Does exercise help with weight loss?(Time Article reaction)

Recently a client of mine handed me an article featured on the cover of Time magazine called the "The Myth About Exercise." The author of the article, John Cloud, talks about the fact that people who exercise don't always lose weight and sometimes even gain weight. There are a few things in the article I agree with and a few things that I disagree with.

Agree-
Exercise by it itself will not help you lose weight. I said previously in one of my e-blasts that losing weight is 80% nutrition. You can burn 500 calories in an intense workout and quickly erase that calorie deficit with a poor food choice. I've seen this so many times where people reward themselves with a pizza or something because they just did a cardio class. I've even heard instructors talk about this. Personally, when I did bodybuilding I really learned that nutrition is what brings out muscle definition and washboard abs not tons of cardio and crunches. People really need to understand that they can exercise all they want but if their eating is not dialed in, it can be an ineffective weight loss tool.

Disagree-
He only talks of calories in/calories out in the article. He talks about intense appetite after exercise and tending to want to eat more. Not once does he mention insulin resistance and high glycemic foods.

Dr. Spieth from Children's Hospital in Boston did a study with two groups of obese children. Group #1 ate the standard low fat high glycemic carb diet and did moderate exercise. Group #2 ate a more balanced low-glycemic diet. The children in this group were allowed to eat as much food as they wanted. They followed both groups for 4 months. Group #1 did not lose any weight but group #2 lost an average of 4 pounds each. He also found that when kids were given a high glycemic meal versus a low glycemic meal for breakfast that they tended to eat 80% more calories during the day.

In my opinion and based on studies that I've seen, many times hunger comes from eating the foods that spike your blood sugar or when your body is deprived of essential nutrients. If you avoid eating high glycemic foods, eat frequent, smaller meals and provide your body with proper nutrition, You should not get massive hunger bouts.

His premise is that exercise will only make you eat more is absurd to me and gives Americans another excuse to be lazy.

The tone of the article discounts intense exercise but this to me is an integral part of boosting metabolism. Research has shown that intense cardio and weight training can keep your metabolism elevated up to 48 hours post workout. There are also studies showing that people who exercised at a higher intensity lost more bodyfat than those who hang out in the low intensity "fat burning zone."

The bottom line is I have 15 years experience and what I have seen is people who combine exercise aqnd good nutrition have much better results than those who simply diet. Others who try to compensate for bad eating with tons of cardio usually do not have much success with weight loss. I know plenty of people who go to the gym, do hours of exercise but never seem to change their appearance just like the author of this article.

Eating right takes discipline. Unfortunately for many people they are not willing to do what it takes to eat right so they will continually struggle unil they make their nutrition a priority along with their exercise.