"Nine Cold, Hard Weight Loss Truths"-an Article

[Being_the_Don]

http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22178/53765-nine-cold--hard-weight-loss

I'm sure the author meant well, but why WHY do people always dismiss the benefits of intensive strength training workouts? :crazy: The closest the author came to this idea was when she mentioned kickboxing (albeit dismissively). People do not know that muscle burns calories even at rest and if people were to become involved in strength training their health would, in most cases, improve dramatically.

When I read articles of this type, images of people with very moderate physiques come to mind. I think that the vast majority of people are afraid of exercising with weights because of the myths associated with weight training. Actually humans have evolved to avoid pain and exercise can be painful, and strength training with weights does involve risk of injury e.g. dropping a weight on your foot or worse your head, etc. But what they do not realize is that our bodies need to be constantly challenged, physical exertion is good for the mind, body and spirit. To lose weight and keep it off people must eat well, get plenty of sleep and REALLY exercise at least three days a week. If a person has physical limitations, they should-if at all possible-look for alternative means of exercise to improve strength and endurance. This is my 2 cents.

 

[Lifeforce]

Gotta remember this is for the "common" people. People with alot of overweight, bad backs, bad knees and all that. People seem scared to give tips about heavy workouts because they are afraid people might get hurt.

It's kinda sad though, if every person trained with weights one time a week we'd have alot healthier population and many common injuries would probably be next to extinct.

 

[insidious]

I did like this however:

7. Our cultural environment is also working against you.
Let’s face it, American society does not make it easy on those trying to eat healthfully and exercise. According to Linda Bacon, associate professor of nutrition at UC Davis, “We get a tremendous amount of pressure to eat for reasons other than nurturing ourselves, and over time, people lose sensitivity to hunger/fullness/appetite signals meant to keep them healthy and well nourished. It’s hard for people to come to a healthy sense of themselves given the cultural climate, and nutritious and pleasurable options for healthy food are not as easily accessible as less nutritious.”

That doesn’t mean this can’t be overcome, but it does require maybe putting other parts of your life on a “diet.” TV would be the biggest culprit, since many food advertisements, especially for children’s junk food, come during this time. Other areas to put on a “diet” are chain and fast food restaurants (where portion sizes are distorted), a bad-influence friend, or driving, which may help increase walking and biking.

This is the crux of the matter when it comes to the very unhealthy role food plays in the psyche of modern society.

Food has become something quite at odds with a survival mechanism which it very much is. It is a diversion, a time-filler and mood stabilizer. Modern man (and woman) treats food as anything other that what it is...sustenance.

 

[CGE333]

I agree that strength training should be mentioned, but i would like to get an idea of how much it will raise your metabolism, i.e. for every pound of muscle i gain, my metabolism should burn XXX # of calories a day over and above what it burned previously.

Plus with the article being geared towards Johnny and Jane Couch Potato, even if they gained enough muscle to burn 100 extra calories a day, without changing their diet it won't mean much. They probably already east 500-1000 more calories a day more than they burn.