How much do you really need to exercise?

What if exercise really won’t make you thin?

That’s the intriguing premise behind this rather lengthy article from Time. It’s a good read, and my takeaways are as follows:

• It’s hard to lose weight. It’s hard to exercise. Diet and exercise together won’t make you thin (look at me!).
• Though losing weight and exercise is good for you, you can still be healthier at whatever weight you are.
• Exercise is important for your mental and physical well being, but working out like a maniac won’t miraculously cause you to lose weight and keep it off. You exercise for your overall health, not so you can look like Brangelina.
• Diet and exercise are an important component of health in general, and you have to find the right balance for you.
• Small steps in diet and exercise, consistently taken, can make you a healthier and happier person.
• The very definition of health itself is an individual choice — obviously, if you have a severe issue (400 lbs. overweight, heart disease, etc.) then you need to deal with it. But even with these major health problems, you can choose to be as healthy as you can.
• Health is on a sliding scale — kind of like sexuality. Few people are 100 percent of anything. So, few people are 100 percent healthy in every possible way. Everyone has areas to improve. And everyone can choose to take the steps to improve them to achieve an individual level of health that they are satisfied with on a personal basis.

What do you think? Do you crave a doughnut after a work out? Has exercise made you slim? Or just healthier?