When I was young my hulking Rugby playing dad slipped a disk while working as a nurse. He had to have surgery for it, the surgery went wrong and gave him nerve damage, and basically for a very long time it was painful for him to walk. Used as he was to a lot of exercise he found it hard to suddenly eat a lot less, and got pretty big, very quickly, which made it even more difficult for him to get around. Basically the only exercise he could enjoy was butterfly stroke swimming. He was prescribed a tens machine (for electrical stimulation of the muscles) to try and stop the muscle wastage in his legs but it didn’t work very well – an “exercise pill” could have helped a lot if it made him feel generally fitter, less top-heavy and helped him get mobile again.

Dad has been able to walk reasonably well for a few years, though with a heavy limp. However, he did decide to go through bariatric surgery about a year ago – says it worked well for him – as he despaired of being able to do all the exercise required to lose weight healthily, and would have to eat virtually nothing to lose much weight without exercise. If a drug that boosted his metabolism was available, he might have recovered more quickly and avoided surgery.

If it turned out to be safe and free of scary side-effects, I would take it to improve my performance. I ride horses, and they are always going to have an athletic advantage over me, especially since I have a really hard time increasing my cardio capacity regardless of how fit I get strength-wise. I’d love a little pill that could help me not be ten times as exhausted as my horse is at the end of a cross-country jumping course. You always see riders gasping for air as they slide off their horses at the finish line, while the horses are like “Hey, that was coooolllll, let’s do that again!” and it’s totally not fair. :)

I could go on. Seriousely, this has been blown WAY out of preportion.

But I think I would be too scared of some heart-weakening or cancer-causing side effect that wouldn’t be discovered until people had died.

I’d try it. But my Jack Russell and my Chihuahua/Lhasa Apso pup would NOT let me weasel out of the two jogs a day we require just to keep the pups from chewing holes through the plaster.

But I hate the actual act of exercising, in just about every form I’ve yet to encounter. Just hate it. No fun at all. Absolute torture. I wish I could have a different perception of it, but it is what it is to me.

Do they have a pill for that?

While the idea of being able to still “exercise” when injured, like I am now, is appealing, there is something about it that is just…wrong. Physical exercise does wonders for your body, mind and spirit and I would miss that if I stopped exercising.

Just one of those things that makes me go hmmmm….. :)

were it proved to be safe i think i’d try it since i have a number of chronic health issues that predispose me to putting on weight so a little bit of help to lose some is only fair… right?

a point that most of the media on the pill seems to missing is that the pill doesn’t exercise for you, rather it makes your exercise more effective. so even if you take the pill you still need to exercise… not just for the weight benefits but also for all the other benefits that the pill can’t provide (eg increased lung capacity, improved peripheral blood flow, lowered blood pressure, etc etc etc).

so, i guess i’m hoping that the pill is safe….

on a very happy and related note: I looked up different types of exercise for tracking purposes (just started Weight Watchers) and found out that SEX burns as many calories as water aerobics!!!!! I suggest screw the pill and …..well…….screw!