New study: Women must exercise daily to maintain weight
When it comes to exercise and weight, there have been plenty of studies devoted to the research of obesity. There have been far fewer however dedicated to understanding exactly how weight loss works. What about those of us who are at healthy weights and just want to be able to eat a normal diet without gaining? Even when following standard Canada Health or U.S. Department of Health and Human Services dietary recommendations, most people gain an average of 1.5 pounds per year between the ages of 25 and 55. Is this just an inevitable fact of life? If not, how can the gain be prevented?
A new study just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association set out to answer these very questions. Rather than focusing on obesity or weight gain, the study looked at over 34,000 healthy middle-aged women and examined how their weights changed over 13 years. None of the women in the study were instructed to get a certain amount of exercise or to maintain a certain diet. Lead study author Dr. I-Min Lee said, "We wanted to see in regular folks—people not on any particular diet—what level of physical activity do you need to prevent weight gain over time."
Study findings
The researchers classified the women into three categories: 1) those who got at least 150 minutes of exercise per week—roughly the amount recommended by most medical authorities; 2) women who were active between 150 and 420 minutes per week; and 3) women who were active for over 420 minutes per week, adding up to at least an hour per day.
The bad news is that, over the 13 years, women in all categories gained weight—an average of 5.7 pounds. However, only those in the most exercise-intensive category were able to keep a Body Mass Index of under 25—25 being the line between normal weight and overweight.
Interestingly, the two less active groups gained about the same amount of weight, which seems to suggest that those who exercise less than daily might as well just stay at 150 minutes weekly. But the more important conclusion is that daily exercise seems to have much more dramatically positive effects than exercise that is frequent but not daily.
Exercise recommendations
The practical implications of this study are clear. In the writers' own words, "Women successful in maintaining normal weight and gaining fewer than 2.3 kg [or about 5 pounds] over 13 years averaged approximately 60 minutes a day of moderate-intensity activity throughout the study." Thus, if you're a woman and you want to maintain your weight as you age, 60 minutes of daily exercise is crucial.
Of course, the problem is that 60 minutes of exercise every day can seem rather impractical to many people. Especially among those of us who have demanding careers. It's easy to allow exercise to be pushed aside in favor of responsibilities that we consider more important. But when you really think about it, is this really the best way to approach life? Since health is the basis of one's overall life success, shouldn't diet and exercise be treated as more important even than one's career?
In any case, no matter how busy you are, it is possible to prioritize exercising. Keep these tips in mind:
- Make daily appointments for exercise, and treat them as just as important as any other appointment.
- Exercise first thing in the morning so that you don't have to worry about it throughout the day.
- Recruit a partner for daily exercise.
- Exercise either close to home or close to work.
- Integrate exercise into your life—e.g., whenever possible, walk rather than drive.
- Set goals for exercise, and reward yourself when you reach them.