Comments on: Forget Exercise: Who cares if you are healthy as long as you are thin.

By: Erin

Erin — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 22:21:49 +0000

I love those titles you came up with. I exercise because I am vain and want a perky butt. LOL. I want abs. I want to look young. Exercise makes me feel good about myself. Not exercising (I am off this week – so sick) makes me feel BLEGH. And exercise with a good diet does help keep you at a healthy weight.

By: Tina

Tina — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 13:41:01 +0000

I’m glad that they are making it known that diet is the most important role, but they do have to be cautious of making it seem like exercise holds no value. People will take such a message to the extreme.

By: Monica

Monica — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 23:32:17 +0000

Hi Jenn, I am a fellow Cali blogger and found your blog listed on Healthy Living Blogs. I am putting together a California HLB meet-up and wanted to know if you are in the SoCal region and/or if you are interested in getting together.

If so, please email me at yellowbrickbeauty@gmail.com and let me know.

By: Andrea@WellnessNotes

Andrea@WellnessNotes — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 23:14:26 +0000

Great post! Yes, you can’t “undo the damage” of a bad diet (or, at least, most of it) with exercise. BUT, as you pointed out, exercise does SO MUCH more. The older I get, the more important it has become that I move in one way or another every single day. Otherwise, I’m in bad shape (more emotionally than physically). Also, looking back at my life and the periods when I exercised very little (I always did “something), I can say that my diet was a lot worse, too. I think when you make the decision to treat your body right, a healthy diet and enough physical exercise go hand and hand and can reinforce each other.

By: Deb (SmoothieGirlEatsToo)

Deb (SmoothieGirlEatsToo) — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:58:15 +0000

Good call bringing up this article. It took me a 20 minute cab ride home from the airport just to read the Guardian article! Then I fell asleep and dreamt about it all night 😀

Sad truth: the article might (MIGHT) be right yet their approach will definitely turn off people who are looking for any excuse to skip the exercise. Sadly, you can’t out-train a bad diet or one that is hypercaloric. You CAN build muscle that burns more calories at rest and that make you shapelier. You can burn hundreds of calories that would make you otherwise another 10 pounds heavier and bring with it all of the health hazards as well as the blow to your vanity.

They love the shock value of those headlines and taglines, and yet it is irresponsible.

I work out for all of those reasons and yes definitely weight-management is absolutely one of them. My reasons: sanity, strength, weight control, sheer enjoyment, cardiovascular health.

I do also believe that they need to look into what KIND of exercise might be ‘pointless’. I’ve been reading a bit about how moderate cardio doesn’t trigger certain hormonal changes that get things revving. There is so much more that we are discovering.

Very interesting about the compensating for the extra exercise with extra food- especially with kids who don’t yet even have food issues. THanks for posting this!

By: Aloysa

Aloysa — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:43:47 +0000

I lived most of my life by a rule – I am skinny why do I need exercise. A few years and twenty extra pounds later, I started to work out. Why? To lose weight, to build stamina that I lacked, to be able to do a 5-hour hike on the Great Wall and don’t die on it, to keep my heart strong and healthy., to be able to eat the most decadent dessert ever and not feel guilty.

By: Gina Fit by 41 Maybe 42

Gina Fit by 41 Maybe 42 — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:00:47 +0000

I’m a compulsive eater and binge eater. I lose and gain the same 5-8 pounds every month. (Yes, I have issues). That said, I don’t think I’m waisting any time exercising. It boosts my mood, builds muscles and more like your great list said. I’m waisting my time when I binge (except I’ve gone 7 whole days without a binge – yay me).

That’s too bad articles like that are posted.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:29:51 +0000

Most of our reason for working out are the same. Except I’ll have to add “I can fall down and not worry Iâ€™m going to snap in half” to my list. I like the imagery that comes to mind.

By: charlotte

charlotte — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 00:53:34 +0000

I love your perspective on this!! I totally 100% agree. If you are exercising SOLELY to lose weight you will be disappointed. It’s not the panacea we’ve been led to believe. However, exercise- like you pointed out – is good for sooooo many things beyond your weight. When I list my top reasons for exercising, my weight doesn’t even make the top 5 (yeah, ok, it’s number 6.)

By: Rebecca @ How the Cookies Crumble

Rebecca @ How the Cookies Crumble — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 21:05:38 +0000

So many people are concerned with being thin, they don’t realize that many thin people have health problems. I know a thin person who was diagnosed with osteoporosis at age 25 and was told never to run or she would risk stress fractures to her femurs. It’s about being healthy, not about being thin.