The cover article of Time Magazine’s August 17th, 2009 issue “Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin,” was a great ploy to sell magazines, but was filled with flaws and what I would condemn as irresponsible reporting by John Cloud.  Below I’ve highlighted just a few of the many misrepresentations I found throughout the article and offered some commentary to combat each issue.   

• In the first paragraph, John states that he has “exercised like a farm animal” for “years.”  This is the first problem. You can workout really hard, but if you aren’t tailoring your workouts appropriately, the workouts will only get you so far
• John cites a survey that recently found that Americans report exercising more now than in 1980.  This is probably true if, and only if, exercise is defined by how often people actually go to the gym or complete planned exercise programs. I would imagine that as a country we are actually A LOT lazier now than we were in 1980 – thanks to all the computer work, driving, and video games that have taken over our lives.
• Of COURSE you eat more on days that you workout. DUH! You wouldn’t be able to get through strenuous workouts if you weren’t eating enough or skipping meals. 
• You need both EXERCISE and DIET modification to lose weight. It is very difficult to have success by utilizing one without the other. Of course, you can negate everything you just burnt off in the at gym if you aren’t careful, but if you eat a doughnut after working out it’s a lot better than not working out and eating a doughnut
• Weight gain is common among people who start new exercise programs….BUT, we don’t know if the people in the exercise study actually lost inches or body fat as the study only looked at scale weight.  I prefer to measure circumference and body fat – which is also a critical measure of success
• If you are only running 20 minutes, you should not be drinking Gatorade that has 130 calories.  I recommend drinks with calories ONLY if you are exercising over 60 minutes.  Your body has enough fuel stored for roughly 90 minutes of exercise so unless you can’t eat for a while or have not eaten much before a workout, you only need water during workouts

What did you think of the article?  I’m interested in hearing your perspectives.