‘Myth of physical activity and obesity’ editorial suspended by journal

Calories in versus calories out a myth? Thats going a bit far in my opinion... I'd prefer a 'gross over-simplification' as, when followed, this will absolutely work.

For me this subject is not about one golden 'simple message' that will somehow resonate with everyone.

Whether you are saying 'its not about exercise', or 'its all about exercise'' does not make a jot of difference... the fundamental problem is that people are not taking responsibility for, or investing appropriate effort into managing their personal health.

Some of this will be down to the welfare state we live in, much more will be down to the fact that its only relatively recently that the vast majority of us have an abundant access to excessive amounts of food.

There is no simple answer, the only long term solution is education and a forced cultural change... until those who are morbidly eating themselves into an early grave are ostracized and help up as failing themselves and society, nothing will change.

Its not OK to drink yourself to death, its becoming increasingly unacceptable to smoke yourself to death, but for some reason, we all need to pussy foot around those eating themselves to death.

And final point... whilst its not without value to focus some attention on thin people hiding the damaging effects of a poor diet in their slender frames... i.e. its important for all of us... this is not the epidemic we are talking about here.

What the article said was that on its own exercise would not lead to a reduction in obesity in the general population. This to me seems to be perfectly reasonable as most people, even if they do "exercise", burn only a small number of calories (a 1 mile run uses approx 100 calories. They then overcompensate by eating too much.

The calories in vs calories out myth has now been well and truly busted. For those in doubt google Prof Tim Noakes or Gary Taubes for a complete demolition of this long-standing dogma. The answer to obesity lies in what you eat, not energy balance.

The article is factually true. You don't need to do any exercise to lose weight if you just eat less each day, less than the calories you burn each day - you will lose weight. However there are other factors to consider if you want to be fit and healthy. People in developing world countries with a poor food supply are smaller and thinner. When there is not enough food they starve and some times die. They are not obese. So the article is factually correct. What's all the fuss?

As for the food industry manipulating people, no shit Sherlock! And successive Governments who have all told us that fat is bad promoting foods with a high carb sugar rich content instead. This is a huge health scandal. And successive Governments who have done fuck all to provide a safe cycling infrastructure to allow people to cycle in safety whether they are fat or thin.

Although the premise that exercise has no bearing on obiesity is likely wrong (lets be honest, we all know its false), it is certainly the case that you can't eat nothing but junk food just cause you exercise loads as you will be storing up other longer term issues (and if there is even a slight drop in your exercise levels you weight will rocket).

Therefore I wonder if the disgraced article has a bit of a point, the trouble is they took it to the extent of saying that exercise doesn't matter, when clearly it does.