(CBS News) – If you’re hitting the gym every day but don’t see the numbers going down on the scale, you might be going about weight loss all wrong. New research says focusing solely on exercise is not the answer to losing weight.
In an editorial published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers say excess sugar and carbs — not physical inactivity — are primarily to blame for the growing obesity epidemic.
Researchers write that although regular exercise has many health benefits — reducing the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and some forms of cancer by 30 percent — it is our high caloric diets that lead to obesity.
“In the past 30 years, as obesity has rocketed, there has been little change in physical activity levels in the Western population,” they write. “This places the blame for our expanding waist lines directly on the type and amount of calories consumed.”