What is the Use of Exercise?

I find the age-old discussion, "Should I eat back my exercise calories?" an interesting one. We go around and around on this on every message board and mailing list I belong to. If you're on a weight loss program, should you eat back your calories you burn? You will find a TON of "opinions" out there, but like well...elbows, we all have them and they don't mean a whole lot unless they are based on facts, at least in this case.


Yes. That's the answer. Yes. If you are on an organized weight loss program, your program has already determined a loss level for you. That means that if you're given a target of 1400 calories per day, and your body is normal, you'll lose weight at 1400 calories per day. So if you burn a bunch of calories in the gym, you have to fuel that exercise. "Oh," but people argue, "It will help me lose weight FASTER if I eat only 1200 calories AND I burn 500 calories in the gym!"

No, but you do risk:
  1. Catabalism: When the body is burning a lot more than you're eating, it will store the fat for emergencies and burn more lean tissues—muscles, organs, etc. 
  2. Lowering of your metabolism: When the body senses it is in a state of starvation, it will slow your metabolism to conserve fuel.
  3. Injury: When the body isn't getting enough nutrients to support exercise, you risk injury
I was having this discussion one time with a group of people and one woman asked, "Well then what's the use of exercising?"

Honestly, in this day and age how can anyone NOT KNOW that exercise is important for more than just burning calories?

We've all known people who have lost weight by just cutting calories, or eating only meat, or some other unbalanced form of diet. But if our goal is to not only lose weight, but to gain health, then we have to take a balanced, reasonable approach to weight loss. This approach must include limiting calories, choosing healthy foods, and exercising.

Even if we don't need to lose weight, exercise is important. 

So what is the use of exercise?
  1. Exercise reduces all cause death...in other words, even a little bit and your risk factors for early death go down
  2. Exercise increases bone density, so important in women
  3. Exercise can help balance the hormones
  4. Exercise reduces your risk of Cardiovascular Heart Diseaes (CHD)
  5. Exercise improves joint movement
  6. Exercise increases lung capacity
  7. Exercise increases your metabolism LONG after you have stopped working out BUT ONLY IF YOU EAT ENOUGH FUEL TO SUPPORT IT. If you don't, you'll lower your metabolism.
  8. Exercise increases balance by helping your proprioceptors, which is extremely important as we age.
  9. People who get regular, vigorous exercise live an average of 14 more years, and have more life in those years
  10. Exercise aids in digestion, which can help reduce colon cancer.
  11. Exercise improves skin tone
  12. Exercise improves self esteem and self perception
  13. Regular exercise improves back health
  14. Strong women stay young isn't just the title of a book...
  15. Exercise can increase immune function
  16. As we get older, our metabolism naturally slows down. Exercise can help combat that.
  17. As we get older, our muscle strength naturally reduces. Exercise can help combat that.
  18. Exercise is an absolute NECESSITY for optimal health
This is not just "stuff I made up." There are numerous studies out there to support each of these claims, even the self esteem one. What's the use of exercise? Well, if you want to live to be a healthy old age, you simply HAVE to exercise. It's a no brainer.

And if you truly want to be healthy, not just SKINNY, you need to exercise...and if you're going to exercise, you need to fuel your workouts. According to the Surgeon General of the United States, everyone should aim for "30 minutes a day most days of the week" for weight loss. For optimal health the suggestion is 60 minutes a day, with at least three days being high intensity cardio.

Not everyone loves exercise. Just ask Oprah! How many times do I scream, "Oh grow UP!" at the television when she claims she HATES to exercise. But everyone can LEARN to love it. After all, how can you not love something that does so much for your body. No amount of weight loss, supplements, doctors, health gurus, or self help books can do for your body what YOU can do for your body! Embrace it, and if today you can't embrace it, at least just go out and DO it. 

Posted by Tory at January 2, 2010 5:07 PM
Categories: motivation
Tags: exercise fitness muscles strength catabalism
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