Do You Really Need to Exercise so as to Lose Weight?

Do you feel that the mere idea of most types of exercise is less than appealing to you, or even quite abhorrent?    Perhaps you don't like swimming because you don't want to be seen in a skimpy and clingy costume, or you find going to the gym is boring, or you feel self-conscious in an exercise class full of slim young things.  Or maybe you just don't feel that you have the time to exercise.

If you are overweight you will probably have tried all sorts of diets, pills, potions and exercise regimes which all worked to a degree but then they just seemed to fizzle out and fail.  And you came out of it feeling disheartened, low in mood, lacking in hope, and just as overweight as before, if not a little bit bigger.  You can hear a little voice in your mind saying "why bother?", "diets don't work" and "I hate exercise anyway".

But your mind is set on alert for new diets, weight loss tips, new cures, a quick fix miracle cure which works to shed pounds for all.  Even then you secretly acknowledge that there is no such thing; you know that to lose weight and keep it off you have to change your lifestyle.  You know that you basically have to eat less and exercise more if you really want to lose weight.  These are the basic inescapable ingredients of successful long term weight loss.

How do you feel though when one of these turns out to be unreliable, to be "untrue"?  A long term study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) would indicate that this is the case.  This scientific research shows that exercise only works to help middle aged or older women to prevent weight gain if they were already at their optimal weight.  If you were already overweight, exercise does not appear to prevent further weight gain during middle age or afterwards.

This would perhaps explain why so many middle aged women say "exercise doesn’t work for me", that they put on weight no matter how much exercise they get.  But you cannot help feeling a little cheated when you read this research.  Because even though it hadn't worked for you in the past you secretly harbored the knowledge that it should work and so it was always worth a try again, albeit sometime in the future; now that "last resort" of increased exercise to lose weight has been taken away from you.

Or has it?  Exercise has many benefits and should be undertaken for its mood-enhancing and self-esteem building effects.  Exercise undertaken with the pure intent of burning calories is rarely enjoyable or beneficial; if this is your attitude towards it you cannot enjoy it. In fact, you are fighting against what it could be doing for you.

If you exercise with the intent of enjoyment, you gain a whole host of benefits.  Your prime purpose is that of enjoyment, relaxation and having fun.  Exercise is a by-product of this intent, and as your body moves and stretches your brain releases endorphins (which make you feel even better) and your mind expands as well.  You become more optimistic, more hopeful, and more positive.  What is the impact of this change of mood upon your ability to lose weight and keep it off?

It's massive! Your attitude when you set out to do anything at all is what dictates your outcome.  As you approach your weight loss goals with a sense of optimism, enthusiasm, hope and positivity, combined with a higher sense of self-esteem you make it so much easier on yourself.  What was previously impossible now becomes not only possible but highly probable.