Interesting piece but I don?t see much that?s new here. Instead, the ?conventional wisdom? the author is challenging seems more of a straw man. We?re left with some basic realities, including:

1. Exercise, by itself, will not necessarily result in weight loss.
2. Exercise may actually stimulate appetite which, if acted upon by more eating, will counteract the gains of higher calorie expenditure from exercise.
3. Weight loss is the result of a combination of calories ingested and calories expended, but this formula varies between individuals due to genetic predispositions (i.e. some of us can eat more and not gain weight)

In making his arguments he leaves out the other health benefits (besides weight loss) of exercise. He also treats hunger/appetite/eating as a ?natural? phenomenon when, in fact, it is heavily influenced by social forces. This is why obesity rates vary across cultures and vary within a single culture over time. Not the least of these social forces is the food industry spending hundreds of millions of dollars to get us to eat more than we need in forms that are fundamentally unhealthy. (This has nothing to do with "working up an appetite.") His ?natural? approach, therefore, cannot account for the explosion in obesity which, I?d contend, is indeed largely the result of changing lifestyles on both the intake (more high-calorie fast-food, processed convenience foods, etc) and output sides (more sedentary lifestyles).

Am I missing something?

Hi Hally, I think they are probably right, though I think that there are exceptions. Personally excercise tends to cause me to gain a little and then level off. When I become inactive, I loose weight. Though when I am inactive, I am doing other things, so my inactive just means I am not running. My max weight of 185 was when I was younger in the navy and in very good shape. My minimum was prior to that at 140 in my teens. Now it is usually right around 159 and stays pretty close to that. In my prior running 9 years ago where I was doing more miles and more upper body work I weighed about 170. I never diet.
Thanks for the topic, Larry

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"If you see a man running up a mountain trail in Montana with a fly pole attached to his back, you are probably lost. LDD

........hally//.....it all makes Sense Now........

..........everybody grab a couch and start eating chips immediately.....

that was one of the worst articles I've ever read. I couldn't finish the last page.

Ok, my experiment of one. When I only did mild exercise 3 times a week, 45 minutes, no weight loss. When I could crank out high-intensity workouts 4 x a week, I dropped 25 pounds. I find on the days I workout, I eat the same as non-workout days, and usually healthier food too. I am never hungry. Unless I do a long run, I find exercise to suppress my appetite, and it greatly suppresses cravings for simple carbs. Maybe I am in the minority here, and should count my blessings. Somehow sitting at a computer all day makes me much hungrier than moving around all day.

dr. enke