Exercise Tip: What's The Best Reason To Exercise?

There are a lot of reasons to exercise. When you exercise regularly:

The list goes on and on.

But the best reason to exercise may be this one: You can eat more.

You hardly get to eat if you don't exercise

If you don't exercise you don't need to eat very much. If you don't get any exercise your body doesn't bother trying to build up any muscle.

It doesn't want to waste the effort since it knows you aren't going to use it anyway.

Without exercise you don't have much muscle to support. Muscles take blood and energy and nutrients.

It takes a lot of work for your body to keep muscles alive and healthy. And that takes calories.

So when you have more muscle you have to eat more

And I don't mean a big bodybuilder. I mean you. I'm not talking about huge muscles.

I'm talking about the normal muscles you develop when you start a walking program, or some cardio or a little weight training.

I'm talking about what happens when you do some exercises with your arms and tone them up and get rid of some of that flab.

You know -- flab! -- the stuff that makes the backs of your arms shake and jiggle. When you tone that up you put on some muscle.

It takes calories to build muscle

And that muscle takes energy to build and it takes energy to maintain and repair. And you have to get that energy somewhere. So you get to eat more.

If you don't tone up you don't get to eat more. And since you'll lose some muscle each year after your mid-twenties, each year you'll have to eat less and less. Or get fatter and fatter. Yikes!

Do you like to eat?

Almost everyone likes to eat. I know I do. And I like to have my treats once in a while. I don't like to starve, and I don't like to go hungry.

And I don't want to feel like I can't ever have a snack or some fun food.

There's an old joke that says: "If you gave up the booze and cigarettes and running around all night you would live longer... But who'd want to?"

Well, it is sort of that way with food. You could be a puritan and never let ice cream pass your lips from now until the end of time and you might live longer. But who'd want to?

Here's what I do:

I have a few things I like that I always keep around the house. Something for a little treat.

I've found some things that I don't tend to go overboard with, but that I find satisfying as a snack.

I used to have ice cream around but I tended to eat too much of it and I didn't feel good.

So now I have cookies. Most nights I'll have a cookie (or a few if they're small.) And even though I used to be overweight, I've stayed at my ideal weight for years.

So I know you can have your treats and still maintain your weight.

So what's the secret?

How do you do it? Well, eat some ice cream when you want to -- but don't eat ice cream every day. And don't eat huge a huge bowl of it.

When you dig into the corn chips you won't have just two or three chips either. That's ridiculous. But if you eat a family size bag all by yourself you are sabotaging your results.

Have you seen those labels on a bag of chips and it says: "Contains 2 1/2 servings." No it doesn't! A bag of chips is one serving. A bottle of Coke is one serving. Who are they kidding?

So have a treat when you need it. But not every day.

And eat reasonable portions.

But here's the real thing: You won't gain weight if you follow all the tips I am giving you on this website. Drink plenty of water. Try to get enough sleep. Take your vitamins and minerals.

You've got to earn it

And when you want to eat a little more, or have some extra ice cream, you have to earn it.

You earn it by doing a little extra cardio. Make sure you get in some extra exercise that speeds up the heart rate and keeps it there.

I personally go to the gym 3 or 4 times a week. I almost never miss.

When my weight creeps up a little I add in more cardio. I do high intensity interval training. I go running. Bicycling. Swimming. Walking.

Exercise "jump starts" your metabolism like nothing else can

And that extra cardio gives me a boost to my metabolism. It burns off the snacks. And down comes the weight!

So I earn my snacks. And I keep my weight off. I wear the same size clothes year after year.

Do my pants always fit? No...

Sometimes when I have done a little extra cardio my pants get too baggy. But I can fix that -- I just have some extra ice cream and they look good again!

So this is the best exercise tip I know: If you exercise you can eat more of what you like when you want to eat it, and you can still keep your weight down.

What could be better?

---

---

Popular articles: