Getting Exercised About Exercise (obesity)
http://www.techcentralstation.com/010804D.html
Getting Exercised About Exercise
By Sandy Szwarc Published 01/08/2004
To combat the obesity epidemic our government wants us to get into
shape. Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop's Shape Up America!
has been updated with Shape Up & Drop 10™ and Surgeon General David
Satcher's 10,000 Steps Program. A multitude of other compulsory exercise
programs targeting fat have also been instituted by major employers,
schools and healthcare providers.
The shared goal of these exercise initiatives is weight loss. The
underlying belief is that being "in shape" means being thin and no one
would be fat if everyone exercised. For consumers, the take home message
is that the whole point of exercise is to be thin. In fact, we're
admonished everyday to exercise to lose weight.
Trouble is, exercise - as necessary as it is for us -- won't make us thin.
"I think fitness and medical professionals are doing a disservice to
their clients when they position exercise as a way to lose weight," said
Jennifer Portnick, personal trainer and certified aerobic exercise
instructor at Feeling Good Fitness in the Bay area. "Becoming active may
or may not result in a change in weight."
But few of us realize that the most significant body of research shows
exercise doesn't appreciably change body weights at all.
-snip-
---
Jean C
"You don't get to choose how you're going to die or when. You can
only decide how you're going to live, NOW."
Joan Baez
http://www.uidaho.edu/~bjcraw/
|