The‘ exercise causes weight loss’ myth 93 management, than most people can muster in their too busy lives. As you would have gathered by now, if too much of that elusive concept of‘ selfdiscipline’ is required then you might as well give up now. I believe that even if exercise at this level brought about triple the amount of weight loss, only those who found it intrinsically rewarding would be able to maintain it for the long-term. Remember our earlier discussion on human nature and self-discipline in Chapter 2? Humans need a degree of immediacy in the overall reward to keep motivated and two kilograms a year is not going to cut it. The good news, however, about exercising for weight loss is that, compared to the exercise of fitness training or muscle strengthening, it is much less demanding and painful. Many people balk at the prospect of exercising for weight loss because it conjures up images of gasping for air and burning muscle pain. Fortunately, brisk walking, the most effective of the‘ formal’ exercises for weight loss, is relatively painless. The role of exercise in maintaining weight loss There are benefits of exercise in terms of psychological and physical functioning. Exercise is effective in treating mild to moderate levels of anxiety and depression. Exercise undoubtedly improves our cardiovascular fitness, our body shape through muscle tone( an important issue for many people) and our stress management. In terms of weight, the main relationship between exercise and weight loss seems to be not with losing weight but keeping it off once we have lost it. Is this about burning off calories? If this was the case wouldn’ t it make a difference when we are trying to lose weight? No, when you look at the research, all that it says is that those who continue to exercise are more likely to keep their weight off. People sometimes confuse‘ causality’ with‘ association’. Just because people who exercise regularly keep their weight off does not mean that exercising is the cause of them keeping their weight off. Exercise and keeping weight off may be associated through the fact that they are both caused by something else. The majority of people who