A Friend in the Kitchen

Last August, Time Magazine ran a cover story titled “Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin.”  The author drove home the same point – over and over again – albeit separated by limited, but good, references to research that exercise increases appetite to make you eat more and want to rest more, therefore nullifying the calorie deficit necessary to lose weight. My first reaction to the article was, “Way to go, buddy. It won’t take much time for the reluctant exercisers out there to repurpose their sneakers.”  I don’t doubt that excercising vigorously makes you hungry.  I can personally attest to that.  As my walking buddy is my witness, and co-conspirator, I/we have indulged in a pumpkin muffin after racewalking the 102nd Street to 59th Street loop in Central Park on a number of occasions.  And I don’t doubt, exercise makes your body tired and you would perhaps be less likely to move around much for the rest of the day. It may be a sweeping generalization, but sometimes it happens. 
However, the majority of research that says that exercise is beneficial to us, including for weight loss, maintaining weight loss and beyond.  But before I get to that, let me tell you another reason that the Time article perturbed me. It didn’t account for the possiblity that people can make better choices. I think that we are smarter than just going straight from the gym to the blueberry pie without question.  We can make better choices that nourish our bodies without sabotaging our hard work. I did, after a while, come to the conclusion that muffins were not the best post-exercise snack even if the store was conveniently situated between the Park and my neighborhood.  Duh.
So consider these suggestions:
Drink water before, during and after your workout.  The body sweats fluids that need to be replenished, so you need to replace the fluids by drinking water. Also, you might be reading your signals wrong: often, a pang of thirst is sometimes misread as hunger. Try drinking plain water before you reach for a snack and see how that feels.
Choose a better snack.  It’s good to eat after exercise, but the quality of food can make a big difference. Choose a basic whole food rather than something processed.  Fruits, vegetables or a protein source like an egg or nut butter. Your body might thank you for the good stuff by not storing it as fat.
Listen to your body. I consulted with fitness and nutrition expert Adam B. Cobb of FYCNYC, www.fycnyc.com,  about the role of rest in exercise.  Adam says, “If after exercising you find that you need to sleep or rest for the whole day, your body is trying to tell you something. First, you may need to find a more appropriate intensity or time frame for exercise. Second is that you may not providing your body with enough nutrient dense food and proper fluids every day. Fitness and strength are not synonymous with health. You get healthy at the meal table first.”
A few months after the article appeared in Time, it still weighed heavily on my mind. Luckily, it’s not the only thing I’ve read.  The Nutrition Action Healthletter had an article in their December 2009 issue that describe seven reasons to exercise other than weight loss.  They range from creating new brain cells to reducing risk for certain diseases. What’s not to like about that? If that wasn’t enough, a follow up article in the same issue enumerates nine more reasons to exercise such as lowering risk of type 2 diabetes or improving symptoms of depression. If the total SIXTEEN REASONS aren’t enough, look at the research of the National Weight Control Registry that follows thousands of people who maintain at least a 30 lb weight loss for more than a year.   Exercising regularly  figures prominently in the subjects’ top strategies.
So my friends, retrieve your sneakers from retirement. Find an exercise that you love and do it regularly.  Drink water, choose your food wisely, rest and recover too.  May you reap many benefits from it.

My friends and I talk often about how to improve our health. There’s a lot of information out there about it – what to eat, how to exercise, how to de-stress. Here, I’ll provide links to articles, websites and ideas about health.