For the Overweight, Bad Advice by the Spoonful
Two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. For most, research shows, neither diets nor moderate exercise brings significant long-term weight loss.
In Brief:
- Weight control is not simply a matter of willpower. Genes help determine the body’s “set point,” which is defended by the brain.
- Dieting alone is rarely successful, and relapse rates are high.
- Moderate exercise, too, rarely results in substantive long-term weight loss, which requires intensive exercise.
Americans have been getting fatter for years, and with the increase in waistlines has come a surplus of conventional wisdom. If we could just return to traditional diets, if we just walk for 20 minutes a day, exercise gurus and government officials maintain, America’s excess pounds would slowly but surely melt away.
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