Can Exercise Actually Make You Gain Fat?

What really ticks me off is when journalists who can’t come up with creative, helpful content, just write crap in order to make headlines!

Take John Cloud from Time Magazine. In his Aug 9^th column, he writes an article entitled “Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin”.

HELLO MR. CLOUD: MY JOB IS HARD ENOUGH WITHOUT YOU DOING YOUR BEST TO MAKE IT HARDER!!!!!

Sorry folks, but this is going to be a bit of a rant!

In his article, Mr. Cloud writes about how he’s been exercising for a few years now and can’t seem to get rid of his gut. He quotes a number of studies that are all “true”, but mean nothing in the big picture context.

Mr. Cloud tells his readers how the country now spends more money on trainers and gym memberships than ever before, but still manages to show increasing rates of obesity. He also finishes the article saying how tomorrow he may skip his workout and his post-workout blueberry bar because there is some research showing that as a survival mechanism, when we expend large amounts of energy during intense exercise, hunger signals from our brain are increased.

There’s also a survival mechanism that says if you don’t look both ways before crossing the street you might get smoked by a truck. I wonder if Mr. Cloud would suggest we all stay home and not ever leave our homes anymore to avoid being run over.

YES, Mr. Cloud is correct, when you exercise harder you get hungrier. Makes sense doesn’t it? We are designed by nature to survive, not get lean and ripped. And by the way Mr. Cloud have you actually looked on the wrapper of your (Kellogg’s) Blueberry Bar? There’s about 270 calories, maybe 5g of protein, 45g of carbs, and 7g fat. If you eat this after your exercise, you’ll definitely replace the energy you just burned off.

There is a huge problem with Mr. Cloud’s article as a whole. It is basically telling the reader that they are powerless in their weight loss pursuits. That if you exercise harder you might actually gain weight, because you wont’ be able to help yourself .

Here are two quotes from Mr. Cloud’s article. In the first quote, he is speaking in the first person. In the second, he is quoting the journal Psychological Bulletin:

“What's going on here? Church calls it compensation, but you and I (Mr. Cloud) might know it as the lip-licking anticipation of perfectly salted, golden-brown French fries after a hard trip to the gym.”

“If you force yourself to jog for an hour, your self-regulatory capacity is proportionately enfeebled. Rather than lunching on a salad, you'll be more likely to opt for pizza.”

Excuse me for a second… are you freakin’ kidding me?

I HAVE NEVER, EVER OPTED FOR PIZZA OR FRENCH FRIES AFTER LEAVING THE GYM WHEN MY GOALS HAVE BEEN FAT LOSS.

Seriously folks… if you’re trying to lose body fat, and you exercise hard and then go eat a bunch of crap… then you’re just plain hilarious. Clearly, you have either no idea, in which case now you do… or you just don’t really care if you lose any weight.

You can look all you want for examples of people who exercise and don’t lose weight and you can use it as your excuse to not exercise, but all the people I know who are serious about losing body fat, and who are actually making progress are busting their butts at the gym and it shows!

Maybe the editor of Time Magazine Online should make sure that with such a serious obesity problem as the country faces, that any articles they publish empower people to take action instead of just giving them another excuse to do nothing.

No matter how you look at it, this article by John Cloud gets a serious thumbs down from me!

Anybody else agree with me? Please leave your comments below!

:)

Shane Miller, CPT, CSN

Your Strength and Fat Loss Coach

www.your-beach-body-boot-camp.com

www.your-strength-and-fat-loss-coach.com