Mike Ellis (news) wrote:
> 18 months ago when I was 21 stones (294 pounds) I started cycling just
> for a bit of exercise and to pass the time as I was out of work. It
> wasn't until a month or 2 later that I realised that I was loosing
> weight doing it
There has long been speculation that exercise helps
the appetite regulation mechanism work better. Exercise
burns some calories, but a little more eating would easily
cover any moderate exercise program and prevent weight
loss. The fact that you lost weight without really trying
means that exercise signaled your body to begin drawing
down your fat reserves, by not increasing your appetite
enough to fuel your exercise completely.
This may be an evolutionary adaptation of some sort.
> & decided to diet as well. I am now a much healthier 12
> stones (168 pounds) and intend to stay that way. I do now believe that
> it is the combination of diet AND exercise that helped me on my way, you
> need the exercise to know that you are making progress.
You certainly must have felt the progress as you cycled
up hills.
> I must admit that I never said I was fit then.
Of course. You give your name as "Mike," suggesting
you are male.
Fat Acceptance propaganda could never have originated
with men. While men have certainly concocted their
share of nonsense---see every religion---men generally
restrict their nonsense to varieties that aren't immediately
and obviously falsifiable.
It also helps that most men either participated in sports
as boys or had many male peers who did. In competitive
sports there are objective criteria of fitness, and in most
of the popular sports, excess bodyfat is a handicap.
Anyone who has trained for any sport which involves
lifting the body against gravity (jumping, running,
gymnastics, cycling up hills, etc.) has repeatedly seen
the obvious correlation between leanness and
competitive performance.
Many women, on the other hand, avoided much involvement
in competitive sports when they were girls, and had more
opportunity to associate with peers who were similarly
uninterested in sports. Thus many women reached
adulthood without forming the same empirical understanding
of what "fitness" is, leaving them free to invent nonsense
definitions.
There aren't many sports in which competitors get
better by becoming fatter, let alone morbidly obese.
This is also true of life in general.
-- the Danimal
