« Mars Rover III: The 3-D Adventure | Home | 9/11: Unintended Consequences »
January 6, 2004
I'm burning at least 40 calories just by typing this
Interesting piece in the Washington Post in which a writer stops all intentional exercise for 9 days, and instead meticulously counts his calories taken in from food and calories burned through everyday activity (these details make for a good character study--12 beers at two parties!) If you're just careful about what you eat, and lead a moderately active day-to-day life, can you get by without gaining weight if you don't do any exercise? The answer is yes, but only in the short term. If you don't exercise, your metabolism will slow down, meaning calories won't get burned as efficiently just by going about your day, and soon you'll start to gain weight. And let's not forget about the endorphins that get released while you're slogging away on the treadmill, which seem to make watching closed-captioned Jay-Z videos and Seinfeld reruns strangely thrilling for me while I'm ellipticizing.
And let's not forget the greatest benefit of exercise: feeling smug. -amy
