A  new study has concluded that exercise is not of much value when trying to lose weight, because most people compensate for the calorie burning activities  by eating more. PLoS ONE, the nonprofit Public Library of Science, published a Study that was run by Dr. Timothy Church, Professor of Health at LSU.  This study followed 464 overweight women who were trying to lose weight, some were involved in an exercise program, while others were not.  The study concluded that the women who worked out did not lose significantly more weight than the ones that did not,  and Dr. Church concluded that the reason for this was that the exercising women consumed more calories than the ones that did not. However, the headlines that this study has made on the internet kind of miss two really important points. The real point of exercise is fitness and health, weight loss may or may not be a side effect. What you eat and how much of it determines how much weight you lose. So while diet and exercise are important to your health, weight is only one component of this puzzle. The other important point is that exercise may allow you to consume those guilty pleasures that your enjoy so much WITHOUT gaining weight, and in that way add a dimension to the quality of your life. Kind of like having your cake and eating it too!