In my opinion, the fitness industry has done a terrible job promoting the wrong thing. Somehow it all became about weight loss. Beach bodies. Better bodies. Fat loss.
Those things matter, don't get me wrong. But the benefits of exercise go way beyond how you look.
WHAT THE RESEARCH ACTUALLY SHOWS
According to a study co-authored by scientists at the University of Virginia and Arizona State, obese people typically lower their risk of heart disease and early death far more by improving their fitness than by losing weight. The study pooled results from more than 200 meta-analyses, and the results weren't even close.
Sedentary, obese men and women who start exercising and improve their fitness can lower their risk of premature death by 30 percent or more, even if their weight doesn't budge. That generally puts them at lower risk than people who are a "normal" weight but out of shape.
Read that again.
TWO TAKEAWAYS
First, nutrition has been shown over and over to be more effective for weight loss than exercise alone. Second, weight loss isn't the only benefit of exercise, so it shouldn't be your only motivation for doing it.
How about being stronger and more capable? More resistant to disease? Out of pain? Living longer? Those seem like much better reasons than fitting into skinny jeans.
I don't know about you, but I'm about to go knock out some deadlifts instead of stepping on the scale.