Yet somehow this man is in office. So perhaps modify the statement "When the people who vote for this wingnut are ready to act like adults..."

I have to say - if one man can hold a whole industry in your country hostage then perhaps something needs to be done to fix that?

Don't confuse afterburn with recovery. If you're damaging yourself (which is what going so hard that you vomit is) then you do spend calories recovering. That being said, my doctor told me I should never work out so hard that I puke.

Well, you can think it's true. I won't stop you. You can also believe in Santa Clause. :) I just point out that the data from the metabolic chamber disputes it.

Yeah, CrossFit is a bit cultish. And it's great for *fitness*, but again you're just not burning enough calories in the workout to make a huge impact in the weight loss part. The secret to CrossFit for weight loss is...bam, The Zone. One of the few eating plans that actually works. From my view they actually get it - they're not telling you the workouts are about losing weight. That's what The Zone is for.

I think it's something that also ties in with The End of Overeating. The changes in the American diet have caused actual chemical changes within our brains.

Again, no it's not, as this study demonstrated. It's good for other reasons - weight loss isn't one of them. If the average 30-min cardio workout takes about 500 calories and if it takes about a 3500 calorie deficit for you to lose a pound then voila even if you go to the gym 7 days a week you're only going to see a loss of one pound.

Exercise is great for health. And losing weight is part of being healthy (if you're overweight). But in general if you're trying to lose weight your workout isn't contributing as much as you think it is. Energy restriction is way more important.

No, I'm suggesting (and this study shows) that exercise plays much less of a role in weight loss than most of the "Internet experts" think it does. The overwhelming majority of energy expenditure comes from BMR + daily activity. That daily trip to the gym just isn't doing that much as far as weight loss goes.

Uh, sfb, the quote I provided *is* the cite. Push too hard and you burn glycogen, not fat. Duh. That's why they article refers to things liked published charts of recommended "fat-burning" zones for heart rate.

But thanks for playing, seriously.

Get back to me after that last round of hooked on phonics and let me know how it works for you.

And you didn't read the article either. If you're trying to burn fat then "running your butt off" is counterproductive. That person is burning glycogen, not fat. This is according to people who use actual science (*gasp*) to do things like conduct an experiment to prove a hypothesis and all sorts of crazy things.

Try reading the damn story. The folks who did controlled exercise didn't lose that might weight. Your workouts aren't doing as much as you think they are. (In other words it's almost completely diet.)

Oh, btw, "intense workouts" are counter productive. They don't burn fat. The experts say your heart rate during cardio shouldn't go above 135. Do you have data that disputes that? Feel free to link your peer-reviewed study. Those people going slowly on the treadmill may very well be doing what they're supposed to:

“If you work out at an easy intensity, you will burn a higher percentage of fat calories” than if you work out a higher intensity, Carey says, so you should draw down some of the padding you’ve accumulated on the hips or elsewhere — if you don’t replace all of the calories afterward. To help those hoping to reduce their body fat, he published formulas in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research last month that detailed the heart rates at which a person could maximize fat burning. “Heart rates of between 105 and 134” beats per minute, Carey said, represent the fat-burning zone. “It’s probably best to work out near the top of that zone,” he says, “so that you burn more calories over all” than at the extremely leisurely lower end.

So those fat people you know probably are working out and still eating poorly. Because guess what: Biggest Loser never shows the diets. Just them being yelled at and abused by some anorexic trainer who probably has "substance abuse issues". People get the wrong message (pressed on them by trainers and gym salesdroids) that it's all exercise. The story also shoots down other myths that the gym faithful like to tell you, like "afterburn". Oh, don't bring up that whole "muscle burns more calories than fat" thing. It's kinda true, but you will never put on enough muscle for it to matter, at least according to the American College for Sports Medicine. So there's another lie your trainer told you.

Instead of chanting a "get to the gym, fattie" mantra it might be more interesting to read something like The End of Overeating by Dr. David A. Kessler and think about ways to encourage people to eat better. I've noticed two things: Americans are fatter than Europeans. America has way more gyms than Europe. Coincidence?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-exercise. I *do* go to the gym. I just opened my eyes to the BS that these barely-trained "experts" were hawking or that they pump at us on TV. If you like going to the gym, cool. If you find it more convenient than riding a bike to work or going for a walk, cool. If you're trying to lose weight then that's cool but take what they tell you with a grain of salt. If you spend 30 minutes doing cardio and you're really big you might have burned 500kcal. Maybe. It's more about health than pure weight loss. If weight loss is your prime motivator then you *really* need to work on your diet. The rest just doesn't matter as much.

Yeah, you have sarcasmfail. But it's ok.

The point: any time the issue of weight loss comes up on the Internet the overall tone of responses from the gibbering masses is something along the lines of: "You're fat cuz you're lazy. Go to the gym, fattie!'

Now the fact of the matter is, as has been proven time and time again (and despite the lies your trainer tells you) that exercise doesn't really help you lose weight - at least not via burning calories. It does have other beneficial health effects but when you see the parade of fatties on Biggest Loser dropping 20lbs in a week it certainly isn't through exercise alone. If it was then severely obese folks getting gastric bypass wouldn't lose weight while lying in bed.

The fact is that guess what: the human body is complicated. Weight loss for some people can be complicated. For some it's not easy. And when folks are dismissive and insulting to people trying to do so they completely aren't helping.

I supposed debating folks on the Internet who like to be complete assholes is pointless but hey we all have our windmills...

But..but...it's just thermodynamics! There's no way that the human body could be a complex organism that adapts to it's environment or anything like that! If you're fat it's because you're lazy! Exercise and you must lose weight! 2nd law says so!

Oh, wait...

If you haven't grown beyond the need to belittle others then you're not morally superior at all. I'd suggest that you're physically healthier and mentally more diseased. Which will make you happier in the long term? Dunno. But I have a guess.

Here they come out of the woodwork, those who like to improve their low self-esteem by bashing on fat people. I'm sure we'll get plenty of quotes of the laws of thermodynamics and the like. Anyone want to place bets?

But while you're sitting on your high horse, you might want to go read something like _The End of Overeating_ so that instead of just assuming fat people are morally inferior you might get a clue about what's *really* going on out there. Just a thought.