I agree with Heather. I too am a recovering anorexic and I am now addicted to exercise. I don't exercise for 3hrs a day on most days but reading this article makes me feel compelled - it's as if what I do at the moment isn't enough. Someone can exercise for 1hr intensely and can burn more calories than someone who exercises for 3hrs. Although I know this to be the case, reading that up to 3hrs is not considered excessive could encourage others to exercise more because they don't see it as damaging to their health.

Excessive exercise should not be defined on the amount of hours someone exercises but how intensely, how often and how much damage it is causing both physically and psychologically

I was sorry to read that both of you were discouraged by the definition of excessive exercise in the article. I was one of the researchers involved in the study and I can affirm that we struggled with the definition as well. As is true for many online articles, this one did not specify additional details that we used to define excessive exercise, such as doing it inspite of serious illness or injury, distress if unable to exercise, exercising at inappropriate times, serious interference with other activities and the like. And as surprising as it sounds, had we not chosen the quantity of 3 hours or more along with the other indicators, almost all of the participants would have been categorized as exercising excessively! The entire sample consisted of individuals who were diagnosed with anorexia. I am glad to hear that both of you have realistic ideas of exercise now. Thank you for your comments.

It is very offensive that this information has an ad RIGHT BESIDE IT on "10 ways to lose belly fat".