According to this study, 58% of the volunteers following exercise, but in 42% it showed no improvement or, in a few cases, may have got worse. In the study, 742 people from 213 families were put through a strict 20-week endurance training program. Exercise on stationary bikes was gradually increased so that by the last six weeks the volunteers were exercising for 50 minutes three times a week at 75% of the maximum output they were capable of before the study.

But I noticed the article doesn’t mention weight loss. Instead, it uses oxygen consumption, a measure of a person’s ability to perform work, as the barometer of success of the volunteers. The average increase in consumption was 17%. But the most trainable volunteers gained over 40%, and the least trainable showed no improvement at all.

I think this is an interesting study, but it raises questions in my mind: Did the volunteers lose weight, or at least gain stamina? Let’s say I volunteered and I was able to ride a bike twice as far as before, wouldn’t that be successful, even if my oxygen consumption remained the same? This study makes it sound like exercise is a bad choice for almost half the population, and I don’t think that’s valid. I think everyone can benefit from exercise, even if you don’t see dramatic improvements.