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Exercise Won’t Boost Your Metabolism

Posted by Caley on June 1st, 2009 at 05:00am

Fitness gurus have claimed for years that exercise boosts your metabolism, increasing your ability to burn calories overall. This claim has led many people to the belief that diet does not matter as long as you exercise regularly. According to this belief, an exercise session gives you license to eat whatever you like. Sadly, a new report shows that this might not be the case. In a report published in the journal Exercise and Sport Science Reviews, Edward Melanson of the University of Colorado claims that exercise does not increase your overall ability to burn fat. In other words:

“If you exercise and replace the calories you burn, you’re no better — with regard to how much fat you burn off — than if you didn’t exercise,” says Melanson

Melanson and his colleagues found that while people burn more fat during exercise, they burn fat at the same rate after exercise as in completely sedentary days.

What this means is that diet and exercise are equally important to maintaing a healthy weight. Check out the Top Fitness Trends for 2009 for some exercise ideas and our Healthy Eating section for dinner ideas.