Exercise will NOT make you lose weight.

I dieted myself fat ~Amanda Salis

Disclaimer: I am not against exercising; in fact I have exercised most of my adult life and I believe it is the reason I am healthy today.  It is good for the blood, brain, skin, mood, hormones and all the vital organs. It gives us physical strength, tones muscles and helps us fight disease.  But it is not designed to make us lose weight.  

I confess that I take up more space on this planet than other people--something that I've struggled to change, without success, using a formula that I know today is flawed.  Really it was a simple plan if it had worked: Calories in and calories out.  We all have been taught that if we watch what we eat and exercise we will lose weight.  Burn more calories than you eat and voile! You get skinny! Right?  This philosophy is so ingrained into society that people still believe it and invariably someone will counsel me to just take a walk; the best form of exercise, right?. That happened to me today.

A lovely well-meaning lady tried to convince me that I need to started walking even though I told her I have exercised all my life and WALKED 3 - 5 miles a day for 8 years.  All that did was wear out my knees so that they both had to be replaced (remember heavier people are harder on their knees), and it never made me lose weight. I've always hated walking and had to force myself to do it; I believe  now that my body was telling me "This is not good for you, Maxie!" yet I ignored my intuition, following the advice of others: doctors, Oprah, diet gurus and lovely well meaning ladies.  Today my new friend, after hearing my story, persisted and asked me if I would walk if she went with me.  I told her no.  I don't like to take walks. This was so FRUSTRATING!  CAN'T ANY ONE HEAR ME? 

I was a chronic dieter and an obsessive exerciser for most of my life. In the end I realized that dieting only slows down the metabolism so that when I returned to a more relaxed eating plan the weight came back with reinforcements, which was devastating to my self -esteem; I felt like such a failure.  I did this over and over again.  The truth is that the body is designed to save your life when there is little food, and that fight to survive kicks in when we put ourselves in starvation mode so all that hunger and deprivation only made me fatter.

I saw a Fitbit ad showing a fat cartoon character getting skinny in three months by walking 10,000 steps a day.  That is such false advertising.  Certainly if a sedentary person starts an exercise program or goes to work as a mail carrier she might lost some weight initially, but the human body doesn't want to waste away to nothing, so it slows down its metabolism so that it stops losing weight.  That is a truth of it.  

God didn't use a cookie cutter when he created us.  If you like to walk and feel that it benefits you then by all means walk! But don't insist that it is the best way for everyone. And perhaps you have been blessed with a strong metabolism and a daily routine seems to keep you in good shape, don't assume that your routine will work for everyone.

I still exercise, but I do my own routine which is a combination of yoga, dance and a little weight training, concentrating on core and leg strength and balance. I exercise 15 to 20 minute several times a week and don't even try to do cardio. I am still researching and learning how to get healthier and stronger.  After years of disability I am super grateful for the gift of being able to move freely, but I still don't take walks.  

Learn more about it starting with this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3ghP-26CLg

https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/info-2018/metabolism-myths-weight-loss.html

Health Nut My story Part 3 Exercise

Too many people confine their exercise to jumping to conclusions, running up bills, stretching the truth, bending over backwards, lying down on the job, sidestepping responsibility and pushing their luck. Unknown
If it weren't for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn't get any exercise at all. Joey Adams
Physical activity is an excellent stress-buster and provides other health benefits as well. It also can improve your mood and self image. Jon Wickham

Note:  This post is not meant to be medical advice.  It is only my experience about diet and exercise.  Before you try anything new or stop what you are doing, check with your doctor first.                                                                  

This is post # 3 in my "Health Nut" series and tonight I want to talk about exercise and what a part it had in my life--what I expected from it, benefits I did and didn't get and even harm I may have done to myself.

I have exercised since I was young. I don't remember exactly when I got the idea that if you want to lose weight you need to exercise, but I believed it wholeheartedly. Every time I tried to lose weight I developed an exercise program to go along with the low calorie, low fat eating program I was on. For 30 years I was a chronic dieter--and exerciser. I would starve myself, following an eating plan given to me by the doctor or that I found in a magazine. (In the early days it was believed that one should reduced their calorie intake to 800 a day.)

When I was young and healthy I would take the weight off fairly easily. Little did I know that I was slowing down my metabolism a little during every diet. The body is designed to do that to preserve one's life in a famine. So when I would resume eating normally the weight would come back with reinforcements along with the guilt and insurmountable self loathing. I eventually reached a point I couldn't continue with the diets but I continued exercising hoping that it would magically do the trick.

I have learned something very important. Exercise will not make a girl skinny. Certainly a person can see an initial weight drop of 10 to 20 pounds when they start an exercise program but it rarely goes beyond that. The body puts a halt on the weight loss to protect itself. It's like.. if slightly pudgy office clerk takes a job bucking hay, even though he ate well, he might tone up and lose some flab right away but he won't continue with that because if the hard work made him lose weight continuously then he would waste away, so his body adjusts the metabolism to to stop the fat burn. In that light I realize that my excessive exercising also contributed to the demise of my metabolism.

I believed in the simple formula of calories in and calories out. Many diet gurus and even doctors still believe in that today. Fitbit shows how many calories you burn in a day like that is important information. All I had to do is to line up how many calories I eat with how many I expend in exercise and like magic I will get skinny, right?. It's is not that simple. If the calories are a chocolate bar it will spike the insulin level; to get rid of the high glucose the body turns it into fat, but if the calories are a handful of almonds the body treats the calories differently. Our complicated bodies are always adjusting hormones and metabolism to protect itself and keep us as healthy as possible. It's like the body fights weight loss on every corner.

Over the years I did calisthenics, isometrics, jazzercise, biking, swimming and walking as well as exercise machines and exercise classes and gym memberships, And aerobic dance-- I loved that but hated walking--I hated walking so much I forced myself to walk more! After all the doctors and Oprah said it's the best form of exercise for us, right? I had two total knee and one hip replacements because this heavy girl forced herself to walk; (I believe today that my body was telling me that the walking was harming me, that's why I hated it.). Before the surgeries, I was unable to stand so I exercised on the floor or in bed or in a chair. To not exercise was unthinkable and to do any less than an hour 5 times a week was cheating.

I am not anti-exercise. I still do it today but some days it's just a few stretches, and other days it's working in the garden. Or I may go after the punching bag or stair stepper. Heck heavy house work counts as exercise! I no longer believe that a 90 minute routine benefits me in any way. Exercise is very good for your whole body--brain, heart, lungs, skin, muscle, mood and bones. I believe the life time of exercise I practiced is one of the reasons for my good health with low blood pressure and resting heart rate. In fact, not exercising can send a person down the road of ill health. Perhaps exercise can aid weight loss by supporting a healthy and strong body, but IT WILL NOT MAKE US LOSE MEANINGFUL WEIGHT over the long haul! Anyway it didn't for me. So Exercise because it's good for you and because it makes you feel good. But be kind to yourself and don't expect it to do what it wasn't designed to do..

Petunia Oil 8 x 10

Sorry. To console you I am going to share my baby pig! Stay tuned for more installments in Health Nut.