This is such a sad story.
To avoid breaking copyright rules, please click on the link to read the tragic story: http://dailyviews.runnersworld.com/2008/06/non-runner-dies.html
That really reads like something from the Onion. If it is really Runners World, I’m happy that I still don’t subscribe.
I’m one of the many the article cites as being among the two-thirds of the populace that are technically overweight according to the CDC. I’ll be running a marathon four months from yesterday.
That sounds more like a story from theonion.com … 
A short while ago, PBS did a series on taking a group of out-of-shape people and getting them up to a level where they could participate in a marathon (Boston?) = not to win or place, but just to make it all the way through. One of the things that sticks out in my little mind was when one of the sports physicians commented on one woman’s motivation for joining this series of programs: to lose weight. The doctor said that running was not the way to lose weight. Running will improve your breathing, your heart rate, your circulation, but if you want to lose weight, you’d be better off looking to dieting.
djm
I’ve lost at least 20lbs walking the PCT. I’m sure I’d lose a lot more if I ran it. Those last few 12,000ft mountain passes really did the trick. I have to order the biscuits and gravy and eat whole pizzas when I come to town to make up for the severe multi-thousand calorie a day deficit on the trail.
If you want to lose weight, you exert more energy than you ingest. To me the easiest way to do that is to do fun, active things.
The trick is not to reward yourself with food for exercising, which is the reason why exercise doesn’t work for some people.
Comment number 1 says it for me.
I’m fat and need to run, too. The only problem is that it makes me sweat, and that’s gross.
You’re a human, Jack. Sweating is what we do. It keeps us cool.
Ergo, if you do not sweat, you are not cool.
You can quote me on that.
If you think it’s gross, your mind has been taken over by the pharmaceutical companies who own the magazines you read.
Did you know that nipples are modified sweat glands, and in some sense milk is actually cow sweat? Ewww!
Many of us have a great respect for IB’s intellect.
Just try to take the complement rather than disprove the theory.
Running not only burns lots of calories, it suppresses
appetite. Also it motivates one to lose weight,
cause you run faster and more easily the
thinner you are.
My understanding is the body has these two modes:
it’s winter and we’re not doing much and the best thing
is to eat and get fat so as to survive.
It’s spring/summer and we’re going about gathering food,
which is plentiful, so as to store it for the winter.
The body wants to be lean, it’s not hungry, it’s
set to gather and store.
Running is a way to flip the body to the second mode.
Lots of steady aerobic exercise, less food, is the name
of the game, as Diane says. The good news is
that lots of aerobic exercise suppresses appetite.
Sitting around increases it.
gad zooks, I’m weird!
I’m just backwards 
Acorns, I collect a lot of acorns. I squirrel them away for the winter. If god wanted us to run she wouldn’t have invented bicycles or poorly designed knee joints 
Yes, this was my understanding, too. That’s why I found it striking for a health professional to say that of the two, diet versus exercise, dieting is more important if your goal is weight loss.
djm
Adding exercise alone increases muscle mass even as it decreases fat. Muscle is denser than fat; thus, you have a net weight gain.
You do become healthier, though–so I guess you have to look at what your goal really is.
–James
But they’re modified. And I didn’t feed my babies cow milk anyway.
I was just about to do a post about thinking in pictures in the “Earwax” thread but I’m very distracted now.
Slan,
D.
Sorry D…the hippie in me had to pop out and make a point there.
Please, carry on.
Apology accepted.
I’m still kinda distracted.and thinking in pictures though..
Slan,
D.
got somethin’ on earwax, eh?