The myth of activity and calorie-burning

Have you noticed the overweight person in the gym who sweats it out three or four days a week on the treadmill, but never seems to get any thinner? The evidence of our own eyes goes against everything we’re told. The weight-loss dictum is that the more active we are, the more calories we burn, and if our calorie intake falls below our calorie expenditure, we will shed the pounds.

In fact, a lack of exercise has far more to do with obesity than the food we’re eating, a review by Stanford University School of Medicine has claimed. A national health survey that tracked Americans from 1988 to 2010 found a huge increase in rates of obesity and inactivity,