TIME Magazine and The Biggest Loser - Controversy Over Exercise and Weight Loss

Those of you who are part of the Awesome Diet Buddies Yahoo! Group already know about this article from Time Magazine - "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin" by John Cloud.  I sent it to the group after a colleague showed me the magazine she received in the mail.  While there was a lot of interesting information in the article, I didn't think a lot of it was very factual - let's just say I was surprised.  After all the work I've done, how can any of this be true?  Let's just say I had my reservations about the whole thing.  Apparently, I'm not the only one who cried foul - several in The Biggest Loser Show/Club/Franchise have been very vocal about their objections.  I'm by far not an expert - I would say I'm quite a novice in this field - but I know that what they do on TBL is working for people.  We get to see the grueling stuff because eating right and cooking nutritiously does not create ratings, that's boring TV.  Who wants to watch someone eat, for pete's sake?!?  It's the core - teaching people how to plan ahead, shop better, portion control, make better food choices and cook nutritious food for themselves and their families - all the things that we don't see that is actually changing people's lives.  Not only that, they must be doing things that people like to see, because crap doesn't stay on television for 8 seasons. (Just as a reminder, the 8th season starts September 15th on NBC - click HERE for show details)

I really believe that the cover article John Cloud wrote about exercise was PERSONAL and not FACT.  Not only that, what kind of objectivity is someone going to have if they hate to exercise?  What I don't understand is how this type of personal bias became the cover article.  Except for the fact the people in charge thought that the overweight public would see the misinformation that they don't have to exercise, be excited about it and buy the magazine then by following the information in it, end up even heavier - thus exacerbating the nation's problem with obesity.

If you want to know the truth, just ask these people:

Michael Scholtz, The Biggest Loser Club Fitness Expert:

It takes a lot to make me angry. But I have to say that the recent TIME magazine article titled Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin has me upset.
Read on to find out why I think all Biggest Loser Club members have reason to be riled by the offensive depiction of exercise being dispensed by the author, Mr. John Cloud.
Let's start with the title. It's true. Exercise by itself will not make you thin. But who promised that exercise by itself was enough? Check out even in the cheapest of the cheap shot info-mercials aimed at selling you another piece of exercise equipment to get "the body you always wanted". I bet you'll see a reference to a healthy diet being a necessary part of the puzzle.
     (Read more of his article HERE.)

Bob Harper, The Biggest Loser, Certified Personal Trainer:

Okay so I just read this week's Time Magazine and the cover story was entitled, “Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin” and all I can say is STOP PUTTING SUCH MISINFORMATION OUT THERE!!!!  Aren't we as Americans so tired of all these “studies” that tell us that this is bad for you now and that is good for you now.  I understand that we are ever evolving and, yes, things do change but to put something like that on the cover of Time Magazine infuriates me.  When I read the article and the writer talked about how his wife and her running group were complaining about not losing any weight, the real reason is that they were going to Starbucks afterwards and making UNHEALTHY choices.  The idea that people out there want to “reward” themselves for going to the gym by eating “crap” just tells me that they have not made the full connection yet when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle. 
     (Read more of his article HERE - you will need a free account to view)

LA Times - Health, Booster Shots Blog:

Fitness and health experts say Time magazine got it wrong this week with its cover story, "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin." The story argues that even though more people than ever are exercising, obesity rates are still rising. Moreover, the article posits that exercise backfires as a weight-loss tool because people become hungrier and end up eating more. The rationale goes something like this: "I walked three miles today so I'll reward myself with a blueberry muffin." The three-mile walk burned off 239 calories, but the muffin added 420.
Further, the story argues, humans evolved to hoard calories. Once you gain a certain amount of weight, your body tries to protect that fat storage. Indeed, this theory is widely supported and does explain in part why efforts to lose weight, either by diet, exercise or both often fail.
However, most research suggests that exercise and dieting are both important for weight loss and that exercise is critical for weight maintenance. It's difficult, but not impossible. Research not cited by the Time article shows that people who have maintained a significant weight loss over a sustained period of time largely rely on exercise to do so. This effort, studies suggest, can eventually retrain the body to respond appropriately to food and activity. Moreover, these people also carefully watch what they eat. In other words, they know that eating a blueberry muffin after their workout will undermine their goals. This evidence was detailed in a 2008 story in the Los Angeles Times' special Health section on weight loss.
     (Read more of this article HERE.)

Obesity Panacea - Probably one of the most significant articles comes from a blog of two researchers trying to find a cure for obesity.  Their blog article titled "Exercise won't make you thin, or so concludes misguided TIME magazine article" has the unique perspective of a research team - the people who have the kind of information that Cloud probably should have used for his article.

If you haven’t heard about it yet, you are in the minority.

The news, blogosphere, academic associations, etc. have been abuzz (rather negatively) regarding a recent cover page story in Time magazine entitled, “Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin.”

In the story, John Cloud selectively chooses to report singular studies, often incorrectly, misquotes experts, often showcasing his naive understanding of physiology, all in order to arrive at his apparently preconceived (and largely absurd) notion that not only will exercise not help you lose weight – it may actually make you fatter.

In the first page of the article, he asks the question: “Could exercise actually be keeping me from losing weight?”

Throughout the article, Cloud painfully describes with very apparent distaste his “grueling” 4 hours of weekly exercise in a manner that is reminiscent of many infomercials which also attempt to convince the viewer that exercise is too difficult and should be replaced by whatever product being peddled (see the Slender Shaper video for a great example of “painful situps”). The interesting thing about his confessions is that only approximately 90 minutes of his weekly exercise is actually composed of aerobic activity – the very activity you should be doing if your goal is to expend calories.

In contrast, how much exercise do major medical authorities suggest for weight-loss?
Answer: 60-90 minutes of aerobic-type activity on MOST DAYS OF THE WEEK!

Not on one day of the week, as the author is performing.
     (Read more of this article HERE.)

So the moral of the story is, there's no easy way.  It's going to take work to be healthy, especially if you are in bad habits of eating the wrong things, eating the wrong time of day, don't get enough exercise, etc.  But I am here for you - the rest of us at Awesome Diet Buddies are here for you, too - that is why we are AWESOME DIET BUDDIES!  We don't say things that we don't mean. :)

Good luck in your weight loss journey.  Let me know what you think about this article!