Do we need to exercise?

So I've seen this saying come up lately on Facebook a couple of different times.  So can you loose weight without exercising, then why do we even need to?

Well, you don't need to exercise to loose weight.  If your only goal is to loose weight and you're eating appropriately, this would mean you don't NEED to exercise.  Actually, at one point I lost quite a bit of weight with minimal exercising.  Basically I walked about 3 miles a few times a week and watched what I ate.  So why should we care if we exercise?

I did some research  online and found a vast amount of information on the benefits of exercise.**  The common benefits are (in no particular order):

• muscle tone
• support weight loss
• helps prevent heart disease
• reduces blood pressure
• reduces cholesterol
• helps control/prevent diabetes
• reduces cancer (sorry, this is really vague)
• improves mood
• improves memory
• increases learning
• provides stress relief
• reduces stress's toll on aging process
• reduces symptoms of depression
• builds self-esteem/body image

**If you'd like to learn more about the benefits of exercising, I encourage you to do your own research on the particular benefit in which you are interested.  A quick Google search will give you lots of information.  Also see your doctor for help controlling any medical issues listed above.  The articles I used to research this topic meant to use exercise in an effort to prevent and/or use along with medications/treatments prescribed by a doctor.

Why do I exercise?  You'd think it was to support weight loss.  First before anything, I exercise because of family history with heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes.  I would like to try to prevent serious complications with one of these, and delay need for medications if not reduce that need altogether.  If I'm already eating appropriately, the weight will come off.  Exercise keeps my blood pumping and strengthens my heart and lungs.

Do I AGREE with this saying?  Of course I do.  First before anything else, we need to feed our bodies appropriately.  Without that, you don't have a body to exercise.  Exercise is the icing on the cake - as the saying goes.  It's another tool in our tool box of building and maintaining our bodies.

What's on the agenda for tomorrow's blog?  Oh I don't know...maybe a few words about day 1 of cleanse #2 (?).  We'll have to see......