Exercise makes you gain weight?

In a study of postmenopausal women, it was found that women who exercised the most lost far less weight than had been predicted.*

The researchers concluded that this was probably due to the stimulating effect exercise has on appetite. The more you burn the more you'll want to eat.

The lesson learned is that you still need to carefully monitor your food intake to lose weight even with exercise.

*2009 study done by Dr. Timothy Church

Does yo-yo dieting ruin your metabolism?

Your metabolism will forgive you, that's the good news. But when you regain weight you often gain back proportionally more fat than muscle. This will take a toll on your metabolism, because, pound for pound, muscle burns more calories than fat.

Doctors recommend consuming 50% of your body weight in grams of lean protein (e.g. 75 grams for a 150 pound person) to maintain muscle mass. Also you should do strength-training 2 to 3 times a week.

Excerpt from a Parade article of 1/17/10 on page 15.

Can muscle turn to fat?

Muscle and fat are different substances. It just seems like muscle can turn into fat.

When a muscular person stops working out and eats more. Muscles shrink in size while the fat cells plump up. You may not see it at first on the scale because fat gains are offset by muscle losses, but eventually the weight will go up and flab will form.