I saw this interesting piece of news targeted at women:

Exercise Can Help Prevent Weight Gain, But It Won’t Be Easy

There’s a lot of attention paid to what works when it comes to losing weight. But that’s not really the hard part; anyone can diet or exercise in the short term, but maintaining a loss, avoiding age-related weight creep, and keeping up healthful habits over time is much more difficult.

…it does underline that exercise on its own, with no attention paid to calories, is unlikely to carve away excess weight or prevent gain. (Even people training for a marathon can gain weight; it’s far easier to eat than to burn off what you eat.) Remember that none of these women were consciously dieting; the study can’t say whether exercise is useless for overweight or obese women who are actively attempting to lose weight by also changing their eating habits. And that “usual diet” consumed by the women probably differs by their weight. It’s likely that normal-weight women eat fewer calories as a matter of routine, without thinking of it as a diet.

Once again we are slapped with reality. Exercise your ass off, but if you eat like crap – the benefits are minimal. I shouldn’t say minimal of course — being heart healthy, lowering your cholesterol are all important to overall health- but it’s not the biggest factor in losing weight and as you get older, AND it becomes less and less the factor according to many studies. I know this won’t discourage me from continuing on my path of healthy living including exercising — the truth is I FEEL better. I used to have lots of back aches, tightness, just overall uncomfortableness — I don’t have that any more…I will say it again – i FEEL Great physically and emotionally.

You have to read things like this with a grain of salt of course — they aren’t saying that there is no need to exercise, and that it’s a lost cause.  They are talking about it in terms of gaining weight — if you workout and are already at a healthy, stable weight – this study showed it can help you maintain it. And exercise still helps lower the risks of many chronic diseases, no matter your weight. And don’t forget about the release of stress ..which is something we all need in this day and age.

So, don’t let research and news like this discourage your journey. Get Moving…