Stop wasting your time. I exercise like crazy running, cycling you name it never lost an ounce. I did the 5:2 diet and it dropped off me, I'm a natural fatty and find this is the only way us rotund ones can fight the flab. I need to go on it again as I've put loads on again and this is with at least 350 miles a month cycling.
Exercise gets you fit but does not lose you weight.
Off course exercise causes fat metabolism, that is a scientific fact. Yes people can vary in ability but provided the conditions are correct you will lose fat mass.
Rather a crass comment but with some truth in it, someone once told me that 'there were no fat people in Belsen' were there?
Truth of the matter is that we eat too much and don't move around enough, in that order. Culprits other than ourselves of course are:
1. Cheap food.
2. Supermarkets.
3. Convenience foods / TV dinners made with all sorts of shyte.
4. Microwaves.
5. Fast food outlets
6. The demise of teaching Domestic Science in schools in the 80's.
There is no problem at all I am quite happy for it to continue as is, as the benefit to myself is great!
One aspect I consider to be right at the crux of the matter is the mindset we create in people these days. It's all very insular and self-satisfying, like a very light almost narcissistic cloud that encompasses the masses these days. This type of outlook, approach to life is not consummate to doing the right things in life IE looking after yourself etc etc. People are much less inclined to find-out what they need to do and look for others to do it for them/tell them or an easy route with little effort being required.
I would add to that those responsible for policing the labelling and advertising.
There are so many ways to hoodwink the consumer into thinking that they are buying something that is relatively healthy when really its crap with a misleading label.
Manufacturers try to hide sugar in any way they can, by calling it a different name (like corn syrup). Another trick is to state an unrealistic portion size and list the calories and sugar grams etc for that portion size, even though by eating a whole pot of the stuff you might have five of those "portions".
Most of those bastards have no interest in our health whatsoever and just use whatever means they can to get us to buy crap that isn't good for us.
Labelling needs to be toughened up. Will it? Unlikely.
The science is much further ahead than the information that is fed out to the masses. The issue is not sugar it is carbohydrates of which sugar or glucose is one, but they all become glucose once digested. As such many people avoid sugar, but still eat loads of carbs and so the problem doesn't really go away. People do not seem to understand what there body needs to survive and the majority base eating purely on taste and/or personal preference. They eat for pleasure first and practicality second. Whilst this is understandable your body is still a machine and a rather important one if you desire to lead a healthy normal life. So it needs the right nutrients, vitamins, macro-nutrients to perform well for your 80-90 year stint and to best your chances of a healthy long life. As such you would think that people would seek-out the information but alas it is rather like looking for a needle in the hay stack. The internet is full of sites that contain bollocks or very dated information but they are popular and people just take it as gospel or turn to another. As with most walks of life the big companies rule and they are not very ethical in their approach to weight loss as it's about profit and that doesn't correlate well with weight loss. Obviously you would think given the extent of the damage the western diet has done to our population (it extends much further than weight loss as carb's eaten in high quantities affect everything about your body in a negative manner) the governments would do something IE education, oversight, information etc etc, but they do not, most likely as we would eat/drink much less as a nation and that means less money. It's in theirs and the business/companies interests to keep you all misinformed and struggling to achieve your goals.