Maybe you saw the depressing Time Magazine article last August that questioned whether exercise does anything for weight loss. Sadly, the article concluded that most of us either don’t exercise enough or we eat more calories than we burn during activity. I remember reading a study years ago – forgive me for not remembering the exact details – about a group of men who ran the same mileage for a lot of years. Guess what? Their waist measurement still increased and they gained weight. And now, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that it took at least an hour of moderate activity every day to help prevent weight gain in normal-weight, middle-age women.

So can you use exercise to win the battle of the bulge? Absolutely, but …

• Be realistic about how many calories you burned and what that equals in food. The elliptical machine that I was on for 35 minutes today said that I burned about 350 calories. That’s about the calories in a medium-size vanilla cone at DQ. BTW, walking or running burns about 100 calories per mile, a bit less for walking and more for running.
• Pace your eating. You might need to eat a small meal/snack an hour or so before you exercise and then another one after.
• Use exercise to give your motivation a boost. Lots of folks tell me that being active makes them want to eat in a healthier way.
• Work with Mother Nature. Sad but true, your metabolism does slow down as you get older. That means you have to eat less than you did in the decade before.
• Add muscle and add movement. Keep up your muscle mass – it burns more calories than body fat. And move around often during your day rather than staying planted in front of the computer or TV, where your body doesn’t burn many more calories than when you’re sleeping.