Most people don't need 7 hours per week, but yet another mistake they make
is to lump "exercise" into some generic term as if all exercise was
created equal. Type of exercise, intensity of exercise, etc, etc all
matter. People can get away with less, and make solid progress on their
fat loss. For example, I have a feeling many have seen this report, or one
like it, floating around on the Œnet right now regarding a study that
(supposedly) found diet or exercise take off weight equally? Below is the
report. Although the media often does a poor job of reporting on
nutritional research accurately, they do a truly terrible job of it here.
However, it¹s not totally their fault as the researcher themselves totally
missed the mark on the results of their own study, which is not uncommon
BTW.

The funny thing is, all the study actually does is confirm what we have
known for years...The media reports are omitting most of the really
essential facts such as the people were put on low calorie low protein
diets (15%P) and did only low intensity aerobics. In fact, the
participants were allowed to self select the intensity levels! Shock of
all shocks (dripping with sarcasm here), the study found low P diets and
aerobics led to a loss of fat and LBM and that low intensity aerobics does
not protect LBM and does essentially little more then burn calories. Thus,
why diets low in P and lacking any resistance training are a terrible ­
though typical ­ method of losing fat and protecting LBM.

That gets a big ³no duh² from me but appears to be earth shattering
³cutting edge² news to the media outlets and general publicŠ.

There are also some bizarre statements made by the researchers in this
media report that is not even looked at in the study! See if you can catch
themŠ.

Diet, exercise take off equal pounds, study finds

Story Highlights. Eating less, exercising more equally good at helping
take off pounds, study finds

. Research adds to evidence that adding muscle mass does not boost metabolism

. Dieting alone also did not appear to cause loss of muscle mass along with
fat

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Eating less and exercising more are equally good
at helping take off the pounds, U.S. researchers said Friday in a study
that challenges many of the popular tenets of the multibillion dollar diet
and fitness industry.

Tests on overweight people show that a calorie is just a calorie, whether
lost by dieting or by running, they said.

They found there is no way to selectively lose belly fat, for instance, or
trim thighs. And their carefully controlled study added to evidence that
adding muscle mass does not somehow boost metabolism and help dieters take
off even more weight.

"It's all about the calories," said Dr. Eric Ravussin of the Pennington
Biomedical Research Center, part of Louisiana State University in Baton
Rouge.

"So long as the energy deficit is the same, body weight, fat weight, and
abdominal fat will all decrease in the same way."

Ravussin said the study, published in the Journal of Clinical
Endocrinology & Metabolism, is one of the few done under controlled
conditions that can & actually demonstrate what happens to a human body
while dieting and & exercising.

Ravussin's team has been testing volunteers for another reason -- to see
whether taking in fewer calories helps people live longer. Strict diets
have been shown to help animals from worms to dogs live longer, but it
takes longer to study monkeys and humans.

They tested 24 people, 12 who ate a calorie-restricted diet, and 12 who
dieted and also exercised five times a week for six months.

The dieters ate 25 percent less than normal, while the exercisers reduced
their calorie intake by 12.5 percent and increased their physical activity
to lose an extra 12.5 percent in calories.

An additional 10 volunteers acted as controls. All food was provided by
the university in carefully measured portions for most of the study.

The volunteers in both groups lost about 10 percent of their body weight,
24 percent of their fat mass, and 27 percent of their abdominal viscera
fat. Visceral fat is packed in between the internal organs and I
considered the most dangerous type of fat, linked with heart disease and
diabetes.

The distribution of the fat on the body was not altered by either approach
-- helping prove that there is no such thing as "spot reducing", Ravussin
said in a telephone interview.

This suggests that "individuals are genetically programmed for fat storage
in a particular pattern and that this programming cannot easily be
overcome," he added.

Ravussin has published other studies that also dispute the idea that
exercise builds muscle that helps people lose weight.

"If anything, highly trained people are highly efficient, so they burn
fewer calories at rest," Ravussin said.

Dieting alone also did not appear to cause the volunteers to lose muscle
mass along with fat, Ravussin's team found.

"There is a concept that if you exercise, you are going to lose less of
your muscle," he said. But his team found no evidence this is true.

Ravussin believes exercise is crucial to health, however.

"For overall health, an appropriate program of diet and exercise is still
the best," he said.

His team found some small suggestion that cutting 25 percent of calories
by either diet or diet and exercise might extend life.

"We found that 2 of the biomarkers of aging were improved ­ core
temperature was 0.4 to 0.5 degrees C less," he said. "Insulin, which has
been shown to be a biomarker of aging, was reduced," Ravussin said. That
finding was published in the Journal of the American Medical Associaton
last April.

Hey Om:)))))))) which group are you on?