Health & Medicine - Posted by Greta Guest-Michigan on Thursday, January 3, 2013 12:40 - 5 Comments 
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Exercise or diet? How to shed extra weight
People who think obesity is caused by diet eat less food and those who think it's caused by a lack of exercise work out more. The problem is that people overestimate the amount of calories burned during exercise and underestimate calories in the food they eat. (Credit: Emily/Flickr)
U. MICHIGAN (US) — If losing weight is one of your New Year’s resolutions, the first step may be to ask yourself if diet or exercise is more important to success.
Share this article
Email
Republish this article
The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
In a series of studies across five countries on three continents, research to be published in the journal Psychological Science, shows whether a person believes obesity is caused by overeating or by a lack of exercise can predict whether he or she will gain or lose weight.
With two-thirds of the adult US population classified as overweight or obese and similar numbers in many developed nations, obesity has become an important health concern, researchers say.
Straight from the Source
“The greater the extent to which you believe it is diet, the thinner you are on average,” says Brent McFerran, a marketing professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
People who believe obesity is caused by diet eat less food. Those who believe it is caused by a lack of exercise should work out more. The problem with that is that people tend to overestimate the amount of calories burned during exercise and underestimate calories in the food they eat.
For example, a 20-ounce venti Java Chip Frappucino from Starbucks contains 580 calories—and would take the average person four hours to walk off.
This is not to say that exercise doesn’t help reduce weight as long as calorie intake doesn’t also increase, says co-author Anirban Mukhopadhyay, a marketing professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
“Our finding is simply that people who believe strongly in lack of exercise as the primary cause, rather than poor diet, tend to have higher body masses.”
Source: University of Michigan
Please wait
5 Comments
Mary Khoury
Great article both the way you eat,what you eat, and exercise are all equally important.
Richard
As a 44 yearold sedentary office worker, I found that although I ate caerfully, nonetheless once I got passed my mid thirties I started to slowly gain weight. Taking up regular exercise has taken me back to the weight I was twenty years ago – shedding about 20 pounds. So I wonder if diet and exercise vary in relative importance over a lifetime? Are there metabolic changes that impact too?
The songs you must avoid when working out:
http://rockandrollnerd.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/worst-rock-songs-to-workout-to/
-Ed
Hurrah! In the end I got a blog from where I be capable
of genuinely obtain valuable information concerning my study and knowledge.
Perhaps the issue is not how much one eats – rather WHAT one eats. I recommend reading Gary Taubes book – Why We Get Fat and What We Can Do About it. His conclusion that our high carbohydrate diet is the culprit is very persuasive and I think offers those battling chronic weight issues hope for getting their weight and risk for heart disease in check.