I'll just step in and rebutt... NOT true. The National Weight Loss Registry disproves that 3- 4 hours per day. I'd wager to guess that if you were doing 3- 4 hours a day trying to lose weight and couldn't, you may be overtraining, which would cause the body to retain your fat.... unless you're eating enough to cover all that extra work you're doing!
The National Weight Loss Registry shows that for people who've lost 60 pounds or more and kept it off for at least 5 years, they exercised 300 minutes per week of accumulated exercise. Additionally, the exercise was moderate to high intensity cardiovascular exercise. These people also participated in a weight training program and strictly monitored their diet:
http://www.drlenkravitz.com/Articles/winningtwo.html
Due to the overwhelming evidence of this study, new guidelines for eating were released- see the new food pyramid. Also, the American College of Sports Medicine significantly updated their guidelines, even for just being fit and healthy. It used to be "30 minutes, 3 days per week" just to be fit and healthy. Now, they say 30 minutes per day most days per week minimum just for being fit and healthy. For weight loss, the ACSM recommends 4.5 hours per week of moderate intensity, cardiovascular activity on a restricted calorie diet (reasonably restricted!!!!):
http://www.acsm.org/Content/ContentF...ING_IT_OFF.htm
Studies have supported the thought that doing more than 300 minutes of moderate intensity exercise does not result in losing any additional _fat_ loss over the long run.
I believe the studies.
koffee