Before buying that treadmill, weight and watch

FITNESS

As if all the confusion surrounding information about food (studies that are routinely quoted in the media about chocolate being good, then chocolate being bad, bad, bad, similarly salt is so good, then so bad, and so on about various other foods) wasn't enough, there is now a growing number of people in the US who are arguing that exercise won't help you keep off that excess weight.

This heart wrenching piece of information is being backed (as if often done these days) with suitable medical and scientific data and studies to prove that pounding away on that treadmill (for which you may have just paid a large amount of money) is pretty much useless.

Last month, the American Heart Association and the American College of Sports Medicine published joint guidelines for physical activity and health which had this to say: "It is reasonable to assume that persons with relatively high daily energy expenditures would be less likely to gain weight over time, compared with those who have low energy expenditures. So far, data to support this hypothesis are not particularly compelling." Ho hum...

In 2000 two Finnish researchers who surveyed the relevant research on exercise and weight of the previous 20 years concluded that the relationship between exercise and weight is "more complex" than what most people believe it to be. More ho hum...

In these troubled times, when every belief about food and exercise is constantly being challenged with compelling arguments on both sides of the food and exercise divide, what is an ordinary person to do who is always worrying about not getting enough exercise or eating the wrong food all the time?

As far as exercise is concerned though, research (so far) still supports that it helps you stay healthy which is distinctly different from keeping you slim and trim. The message to take away today then would be that keep exercising and for those who are fence sitters or are simply plain lazy about exercising, there are still plenty of good reasons to get on to that treadmill.

Even if you can't get an enviable figure, at least exercise will keep that heart ticking nicely for a long time to come and other such sundry health benefits are still promised.