More than 45 million Americans belong to a health club compare to 23 million in 1993 at a cost of close to $19 billion a year in membership fees.  Even though according to most surveys number of people who admit to exercising has increased from 47%     in 1980 to 57% in 2000 the number of obesity has risen dramatically in the same period.  One third of Americans are overweight with another one third are considered to be obese.

Although regular exercising has been shown beneficial to prevent heart disease, certain cancer, diabetes and other illnesses; however in the past couple of years research results indicate that the role of exercise in weight loss has been wildly overstated.  Eric Ravussin from Louisiana State University states “in general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless”.  It is absolutely true that exercising burns calorie but unfortunately it also stimulates hunger as well.  This  stimulation causes us to eat more, which in turn cancels the weight loss benefit from exercising.

It is what you eat, not how hard you try to work it off that effects the amount of weight you loose.  Just beware that bouts of vigorous exercise could lead to weight gain by an increase in appetite.  So skip that blueberry muffin or that “sugar free” lemon muffin after your workout.