Exercise is excellent for health but not that important for weight loss

While the exercise myth for weight loss still appears in high-profile initiatives like the first lady's Let's Move! Campaign, more and more individuals learn and experience that the role of exercise in weight loss has been wildly overstated. 

Message that exercise is not important in helping people lose weight is getting more support in research and in media. 

I always pointed out that exercise was good for your health. At the same time I also dared to say that exercise wasn't necessarily helping us lose weight. My simple truth that that you don’t have to exercise to lose weight was not getting me many new online friends. 

This statement was considered too controversial on some weight loss forums. It even got me banned from a website that declares that it “helps facilitate honest conversation about weight loss”. 

Can you lose weight without exercising? Of course you can. Physical activity is a minor component to the economy of weight loss. The critical component is what you eat.

We always have a choice

I did not post for a few months. It was not because I stopped caring about weight loss and healthy eating. I moved South West from jungle of tall buildings in Manhattan to a beautiful state of New Mexico.  

I want to thank all of you who contacted me to ask for help with weight loss. I want to thank you for trust and for sharing with me your challenges and successes. I know that losing weight is difficult. As soon as we stop doing what works for us, we start regaining weight.

To everybody who lost weight by using my method, I hope you remain strong and continue to live your new live style. I am proud of all of you made an effort. I am glad that I could help a little. I want to thank you for allowing me to show you that weight loss is possible without feeling hungry, without exercise, and most important without paying for any products or services.

I know that it is not popular message, because there is a huge weigh loss industry that profits from misery of people who are overweight or obese. The industry that pays bloggers and others to maintain opinion that weight loss is difficult and that one must buy products or pay for services to lose weight.

Keep doing what you are doing if it works for you. Situations and circumstances are different for all of us, but we all have something in common. Something powerful that nobody can take away from us.

We all have and always will have a choice. Choice of what we eat.  And that is the most important factor for those who have struggled or continue to struggle with weight issues.

Weight loss blog credibility

I read healthy eating and weight loss blogs every day. While some of the posts are based on personal experience or on new research, I see many that appear to be designed to generate buzz, sell products, and keep consumers “tuned in.”

Bloggers who accept ads participate in marketing. Many of those who successfully lost weight and initially started blogging to share what worked for them, choose to monetize their blogs by advertising weight loss products and services.

Most likely the ads are for the products that pay best publishing rates, not necessarily the ones that had been used by the blog owners.

How important is it for you that the person who renders weight-loss advice to you is struggling with or used to struggle with weigh issue himself?

Do you consider this factor when you assess his credibility and value of the advice received?

Food labels are confusing for a lot of people

Food manufactures and the food marketing industry are in business of enticing you into buying their products. 

They will use jargon to make you think their products are good for you. For example, a food might be fat-free, but the rest of the product might consist of ingredients that are bad for you. 

Look at the back of the product. The front contains the marketing; the back (the label) contains the facts. Food labels are confusing for a lot of people. I know that labels can be tricky, but the label is where you will learn which products are good for you and which contain ingredients you should avoid. You should be concerned with saturated and trans fats, syrups and added sugar.

Reading the labels arms you with information to make smart choices about what you eat. 

Announcing your weight loss goals

Research confirms that most people who decide to make a lifestyle change will tell at least a few others about their intentions. Others, will have more success with keeping their intentions to lose weight to themselves.

The first group believes that telling others about their weight loss efforts will keep them accountable. The second group might be concerned that co-workers, friends, and even family member may sabotage their efforts at times, even unintentionally.

Studies confirmed that if you announce your goals to others, you are less likely to make them happen because you lose motivation. Really? Yes, really. This is thought to happen because announcing goals satisfies a person’s self-identity just enough to prevent them performing the hard work to achieve those goals.

I think it is a personal preference and everyone must do what works best for them.

What do you think? Is sharing your weight loss goals with a loved one more likely to keep you accountable, or are you afraid they might sabotage your efforts?

Do you tell anyone at all, or just let them figure it out for themselves?

Weigh yourself on a digital scale daily

Your scale can be a top tool in losing weight. Use the number on the scale as a guide to decide whether you should keep doing what you are doing or make some changes.

Weighing yourself more often could mean losing more pounds. According to the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics people who step on the scale daily lose about three times as much weight as those who do so less often.

When I saw the numbers on the scale going down every single day, I got excited and wanted to stick with my method. Fast results kept me motivated. The more weight I lost, the more I realized how doable and relatively easy it was, and the more I wanted to share it with others.

Invest in a digital scale, weigh yourself on a scale daily and track the results.  It’s usually best to weigh yourself the first thing in the morning, after getting out of bed. Weighing yourself every day keeps the focus on how quickly you are losing weight.

Elements of well-being

The 5 elements of well-being are:

• Positive Emotion - the pleasant life.
• Engagement - flow.
• Meaning - found in serving something bigger than self.
• Positive Relationships - other people are the best antidote of the downs of life and the single most reliable up.
• Accomplishment - subjective achievement.

Personal well-being is not the same for everyone. What are your 5 elements of well-being?