San Marcos — One of the benefits that are always presented to people is that all of that running and exercise helps you lose weight. In a sense that is a true statement.
It’s not a fast weight loss program and it takes a lot of time and energy to be effective.
For many people running, or walking, has made dramatic changes in their lives and weight loss is one of the changes that are most easily demonstrated. The problem with the interpretation of exercise, running, or walking to lose weight is the scale of how much exercise results in how much weight loss.
You may hear a person say, “I walked around the block this morning so that I can have that slice of pie tonight after supper.”
A recent page in the March issue of Nutrition Action Health Letter lists what it takes to burn off some of those small extra desserts you would like to eat for that walk around the block. It was somewhat eye opening to see the amount of exercise it takes for that small helping of extra goodies you might think was earned from your short walk.
The estimates are based on a 150-pound person doing various forms of exercise.
A Starbucks Chocolate Chipper Cookie requires one hour and thirty minutes of brisk walking to burn off the 440 calories.
Eating a Crumbs Bake Shop Red Velvet Cupcake has you lifting weights for two hours and five minutes for the 500 calories it contains.
Even “healthy” food like Pinkberry Original Yogurt requires you to hit that elliptical trainer for an hour and five minutes for those 370 calories.
Heading to the movies, and grabbing a small bag of popcorn with no butter, takes one hour and 15 minutes of low impact aerobics to enjoy the 410 calories in the bag during the show.
Enjoy that early morning cup of coffee before work at Starbucks and ordering a Cinnamon Dolce Latte with whipped cream has you jogging for 50 minutes during your lunch break to burn off those 410 calories from that morning.
Maybe, instead of that cup of coffee, or more likely with that cup of coffee, add a Starbucks Banana Nut Loaf for breakfast for another 490 calories. That allows you to swim laps for one hour and 15 minutes after work to go along with the 50 minutes jogging you did during lunch.
During a weak moment you decide to order a regular order of Five Guys Fries checking in at 620 calories. For that you get to ride your bike to work and back so that you can ride for one hour and 35 minutes for those delicious fries.
You can always go for that healthy Smoothie King Slim-N-Trim Strawberry medium size drink at 560 calories and play doubles tennis with your friends for an hour and 50 minutes that evening to burn those calories off.
When you start to realize the amount of exercise it takes for those “small” things we consume every day it isn't a difficult thing to see why two-thirds of our population is overweight and obese.
Will exercise help a person lose weight? By all means it does.
It just has to go along with some of the food choices you make when you think you can now eat those extra goodies because you walked around the block, maybe even walked around the block twice for a second helping. The two sides of the equation of calories in from eating, and calories out from exercising, just don't equal out.
Just stay away from the thought that exercise allows you to eat more and still lose weight. Exercise, but don't eat more than you normally do, and eventually the weight will begin to disappear.
The one side effect of running, or any vigorous exercise, is that your appetite seems to diminish also. You do not have that urge to eat at the slightest impulse when you see that cupcake or cookie on the plate at home or at work. Instead of the cookie, you see miles and hours of exercise on that plate, and the temptation to eat them is gone.
Dr. Maurice Johnson is a former professor at Texas State University in the Department of Health and Exercise Science. His column appears every Sunday in the Daily Record.
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Exercise does help weight loss, but so does eating right
