Exercise and Weight Loss

People often wonder how they cannot lose weight even after starting on a vigorous exercise regimen. Well the fact is that losing weight has more to do with what and how much one eats, rather than how much one exercises. Fitness centers have heavily marketed and promoted themselves as the only solution for good health and weight loss. Of course, everyone knows that exercise is good and everyone should be active. But does everyone really need to go and workout on various machines? Not really! Save yourself hundreds or thousands of dollars and do the exercise that suits you. You can go jogging, running, hiking or just plain walking, or buy a bicycle and start riding! You can do simple stretches and other exercises in the privacy of your own home.
To lose weight, one needs to know their Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) (which is calculated using a formula that takes one's age, height and weight into account) and as long as one stays within their basic RMR calorie requirement, they should be able to maintain their weight. For example, if your RMR is 1800 calories, then if you eat 1800 cals/day or eat 2000 cals/day and burn up 200 cals/day by exercising, then you should be able to maintain your weight.
To compare eating vs. exercising, let's take an example: A slice of bread has 75 cals and a glass (8 oz) of 2% milk has 122 cals. The two together have about 200 cals (without adding butter, jam, etc.) Here is how many calories you burn up with common exercises: Jogging 3.1 cal/min, Walking 1.5 cal/min, Bicycling 1.8 cal/min, Running 3.6 cal/min. So burn up the calories consumed b y eating a slice of bread and a glass of milk, you have to jog for 65 mins, or walk for 133 mins, or bicycle for 111 mins, or run for 55 mins.
Now think of how much you need to exercise to burn off a meal of burger, fries and a soft drink (a total of over 1200 calories)!