Sit-ups, push-ups, treadmill, elliptical; you may have even watched all those aerobics DVDs and taken a boot camp class or two. And still, your weight stays the same. So why is it that we still obsess over the idea of exercise? Are we just sweating out our energy, time and money for nothing?

A recent article published on Canada.com highlighted this confusing exercise debate. According to Eric Ravussin, director of the Nutrition Obesity Research Centre (Pennington Biomedical Centre, Baton Rouge), the amount of exercise that would make even a dent in weight loss is more than what most people are capable of, especially when one considers obese individuals. He pointed out that even if the benefits of exercise are numerous (better cardio, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, among others), it’s just not the best way to beat obesity because of two reasons: First, this group hates exercising, and second, one would need to exercise a whole lot to burn the calories he or she takes in anyway.

Other experts disagree of course. Dr. Robert Ross, a Queen’s University physiologist, says that we should consider the type of fat that exercise can help reduce – “visceral fat” (i.e., the more dangerous kind of fat that wraps around the liver and other organs). “Exercise mobilizes more fat from the abdominal region… you get none of that if you just calorically restrict.”

Which leaves overweight and obese Canadians (a whopping 61% of us!) confused. To exercise or not to exercise? That is the question. The answer?

Balance.

If you don’t exercise, reduce your calories. If you do exercise, don’t overcompensate for the calories you just burned (which a lot of people mistakenly do). As Montreal surgeon, Nicholas Christou says, “If you run a [42 kilometre] marathon, you’ll burn 3,000 calories… one can easily eat that in a sit-down meal in a good restaurant. Easily.”

Basically, allow yourself to move and reap the benefits of exercise. But as Christou concludes, “The key is calorie reduction. Exercise is icing on the cake.”

Just don’t eat a whole cake afterward, of course.