Exercise Tales

Aaron Gouveia had been heavy all his life and hated how he looked as an adult. Yet somehow, he had picked up the false impression that only parents of girls need to worry about eating disorders and body dysmorphia issues and suchlike. But his four-year-old child was a boy, Will. So, what could possibly go wrong?

As a professional writer, Gouveia appreciated the language, its uses and misuses, and even felt confident that he had a way with words. All he wanted was “to get healthy, go to the gym and live longer to enjoy life with my son.” What he got instead was a big surprise — himself doing something “stupid and potentially harmful.” It started with an ordinary, even banal conversation, transcribed here:

Me: “OK buddy, I’ve gotta go to the gym for a run.”
Will: “Dada, why do you run?”
Me: “Because I’m too fat. So I run so I can get skinny like you.”

When Gouveia returned home, Will was running around like crazy. Eventually, the little boy explained, “I’m getting fat, so I needed to run like you, Dada.” After this incident, the child’s parents noticed that he did not like to be around them with his shirt off. He would stand on the bathroom scale in imitation of his father, and seemed preoccupied with “unhealthy body issues and an obsession with weight.” Gouveia wrote,

I thought I was setting a positive example by showing him that it’s important to exercise and be fit. I never meant to scare him or make him feel bad about himself, but I also failed to realize that by talking about myself negatively, it affects him too. To the point a 4-year-old had to exercise to avoid feeling fat.

Shrouded in history

The prevalent idea is that “fight or flight” is the basic choice an animal makes when threatened. If we go along with that proposition, then strenuous exercise is a perfect combination of those two solutions. Exercise is a useful and effective displacement behavior. Take running, for instance, which is pure flight.

In the old days, running made people happy because it enabled them to escape from dangerous predators. Now, if we run, the body helps the brain endure stress because it sends the same chemical message: “We are outrunning the monster. We are leaving the threat behind and getting away. Every second, we are farther from danger and closer to safety.” Well, of course, runners get high!

When a person puts on boxing gloves and hits a bag, that exercise is pure fight, and as long as the person is conscious, the brain gets the message it loves to hear: “We are beating the stuffing out of this enemy right now.” Other forms of exercise comprise different combinations of fight and flight, with documented positive effects, including stress relief. A tennis player who powerfully returns a serve is a hero who chases a large marauding animal from the village, at least internally.

What could be more rewarding than overcoming or outrunning an enemy? Nothing! Consequently, many people love to exercise because they are in very close communication with their own reward systems, and recognize a good thing when they feel it.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “My 4 Year-Old Thinks He’s Fat,” Medium.com, 09/21/20
Image by woodleywonderworks/CC BY 2.0

March to a Different Drummer

We have already discussed Alaisdair Wilkins, who had lost 100 pounds in a year, and the team of writers who analyzed his success. As mentioned, the consensus was, “He found what worked for him.”

In 2015, people were talking about a meta-study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The question was, “Which diet works best?” and the answer was, “None.” After examining the academically respectable breakdowns of 59 different dietary schemes, the meta-study authors said that “practicality reigned”:

There were no major differences between the diets, and success was completely dependent on what the individual could adhere to.

This confirms what Wilkins had also indicated: People need to find what works for them. We know that he basically lost the weight by walking an uphill treadmill for an hour a day. Writing for Vox.com, he elaborated:

I moved out of my parents’ house and away from their immaculately stocked refrigerator, and also meant the place where I worked all day was located more than a 10-foot walk from where I slept…

He also wrote,

Basically, after convincing myself that I was a failure — a belief in which I saw my weight as both cause and effect — I’ve removed the limitations that I once placed on myself, and it’s because I lost 100 pounds.

But then, having ruminated on various things in the sentences that preceded that one, he disparaged himself for having written them because…

[…] everything I’ve just written perpetuates our noxious, damaging cultural narrative on weight and obesity. Ours is a culture that simultaneously incentivizes people to gain weight and stigmatizes them when they do…

And why is that? Why, as previously mentioned, is “diet versus exercise” such an irritatingly persistent discussion? Because of emotional issues and, even more important, because of financial issues. Professionals in the fields of nutrition and physical fitness deserve to make a decent living, of course. But it is regrettably recognized by society at large that weight loss, whether via exercise, diet, or other means, is a major industry.

