As our society becomes more sedentary and allows technology the licence to relieve us of the burden of light activity, we become estranged from some of the basic joys of life. Walking is increasingly foreign to the upwardly mobile human being. Who has time for enjoyable activity in this busy life?
How can you justify the time taken to amble around, often to accomplish a complete circuit, effectively going nowhere? As science has shown over and over, we really need a policy for regular exercise, because as I am about to show you, there's no sense in avoiding it.
Gary Taubes writes a compelling argument in his book Why we get fat and what to do about it. He delves into the assertion of the scientific canon that strongly suggests exercise causes the heavy to lose weight, and the lean to stay lean. Strangely, the evidence isn't there. What science has been able to establish is that in populations that have successfully lost weight, exercise played no part in maintenance of that loss. This is rather shocking to the person who has grown up under the assumption that exercise will cause weight loss — that person being myself. A study that surveyed 13,000 runners found that those who run the most weighed the least, but they all put on weight every year, even high volume runners. The researchers, clearly shocked by their findings, went on to advocate yearly increases in running distance to maintain weight which, when applied over years would see the casual runner having to eventually run five half marathons a week.
Robert Lustig in his book Fat Chance points out that when you exercise you build muscle, which increases weight. "Good for your health but doesn't reduce your weight." Cardiologist Aseem Malhotra, Sports Science Professor Tim Noakes and Sports Doctor Stephen Phinney published an article in the British Medical Journal: "you cannot outrun a bad diet". They open the pages of evidence stating the startling truth, much to the dismay of the producers of sports drinks who promote the message that as long as you burn the energy you consume, you will be fine, however this is not true. Sugar calories promote fat storage and hunger. Fat calories induce fullness or "satiation". It is the quality of the calories not a simple balancing act.
So my case for walking is looking tenuous. Hang on a bit.
Lustig lays out three solid reasons for exercise. Weight loss doesn't figure.
1. Exercise will make your cellular machine run better. You get new mitochondria which are the microscopic pieces of equipment in every cell responsible for producing the energy that makes you move like a slug or a gazelle. You can exercise more and outrun that pesky cheetah ... or not. Getting new ones means you get rid of the old ones.
Your muscles become more adept at using glycogen with exercise causing muscle building rather than fat building. This is a way of explaining what is felt by the exerciser — wellbeing, vitality and betterment.