increase in youth overweight and obesity in the past 3 to 4 decades represents a potentially devastating tragedy for the health of the nation…it is the moral duty of all adults to personally adopt a healthy, physically active lifestyle to serve as role models for youth.” (LaFontaine T. Physical Activity: The Epidemic of Obesity and Overweight Among Youth: Trends, Consequences, and Interventions. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine 2008; 2; 30)
“Participating in regular exercise can decrease your relative risk of:
• coronary artery disease by 45%
• stroke by 60%
• hypertension by 30%
• colon cancer by 41%
• breast cancer by 31%
• Type 2 diabetes by 50%
• osteoporosis by 59%”
(Booth FW, Lees SJ. Fundamental questions about genes, inactivity, and chronic diseases. Physiol Genomics. 2007 Jan 17;28(2):146-57.)(Katzmarzyk PT, Janssen I. The economic costs associated with physical inactivity and obesity in Canada: an update. Can J Appl Physiol 29: 90–115, 2004.)