Exercise won't make you thin

Dammit.

I thought it was a done deal! I exercise more therefore I burn more calories and stand a better chance of fighting the flab. Ah, but that it were that easy.... After reading a recent article in Time magazine I can see my efforts are futile.

So my exercising might make me feel good-of that there's no doubt but what I really need to do is knock off the post work out muffins.

"In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless," says Eric Ravussin, chair in diabetes and metabolism at Louisiana State University and a prominent exercise researcher.

The regular exercise I do *may* reduce my risk of developing some of those really nasty diseases so that's coolio, but not help me lose weight. This thinking had baffled me but I read on and was enlightened: your metabolism is regulated by the exercise you do. If you do more exercise you are likely to get more hungry. It's that simple, plus you might be more likely to indulge yourself in an aforementioned post-workout 'treat', piling back more than the colories you burned off.

The important thing about exercise for me, though, isn't the weight loss it's about that great feeling you get from it. Feedback from my body during and after exercise makes me feel great! It could be the endorphins that are released that do this but I'm talking about the real communication with my body-aches, lactic build-up, the feeling of my skin tightening, muscles contracting. Massive.

But exercise as health insurance isn't guaranteed either. The boffins reckon that we are designed more for low energy activity spent very frequently throughout the day (gathering nuts, hunting, checking on the cave guttering-that sort of thing) and it's this sort of exercise which proves very beneficial. Binge exercising is not as healthy as it seems.

Lose weight: eat less and ensure low level activity often.

I'm peckish now.