By Jacqueline Stenson -
NBC News
Many people start the year with weight loss purposes, and in fact, gym enrollments often spike in January.
But for March the resolutions are usually abandoned: the pounds do not disappear as expected and the gym shoes are kept in the closet.
Although exercise can help you lose weight and stay in shape,
fitness
experts
say that people overestimate the calories they burn when they exercise, or simply don't do enough to move the scale.
That 30-minute cardio session that left you sweaty and out of breath may seem like a grueling marathon, but it may have only burned you 200-300 calories.
"That can be completely undone by consuming a donut in about 60 seconds,"
said Glenn Gaesser, a professor of exercise physiology at the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University in Phoenix.
"So we can undo with food in a matter of minutes what it took us to burn that many calories over the course of many, many minutes, sometimes hours," he added.
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"Research shows that
exercise affects almost every cell in the body, not just our heart, not just our muscles, but it affects all other organs as well,"
Gaesser said.
"Exercise is vital to good health," he added.
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Among the benefits listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are
greater mental alertness, less depression and anxiety, better sleep,
help with weight control, stronger bones and muscles and less risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancers of the breast, colon, and other organs.
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For “substantial health benefits,” federal health guidelines advise adults to get
at least 150 to 300 minutes
of moderate-intensity
physical activity per week
or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week, or an equivalent combination .
Nina McCollum, 52, of Cleveland, said she started gaining weight after having a baby at age 40.
Weight gain has accelerated more in recent years, McCollum said, blaming menopause primarily.
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McCollum, who has been physically active her entire life, did not find that exercise helped her shed the extra pounds.
She now considers herself about 40 pounds (18 kilos) overweight, but is still as fond of exercise as ever.
She works out at home, doing calisthenics and weights and running up the stairs.
He also takes his dog for a walk, and on the weekends he goes hiking outside.
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"I no longer care not to be a stick figure," he
said.
Instead, she focuses on staying fit, strong, and flexible as she ages, staying healthy, and trying to avoid heart disease that runs in the family.
Exercising to live longer
Gaesser said research shows that people who are overweight but who exercise regularly, like McCollum, continue to reap many health benefits.
"We have found that
exercise basically improves health outcomes,
to a great extent,
independent of weight loss," he
said.
Physical activity acts on multiple mechanisms in the body, and this is how it could help prevent chronic diseases and, therefore, also prevent premature death
AMANDA PALUCH UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST
Gaesser is the co-author of a paper published in iScience in October that reviews multiple studies and compares weight loss with exercise to promote longevity and improve people's overall health.
Although most of the data is based on observational studies and cannot be used to establish a cause-and-effect relationship, according to Gaesser, research suggests that intentional weight loss is associated with a 10-15% reduction in risk of mortality .
In comparison, studies suggest that increased physical activity or improved physical fitness is associated with a 15% to 60% reduction in mortality risk.
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"The main take-home message is that just being physically active and trying to improve fitness seems to offer better prospects for longevity than just trying to lose weight," he said.
Another study published last year also found that
exercise promotes longevity,
even if you walk much less than the 10,000 steps that are generally recommended.
Middle-aged people who walked at least 7,000 steps a day on average were 50-70% less likely to die from cancer, heart disease or other causes in the next decade than those who walked less, according to published results. on JAMA Open Network.
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"Physical activity acts on multiple mechanisms in the body and this is how it could potentially help prevent chronic diseases and therefore also prevent premature death," said study author Amanda Paluch, a professor at the University of Massachusetts. Amherst.
Dr. Robert Sallis has long considered exercise to be an essential part of a healthy lifestyle.
As president of the American College of Sports Medicine from 2007 to 2008, he inspired the
Exercise is Medicine
campaign , which encourages doctors to talk to patients about their physical activity, including "prescribing" it.
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Sedentary people who get moving can start feeling better right away
, said Sallis, a professor of family medicine at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine.
“The first thing is
mental health.
That's almost the first thing people notice:
I feel better, I have more energy, I sleep better, ”he
said.
“But then the list of chronic diseases could be lowered.
I could not tell you a disease that is not favored by it, from diabetes to heart disease, through blood pressure, cholesterol or cancer, and so on. "
Sallis encourages non-exercising patients to start small and try to reach federal guidelines.
"The curve is very steep in terms of earnings," he said.
“Doing just a little pays off huge.
So try to focus on those little parts instead of feeling like you have to join a gym and have to do all of this.
You just have to go out and walk ”.
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It also encourages patients to keep going even if they don't lose weight.
Too often, there's "this singular focus on their weight and the thought that if I don't lose weight, the exercise wasn't helpful for me, and a lot of them use that as a reason to stop," he said.
"
But weight has very little to do with profits.
If you get overweight patients to be active, they get the same health benefits, "he warned.
And
being slim doesn't mean you don't have to exercise.
"In fact, if you are of normal weight and not physically active, you are putting yourself at risk for many conditions," Sallis said.