Where does Wilkins weigh in?

On the exercise-versus-diet question, he personally found it much easier to “hop on a treadmill” and watch a movie, than to reduce his food portions — at least in the beginning — although that changed. Wilkins ignored advice about the “best” way. He took the trouble to get to know himself, what he could tolerate, what he could live with, what he was able to commit to. He did it his way, not as an arbitrary choice made from blind contrariness, but because, when he had done the inner work, a way showed itself to him.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Exercise vs. Diet: Which Is More Important for Weight Loss,” LifeHacker.com, 01/05/15
Source: “I lost 100 pounds in a year. My ‘weight loss secret’ is really dumb,” Vox.com, 01/01/16
Image by Elvert Barnes/CC BY-SA 2.0

Genetics, Environment, Inclination, and Destiny

Astonishing as this might seem, the debate about exercise has been going on for decades. After all the years and all the studies, and all the documented personal experience, one might think that by now, consensus would have been reached on the usefulness of exercise as a weight-loss tool. But no. Some people are firmly convinced that exercise is the only savior; others believe it makes no difference, and a very large number is still thoroughly confused.

Once in a while, fate provides the perfect opportunity for research. Thanks to life’s well-known randomness and weirdness, looking at nature’s matched sets enables scholars to make interesting conclusions of various kinds.

Curious Scandinavians

For years, Finland has been collecting statistics from identical twins and compiling them in the FinnTwin16 database. When the volunteers are 16 years old, they sign up to answer a batch of questions, then periodically fill out the questionnaires again every few years.

Heredity has a lot to do with how people’s bodies respond to exercise, and the amount of endurance capacity they have, as well as how much they enjoy sweating. Some people have never in their life experienced a “runner’s high” and have no desire to.

Scientists wanted to zero in on genetically identical pairs of males in their twenties, who had grown up with similar patterns of physical exertion. For the purpose of this study, each pair needed one twin who had exercised regularly in adulthood, and one who, hampered by work or family obligations, had not done so. These were surprisingly difficult to find. Set after set of male twins, even though living apart, adhered to remarkably similar exercise patterns.

In this case, the diet was not a major concern, which is just as well, because even among the relatively few pairs who exercised differently, food choices did not vary enough to be significant. Eventually, the scholars settled on 10 sets of twin brothers, whose exercise habits had diverged mostly within the past three years. Journalist Gretchen Reynolds explained,

The scientists invited these twins into the lab and measured each young man’s endurance capacity, body composition and insulin sensitivity, to determine their fitness and metabolic health. The scientists also scanned each twin’s brain.

The sedentary twins had lower endurance capacities, higher body fat percentages, and signs of insulin resistance, signaling the onset of metabolic problems.

The twins’ brains also were unalike. The active twins had significantly more grey matter than the sedentary twins, especially in areas of the brain involved in motor control and coordination.

At the University of Jyvaskyla, research team leader Dr. Urho Kujala noticed a common thread in each pair of twins, no matter what their genes dictated, and regardless of what their early training and habituation had entailed. In the realm of individual behavior, none of the influences is guaranteed to “take.” Apparently, it is not carved in stone that either heredity or environment can rule uncontested. Genetics and environment can both foster tendencies, but neither factor inevitably signals destiny.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “One Twin Exercises, the Other Doesn’t,” NYTimes.com, 03/04/15
Image by Lily Ballard/CC BY 2.0

Bikes and the Built Environment

In 2015, hard looks were being taken at the realities of everyday life, with the intention of inducing more motion in children — preferably in ways that fit in with customary life. In many locales, transportation to and from school became a hot topic.

In Mother Earth News, F. Kaid Benfield noted that…

As recently as 1973, some 60 percent of school-age children walked or biked to school. I’m told that, today, the portion is about 13 percent. All this while we have a serious problem with childhood obesity, which has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years, according to the National Centers for Disease Control.

A case in idyllic Saratoga Springs, NY, drew media attention. A 12-year-old boy rode his bike to school,

a) along a dedicated bike trail
b) accompanied by his mother on her bike
c) on National Bike to Work Day.

On arrival, they were greeted by the security detail and the school administrators and told in no uncertain terms that students were not allowed to ride bikes to and from school.

