When it comes to weight loss, he's mastodonically wrong.
Limbaugh, who is at least 100 pounds overweight if not more, refuses to exercise for the sake of exercising. He believes, apparently, that it's possible to lose weight by dieting alone. (And indeed, it is, but it's not as enjoyable.) But more than that, he scoffs at people who exercise.
So today, he read a selected portion of an article that was reporting on a study conducted in Australia.
Here's the title of the article - note how categorical it is, how it makes a statement of fact:
Exercise ups sweet cravings
Exercise can increase some people's desire to eat high-fat, sugary foods such as doughnuts and prevent them from achieving weight loss goals, a new study shows.
Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Associate Professor Neil King, from the Institute of Health Biomedical Innovation (IHBI), said exercise caused an increased wanting for fatty, sweet foods in some overweight and obese people.
Professor King, a behavioural scientist, said his previous research, published in 2008, had shown the ability of overweight people to shed kilos through exercise varied considerably.
Ooooh...doesn't that just make you think?
Well...no. Because I skipped to the end.
The study consisted of 34 people. 34. Of whom a little less than half found that after they exercised, they had a craving for sweets like chocolate and donuts.
Well, big whoop.
34 people.
It's a brief article, and it doesn't explain all the other factors that go into this.
I don't know if any of you, my readers, have ever participated in a study, but a study is run on as "efficient" a basis as possible. The people running the study ask "yes" or "no" questions, or "answer a question from 1 to 5".
If those questions aren't phrased properly, the information received is flawed. If there are a variety of factors involved, which the respondant has no way of communicating to the people conducting the study, the information received is flawed. And more to the point, if you're working with a grand total of 34 people, the information is useless.
Unless those 34 people are one whole group, who live on an island, and represent only themselves, or perhaps a total of 100 people, then maybe the info is of some value.
But 34 people out of 34 million?
Here's what might have happened. People who exercise burn off calories, and then think that because they've burned off calories, they can eat a candy-bar and the exercise will set off the calories consumed. Which is true, by the way. If you exercise for 4 hours and burn 300 calories, and then eat a 300 calorie candy bar, you will neither gain nor lose weight.
But that doesn't mean the exercise caused a craving for chocolate, merely that the exercisee believed that after exercising, it was okay to reward himself, or herself, with chocolate. Not quite the same thing.
Whenever you read the results of a study reported in the newspaper, in which a headline categorically states something to be true - remember that that headline was probably written by a reporter, not the people conducting the study.
But more than that, take a look at how many people participated in the study. [MOre often than not, a study will rarely have more than 1,000 people involved, and usually, far less than that.)
And, if they share it, just what kind of study it was (did the study participants telephone in responses. Did they meet with the person holding the study every day? Did they answer multiple choice questions or essay questions?)
What's the gist of this post, then. Simple - it all comes down to common sense.
It's only common sense that regular exercise will help you lose weight, and maintain your new weight, far better than just diet alone.
Indeed, exercise can help curb your appetite. As long as you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, those in-between cravings can be dealt with by going out for a bike ride or a brisk walk.
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