I don't think I've ever started a War Zone thread before, but I have to rant about this.

Ever since Gary Taubes wrote that article Does Exercise Really Make Us Thinner?, we've had an explosion of people on these forums advocating against exercise.

Read the article, people. It doesn't say that exercise makes you *fatter*. It says that exercise doesn't necessarily make you thinner.

I'm not saying that the point Taubes makes isn't important. It is. Exercise is not the be-all & end-all road to slimness. If you indulge in exercise, you should be aware that you will likely get hungrier later, probably to the point where you eat enough to make up for the calories burned in the workout. It's not a licence to eat whatever you like. Exercise isn't mandatory for weight loss. You can lose weight without exercise, yes, it's true. People that feel guilty for not exercising can and should take comfort in that fact. It's one less reason to beat up on ourselves. We do too much of that already as overweight or obese people in this society.

But can we please stop trying to actively persuade people to stop working out if they want to? Can we please stop telling people they'd lose weight *faster* if they sit on their butts all day? Or worse, stay in bed?

Exercise has many good benefits, not the least of which is improved insulin sensitivity, which, in the long run might mean that exercise is good for weight loss, at least in a small part, after all. It's good for our heart health. It's a proven mood-enhancer, often people with low-grade depression get better relief from mild to moderate exercise than with anti-depressants. Resistance training helps with bone health.

Not deluding people into thinking that exercise will solve their weight problem is one thing. I applaud the dissemination of new and important information. But trying to discourage exercise and it's benefits seems is flat-out wrong. We don't go around this board telling people to keep smoking until they've lost their weight because most people that quit smoking gain some weight - that would be irresponsible. I think it's just as irresponsible to suggest that someone should not exercise if they want to.

Some ideas are just silly. Thinking that exercise is *bad* for you, is a silly idea.