I never really felt comfortable talking about weighted moving averages, but today’s topic could have been written by me.
What, Me Exercise?
Don’t kid yourself into thinking that exercise, by itself, will make you lose weight. Consider the following activities, and the number of calories an average person burns per hour in each.
Activity
Calories/hour
Walking
300
Bicycling
300
Aerobics
400
Swimming
400
Tennis
500
Basketball
500
Jogging
700
Compare those numbers, remembering that they’re for a full hour spent nonstop in the exercise, with the calories in the following food items:
Tasty Treat
Calories
Peanut butter sandwich
275
Pizza (3 slices)
500
Big Mac
560
Clearly, even an hour a day of exercise doesn’t account for much food. And what’s the likelihood you’ll find the time to spend a full hour, every day, month after month, year after year, doing those exercises?So, don’t exercise to try to burn off calories and lose weight. Unless you’re a professional athlete or obsessed with sports, you’re not likely to spend enough time exercising strenuously enough to make much of a difference. Exercise will help you lose weight in more subtle ways. Regular exercise increases your rate of metabolism: the number of calories you burn all the time. Plus, for many people, exercise actually reduces appetite.But these are side effects: hardly reasons to start exercising. The real reasons to exercise are that you’ll live longer and feel better. Let’s consider the case for exercise from those standpoints.
I came up with the walking idea because I can do it regularly without going out of my way — and I happen to enjoy walking. But I’m not doing it at an aerobic pace and I’ve been concerned about that. I’m breaking off this section at the introduction (visit his site to read more about the justification for exercise) so that tomorrow we can discuss the Fitness Ladder in depth.
The real reason for exercise
The author of The Hacker’s Diet, John Walker, has generously given me permission to discuss his diet in detail using some quotes, with links back to his site. (Earlier E4T articles on The Hacker’s Diet)
I never really felt comfortable talking about weighted moving averages, but today’s topic could have been written by me.
I came up with the walking idea because I can do it regularly without going out of my way — and I happen to enjoy walking. But I’m not doing it at an aerobic pace and I’ve been concerned about that. I’m breaking off this section at the introduction (visit his site to read more about the justification for exercise) so that tomorrow we can discuss the Fitness Ladder in depth.
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