A recent Time magazine article defended not having regular exercise in your life, stating that exercise has absolutely nothing to do with weight loss and weight control. The author wrote that the more she exercised, the greater his appetite, the more he ate, and the more weight he gained. Having a personal experience like this is one thing, but assuming exercise makes you fat couldn’t be less true or more irresponsible. Fitness is important and can play a big role in weight loss.
When it comes to diet and exercise, there are many factors that go into successful weight loss. Food and calorie intake are number one on the list, but genetics, attitude, support, and yes, exercise make weight loss successful. There is still no other formula that works better for weight loss than this: burn more calories than you take in. That is the simple answer in a very complex equation.
It brings up the question: Does fitness matter?
In defense of the writer of that now infamous article, he claims that exercise plays a crucial role in diabetes control, heart health, and the prevention of certain types of cancer, and he’s right on that point. But the role exercise plays in our lives is a different experience for each person. Individual needs are different as are the relationships we have with fitness, but there is a place for physical activity in everyone’s life.
As our national waistlines expand and childhood obesity continues to rise, the need for regular exercise is perhaps more important than ever. 60% of Americans don’t move enough and this statistic hasn’t changed much since Eisenhower was in office. That means 40% of Americans walk and move enough, yet 80% of our healthcare costs go toward lifestyle-related issues. This includes people who smoke, drink, and drive recklessly. Most people still watch too much TV, eat too many calories, and just don’t move enough.
Technological advances play a big role in why Americans are mostly sedentary. Elevators, escalators, public transportation, and all the conveniences we enjoy every day can make our lives easier, but they add to our general lack of movement. In the days of hunting and gathering, we lived to find calories because calories are what keep us alive. At that time; the credo was move or die.
We are no longer motivated to move. Our calories are readily available and easily obtained. The need to go out and dig, plow, plant, and harvest is replaced with fast food, frozen dinners, and restaurant dining. The search for food is what led our ancestors to walk up to three miles a day. That need is long gone.
What exactly is moving the most? What defines a mobile society? The basic national guidelines for physical activity to maintain heart health is to walk 10 minutes three times a day, five days a week. 30 minutes a day on most days is a difficult prospect for most people. Breaking it up into mini 10-minute walks makes it more appealing and certainly makes it seem like an achievable goal. But for those 60% of Americans who are sedentary, even that is too tall a task.
It’s not just obesity that puts people at risk. It is lack of movement. Fat but active and fit people have half the death rate of people of normal weight who are not fit. Half the death rate is a great statistic and all because they are active, not because they are skinny.
Where we choose to live can make a difference in our perception of fitness. Certain societies value exercise and see the need to incorporate fitness into our daily lives. Generally speaking, European countries make commuting by bike easier and literally design their cities to be pedestrian friendly. Studies show that people who live in dense cities tend to walk more. The areas where people live further apart have to drive to their destinations. Urban planning and safe places to walk make the movement effort easier to achieve.
But there is another study that shows that the opposite may be true. When a city is too dense with people and buildings and too crowded, it becomes counterproductive to walk. Security becomes an issue, as does the feeling of never having a private space. The individual needs to give in to the larger need of the entire city in order to survive.
So what is a person to do? The statistics are against us. Technology is against us. Lifestyles are against us. Time is against us. The children of the next generation are fighting for their lives. We absolutely must look at the positives here. We recognize that there is a problem. The first step in recovery is knowing that there is a problem. The next step is to take action.
There’s an underlying pulse, a shift in attitude, and a subtle shift in the way we as a nation think about fitness. The video game industry recognized that it was part of the problem of the sedentary child and developed new games that incorporate movement. In an era where only one percent of children walk to school, there is a movement toward regular recess schedules and gym classes. Schools are starting to think twice about eliminating fitness in an attempt to cut costs.
American education experts should follow the example of our European neighbors. Schools in Sweden have several fifteen minute fitness breaks throughout the day and have noticed that students’ concentration levels have improved and outperform Americans at every level. This is not surprising. Exercise increases circulation, and when blood reaches your brain, you think more clearly and concentrate more easily.
But the end result remains individual and family lifestyle changes. Children learn from their adults, and schools cannot do much. Parents and guardians are the real key to achieving lasting changes in fitness. Getting out and walking together as a family or just encouraging your child to walk or bike can make a world of difference in the fight against lethargy and weight gain.
If time is an issue, think about this. There is no busier job than the President of the United States, but the last three presidents were exercisers. They find time in their incredibly busy schedules to exercise, run, or play sports because they know how important fitness is to maintaining health, vitality, and focus. They champion fitness and why fitness is more important than any statistic or study.
Does fitness matter? I bet yes. It may not be the only answer to lasting weight loss, but increasing your physical performance even a little bit can help decrease certain diseases, increase heart health, improve your mood, increase your concentration, improve your circulation, and decrease blood pressure. cholesterol and yes, it helps in your effort to lose weight.