The journalist asked questions, and the plot thickened. This particular family was fortunate to live adjacent to a designated bike trail, but students lived all over the district, so it definitely would not be safe for them to bike to school even if they were willing to. If a student was hurt, the school might face legal liability. Everyone must be subject to the same rules, so, therefore, the only acceptable modes of transport were parental car and school bus.

Benfield added,

The problem is the school’s location, completely isolated from its community instead of placed within the community where walking and bicycling would be a much more convenient and common choice.

There are a lot of cities in the United States, and far too many of them suffer from schools being built in the wrong locales. On top of a toxic waste pit is not the only bad place for a school. Maybe schools should be where students can get to them under their own steam. Certain factions want to see this taken more extensively into consideration before future plans are made.

Insisting on car or bus transport is based on safety of course, but Benfield adds that in any given year, about a quarter of a million children were hurt in motor vehicle accidents, and for kids from two to 14 years of age, the leading cause of death was MVAs,

Just in case any reader is in a position to influence such matters, the writer also goes into a great amount of detail about the 11 things to keep in mind when a new school is being planned.

Another culture

In the same time frame, Odense, Denmark’s third-largest city, was the exact opposite. Cars were forbidden in school zones, and the very large majority of children walked or rode skateboards back and forth. Even five-year-olds rode their bikes. By the time they reached Grade 3 or 4, class groups would go on field trips by bike. Odense had well over 300 miles of bike paths, an incalculable benefit for the residents and also a tourist attraction.

The school principal gave journalist Matt McFarland answers that might surprise some. Lars Christian Eriksen said that biking affects the child’s character, and seemed more impressed by brain stimulation than by the difference this vigorous exercise made on the muscles and bones.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Getting to School Shouldn’t Be So Hard,” Mother Earth News, February 2015
Source: “This Danish City Is So Bike-Friendly Even Kindergartners Ride To School,” NDTV.com, 02/24/16
Image by DieselDemon/CC BY 2.0

Exercise and Its Weight-Loss Reputation

Over the last decade, there has been a lot of debate about the efficacy of exercise to achieve weight loss. Take 2014, for instance. Many different voices chimed in on the importance of exercise, and what should be done about making it more available to the young. (This was, needless to say, during the Obama administration, when the First Lady adopted childhood obesity as her issue.)

In mid-year, this optimistic announcement was made (courtesy of journalist Claire Moser):

Mayors from across the country unanimously passed a resolution this week supporting new public parks and outdoor recreation programs to promote healthy urban areas and combat childhood obesity. The bipartisan resolution adopted at the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Possibly some industrious reporter has followed up on how that turned out.

In Denmark, Dr. Jens Christian Holm conveyed his method to almost two thousand patients, which enabled 70% of them to maintain a normal weight. All they had to do was change their lifestyles and habits in 20 different ways — and not small ways. How did exercise fit into this? Christopher Lane wrote,

[T]he program urges a dramatic reassessment (including by family members) of what children are eating and how much physical exercise they actually are getting.

Dr. Holm charmingly refers to “activities and inactivities.” In the realm of family obesity prevention therapy, motivation has always been a problem, but the method advocated by Dr. Holm reportedly works, and is a program that “families have really embraced.” These sentences from the cached version of his webpage explain:

We know that the fat mass is defended by an ingenious hormonal regulatory system, and that the fat tissue defense can vary from person to person. This means that some people will lose weight easier and faster than others…

For some, the body can be relentlessly proficient in maintaining the fat mass, but remember, there are no alternatives or magical tricks.

A Forbes.com interview yields another worthy Dr. Holm quotation:

First you need to understand obesity as a chronic disease like asthma, diabetes, epilepsy. And then you know to make chronic treatment. Then you need to understand that weight loss is not the most important thing. The most important thing is weight maintenance.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Want To Tackle The Childhood Obesity Epidemic? Then We Need To Build More Parks,” ThinkProgress.org, 06/25/14
Source: “Tackling Childhood Obesity: What Works, What Doesn’t,” PsychologyToday.com 11/10/14
Source: “Has A Doctor From Denmark Solved Childhood Obesity?,” Forbes.com, 04/13/15
Image by Juliane Schultz/CC BY-SA 2.0