

Exercise is good, but it won't help you lose weight, say doctors - uxhacker
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/22/obesity-owes-more-to-bad-diet-than-lack-of-exercise-say-doctors

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DanBC
> The truth, they say, is that while physical activity is useful in reducing
> the risk of developing heart disease, dementia and other conditions, it
> “does not promote weight loss”.

Hang on, that's a bit too strong. They're totally rightthat the food industry
over-plays the usefulness of exercise. Here's a meta analysis from a well
regarded organisation: [http://www.cochrane.org/CD003817/ENDOC_exercise-for-
overweig...](http://www.cochrane.org/CD003817/ENDOC_exercise-for-overweight-
or-obesity)

>> We found that exercise has a positive effect on body weight and
cardiovascular disease risk factors in people with overweight or obesity,
particularly when combined with diet, and that exercise improves health even
if no weight is lost.

> denounce “manipulative marketing” for sabotaging government efforts to
> introduce taxes on those drinks and to ban the advertising of junk food.

One example: the food industry has voluntarily adjusted package sizes to
smaller sizes for single serving foods. This means you can buy a snickers bar
for 67 pence, or Snickers Duo (two smaller bars with total size bigger than
single bar) for not much more and often a 4 pack of the single bar for £1
because "special offer". People are not good at resisting this kind of
marketing message and the UK food industry uses similar tactics quite a lot.

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dcherman
I used to be obese when I was younger. It's true that I had a pretty
horrendous diet, however I blame say 80-90% of the problem on my
overconsumption of soda.

After learning about nutrition, it was horrific just how easy it is to down
1000 ( or more! ) calories of soda every single day without breaking a sweat.
At 3500 calories per pound of fat, that's 3.5 lbs/week or 182 lbs worth of fat
each year.

I still assert to this day that even if I completely let my diet go and ate
like garbage, I doubt that I could eat enough junk to get back to the point
where I was.

