don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

We need new approaches to weight control, healthy lifestyles and similar promotions. At last count, 64 percent of Americans were listed as overweight, if not obese. It sounds like a crisis that would energize the nation, at least as much as whether and for how long some baseball player has been stuffing cork in his bats; but no, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the same percentage (the same people who are overweight, perhaps?) do not engage in anything close to the recommended amount of daily physical activity (half an hour.)

For these reasons, I was interested but suspicious when I heard about another new diet promising weight loss without exercise. I was surprised to discover that The No Exercise Exercise Diet is a very good diet, but not if you don't like to exercise. This is one diet that will have you exercising at a level that would exhaust Jack La Lanne in his prime and put the average Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon competitor to shame. I would recommend this diet book to any sedentary person, but not because I'd expect he/she could or would follow author Charles Stuart Platkin's diet/exercise advice. Instead, my recommendation would be intended to ensure that the sedentary person got a good sense for the importance of exercise, as well as wise nutrition and many other lifestyle matters. This, in turn, might contribute to a sensible mindset later on leading not just to weight loss and maintenance of healthy weight but positive behavioral patterns, as well.

Mr. Platkin is a personal trainer and a fitness columnist, author of a book entitled Breaking The Pattern (Red Mill Press, 2002) and, of course, the man responsible for The No Exercise - Exercise Diet. This title is a hoot. The author fully realizes that exercise is key to sustaining the kinds of attitudes and behaviors that enable healthy lifestyles and optimal well-being. Platkin describes fitness as key to not just weight control and lower risks from all the usual suspect diseases (colon cancer, high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes and so on) but also a key variable enabling healthy bones, muscles, and joints -- and improved mental health (less anxiety, better mood.) He cites the conclusion of the National Weight Loss Registry that the most successful dieters (those who not only lost weight but kept it off for five or more years) find a way to exercise NOT LESS than an hour daily! This is the "The No Exercise - Exercise Diet?" Sounds more like the "One Hour A Day, Exercise Diet -- At Least!" Alas, maybe he thought a book with that title would not sell so well.

Platkin's title is a semantic game, a play on words. It is deceptive, if in a good cause. It states no exercise, but in fact requires massive amounts of exercise if you follow Platkin's rules. He says, "You don't even have to move a muscle." True, but only if you don't eat, and if you don't eat you'll die of malnutrition! He claims losing weight "is as simple as being conscious about what we eat." Not true. Besides, what's the alternative -- to eat when UNCONSCIOUS? How does anyone do that?

Again, it's all semantics. Platkin suggests using exercise as "an appetite suppressant," by exercising a specific amount depending on what you are eating. Well, if you do that, then you are not experiencing a no-exercise diet, are you?

Wait till you hear how much "suppressing" (exercise) you have to do. Here is the nub of the Platkin plan: "For every single thing you eat, you don't count calories; you just figure out how long you have to exercise to burn off what you just ate." The calculations that follow such a formula will have you exercising all day. No exercise diet indeed! Consider Platkin's own examples, the better that you not conclude I'm making this up! Want a Twinkie? That will cost you 30 minutes of exercise. Here are other treats and the amount of "no exercise" you have to do if you want to eat them on Platkin's program:

• A Big Mac with fries and a Coke: seven hours exercise!
• Two slices of Pizza Hut pizza: one hour, seventeen minutes.
• Five chocolate kisses: 15 minutes.
• Cheesecake: almost four hours.
• Three ounces of dry roasted peanuts: hour and a half.
• Less than two cups of Ben & Jerry's ice cream: a little over two hours.
• Three Oreo cookies: 18 minutes, plus whatever exercise you'll need after the operation to remedy the illness caused by all that trans-fatty acid!

This is really the "No Eating So I Don't Have to Exercise Diet!" Let's call things by their real names. It is good to help people understand the consequences of food choices. I like the author's idea that food companies and restaurants put exercise equivalences on the consumer food labels and menus. Of course, none would do such a thing, as it would keep people from buying or ordering any food unless they were starving. Somehow, Platkin seems to think that applying this system to specific food items will prove effective and lead to sustained weight loss. I don't think so. Do you?

Oh, by the way, all the activities (exercise) Platkin recommends with varied foods is in ADDITION to the normal physical activity or exercise that he wants people to get daily, which is about one hour.

Oh well, you never know. If you lose weight on this program, please tell me about it. Also, advise as to when you have time to work, eat, sleep or do other things besides exercise! Be well and look on the bright side of life.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the PHYSICAL DOMAIN under the skill area of nutrition. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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