An article "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin", by John Cloud, published in Time magazine in August, sparked renewed debate on exercise and weight loss. His article examines whether a person can lose weight through exercise alone - and his conclusion is that you cannot. Without controlling what you eat, it is nigh impossible to lose weight just by burning calories through exercise. However, combined with a 'diet' of some sort, exercise is definitely a big contributor to successful weight loss. Here are 10 reasons you should include exercise as part of your weight loss program.

1. Exercise does burn calories - but probably not enough to cause the weight loss you will get from reducing your calorie intake from food. It takes a lot of exercise to burn off very few calories.

2. Exercise does increase your metabolism, and muscle uses more energy to maintain even when you're asleep.

3. Exercise helps to counteract the 'starvation' effect on your body that a reduced calorie diet often triggers.

4. Exercise can make you hungry and susceptible to cravings post-workout. This is particularly true of longer, more vigorous workouts, and some experts suggest that more frequent, low-level activity may be more beneficial for weight loss.

5. To lose 1 pound of fat a week, you would have to reduce your calorie intake by 500 calories a day. To do that with exercise alone is a lot more difficult than you would think - swimming laps for 1 hour, stationary rowing for 1 hour, or high impact aerobics for 1 hour will each burn 500 calories.

6. That said, it's a lot easier to lose weight and stick to a diet if exercise is helping to burn some of the calories.

7. Exercise has a lot of psychological benefits - you feel better about yourself, it's great for stress management and is even found to relieve depression and anxiety.

8. Exercise has been found to help with long-term maintenance of weight loss.

9. The overall health benefits of exercise cannot be overlooked - whether you're trying to lose weight or not, exercise helps reduce our risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, back pain and osteoporosis, among others.

10. Your social life can improve too! Even if you're just walking around the neighbourhood, in the gym, or at the local sports club, you'll meet new people and make new friends.

The article had a lot of people up in arms, many of whom seemed to miss the point. If you do not change your eating habits, it is extremely difficult to lose weight. The amount of exercise you need to do is not feasible. Combining some sort of healthy diet with exercise is still the best way to achieve a healthy lifestyle. The advantage of exercise is that lean and toned looks much better than flabby - no matter what size you are.