Exercise alone is not enough.

According to recent research on the effects of exercise on weight loss, exercising extensively, when done alone, will not drastically reduce your weight

A 2009 British Journal of Sports Medicine study revealed that 26 of 58 overweight patients failed to achieve any weight-loss progress through exercise. Because physical activity did make them healthier in other ways, including blood pressure, resting heart rate and positive mood, "exercise should be encouraged and the emphasis on weight loss reduced," the report concluded.

The public at large hasn't gotten that memo. Dr. Steven Garner, the chairman of radiology at New York Methodist Hospital, would like to change that.

The idea that exercise is the key to weight loss "is a myth, and I don't know how it got started," he says. "Exercise makes you healthy in other ways, but people like to attach it to other things, like losing weight."

If we turned the clock back 30 years, Garner says, "about 20 percent of the population worked out, and about 20 percent were overweight. Now, 70 percent say they do some type of exercise – and two-thirds of the population is overweight or obese. It seems to have gone up identically with exercise."

Yet millions of people have looked to exercise as the answer for weight loss. Meeting with and devising a reasonable eating plan with a registered dietitian seems to be the golden ticket, when directly related to weight loss.

Sound too good to be true? It isn't, says Shefali Ajmera, a North Dallas registered dietitian and licensed nutritionist. She passes along a dirty little secret about losing weight: It doesn't have to be torture.

While she advocates physical activity three times a week, "I don't even like to call it exercise," Ajmera says. "It sounds like a punishment to get on a treadmill for 60 minutes, running, running, running. But just some kind of physical activity that moves your body – just dancing with your partner, gardening, climbing stairs or riding a bike, sounds more pleasant. A walk outside for 10, 15 minutes makes you feel good."

That's why she urges her clients to get the heart rate up – because it improves overall health and attitude. To fit into skinny jeans? Not as much.

"If you're going to the gym for one hour, how many calories are you burning?" she asks. "Probably 200, 300, or if you're working really hard, 400. If you eat a piece of brownie, that's 100 calories on in less than a minute. It's so easy to underestimate your calorie intake."

"That's why so many people say, 'Oh, my gosh, I've been working out for so long and not losing any weight,' " she adds. "Well, somebody didn't take a look at the diet."

In this restaurant-crazed, supersized society, Ajmera says, diet has to be looked at.

"When we eat out, we might take in 1,500 to 2,000 calories," she says. "To burn that many calories on a treadmill, you'd have to do 90 minutes every single day, seven days a week. It's not realistic."

More realistic: a happy medium with activity as well as with eating.

"A healthy diet doesn't mean no sweets, no sugar, no carbs, no soda, no fried foods," says Ajmera, who never restricts her clients from any certain food. "It's more about the balance."

Licensed nutritionist Eve Pearson-Rodgers, who also has worn a personal-trainer hat, tells her clients that people who try to lose weight with exercise alone have a 1 percent success rate.

The eating component doesn't have to be so horrible: "I think people try to make it harder than it is," says Pearson-Rodgers, echoing her colleagues. "People come in all the time and say, 'I'm a carboholic. I know I need to cut out carbs.' I'm like, 'No! Why do you feel that way?' You have to make something livable in order for it to be effective with weight loss."

If they come to her, she suggests alterations to diet that include timing of meals. Food choices and the times we eat can change metabolism in the same way exercise can, but with more frequency, she adds.

She admits that some trainers she's worked with "did not agree with this whole thought process."

Back in New York, Garner regularly breaks the news to his patients that toiling away at the gym may not get them the weight-loss results they want. How do they react?

"Most of them say they're really glad to hear it," he says. "It's so frustrating being overweight, so I think they feel good that they're not alone in this myth."

Still, "the take-home point is not to stop exercising, but to know why you're exercising. It's not the panacea for weight loss."

That's a good thing, Garner adds: "I don't think people should be killing themselves exercising. That leads to knee and hip injuries. They're better off walking for a couple of blocks."

They might also be better off if they simply enjoy life a little more. Garner points to a recent Loma Linda University study that suggests a good dose of humor has the same benefits as exercise.

"So laughter is just as good as a jog in the park," he says. "People might want to think about telling jokes."

Have an AWESOME day!

Fit-NOW-Girl