Weight Loss! Why exercise and not just dieting is important in achieving good results!

Well I must begin by saying that with the advent of so much information highways, it is now common knowledge that any weight loss program should always combine diet together with exercise. But who wants to spent endless hours at the gym, running to nowhere on a treadmill or lifting heavy weights yet in your daily life all you need to carry is you Blackberry? Dah!
In the past, the best way to loose weight was to go on a prescribed diet or eating plan. This plan involves a very simple process of caloric restriction, also known as starvation!
Simple put, eat much less than you usually do, then your body will compensate by eating its self, little by little, until you look skinner.
Well what happens in starvation is the body feeds off mainly of fats and carbs that are stored up (liver, muscles adipose). When these sources are depleted it then converts muscle protein to a source of energy and it feeds on it. Thus while loosing a significant amount of fat mass, one also gets to loose a significant amount of muscle mass as well. And when you go to the scale, it will tell you, " your weight has gone down congratulations!" But then your happy slim self isn't able to explain why their perfect body feels so sluggish and in most cases never in good mood. (why do you think Naomi Campbell is the world champion maid boxer? More like boxer of maids really!)
Thus starvation diets, as much as it looks good on the scale, is not the best way of loosing weight!

Now, in a research done by the man in white coats, two groups of obese woman were put on two different weight loss programs. One group was put on a specific calorie restricted diet that reduced their caloric intake by 500kcal. The other group was put on also reduced calorie diet but of only 250kcal. The other 250kcal was factored in as output though exercise. The exercise program involved mainly strength training, that is lifting weights! A third group was added as the placebo. Call me if you don't know what a placebo is!

After the prescribed duration of the experiment, the participants were weighed in. Both groups of individuals lost, an average 5kgs in total body mass. Now the study had proved beyond doubt that both methods worked. Yippee!
And now the catch!
When body fat, was measured, the group doing the sweating had lost the most amount of body fat! They had managed to retain and grow most of their fat free mass, aka, muscle and bone, and shed a significant amount of fat. On the other hand, the dieters lost on average 1.1g of fat free mass, that is muscle.
Thus the moral of the story is; lets sweat it off people, just sweat it off...

Till next time!