Exercise Machine Madness!

A recent study published by the American College of Sports Medicine warns people to beware of the marketing tactics exercise fitness companies use to sell their products.  One only has to look at any fitness facility and see the machines that are truly time tested as being easy to use and that produce results.  You will see that none of the machines seen on late night television infomercials are at health clubs because the claims they make are not always accurate.  Hit the jump for more …

4 claims that should be red flags when looking to purchase a piece of exercise equipment are: “Excessive  calorie burn”, “Fitness Fast”, “Fat Burning Zones”, and “Waist Reduction”.   These statements are very easy to make and for the lay-person those are the magic words they want to hear.   A machine that promises fast results, burns fat, is easy to use, AND trims belly fat! Where do I put my credit card, right?  In reality that is just not probable.   The truth in these statements is that true cardiovascular benefit and caloric expenditure is a simple equation that is becoming more of a staple thanks to televised weight loss shows.  Calories in < Calories out.  This equation of course means that there can be no “Fat Burning Zone” or “Spot Reduction”from these machines.  Any sort of exercise is going to deduct calories from your total net of calories for that day, and will contribute to TOTAL body weight loss and not just a decrease in mass (fat) on the area concentrated by the machine.  Use the analogy of depositing 4 different checks into your checking account at the bank, then making a withdrawal but only wanting the money to come from one particular check.  It can’t happen like that at the bank, and it doesn’t happen like that in your body.

Machines will all burn calories, don’t get me wrong.  That is why the fine print states at the bottom of the screen during the commercials; “Always follow a sensible diet and perform moderate exercise 5 times a week for at least 30 minutes.”  You can do ANY activity following those directions and get results!  That is the key though, that you actually have to use it for more than just to keep your carpet glued to the floor.

Another claim is that you work out at your “Fat burning zone.”  The thing is that your body will, by default burn primarily carbs until you get to about 20-30 minutes of exercise, after that amount of time your body will then switch to burning more fat instead of carbs.  This “zone” they are telling you about is the % of V02 Max that this occurs at, which is around 55-72%.  But to perform sustained activity for shorter durations at this rate will only burn carbohydrate stores and not the fat stores.  To perform a sustained activity for 40 minutes the pace you will naturally adapt to is right around the 55-72% of VO2 max, and these longer exercise bouts will be the ones that will burn the fat calories.   So the confusing part of all this is when you jump on the treadmill and punch in the “Fat Burn” workout but then only run/ walk for 10-15 minutes.  Are you really burning fat?  The answer is, no.

So the next time you are at the gym try to look for trends in the weight room and cardio room.  Try and find someone who looks moderately/ extremely fit and see if you can see how long they exercise for.  Maybe even ask them and pick their brain a little.  Chances are they are doing cardio for extended periods of time because they know that a quick little 10 minute cardio romp will not do them any good.   This is why to get a good cardio/ strength workout you can’t do it in 30 minutes.  Now if I can only convince my wife of this…:)

Consumers should exercise caution on fitness machine claims via ACSM

This entry was posted on 10. September 2009 at 13:29 and is filed under Exercise. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.