14 DAY TRIAL // They say women should expect to pack a few pounds after a certain age, with reports indicating that that weight is the hardest to shed. Not impossible, though, as a recent study cited by USA Today comes to show, since a single hour of moderate intensity physical activity is more than enough to help women maintain their figure.
The study focused on 34,000 healthy women over a period of 13 years. The average age at the start of the study was 54, and none of the women involved was on a diet or was trying to lose weight by any other means. Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston analyzed their daily activities and tracked the amount of exercise they did on a daily basis. Later, they were divided into three groups: the most active (at least 60 minutes a day of moderate-intensity physical activity), the moderately active (150 minutes a week) and the least active (less than 150 minutes a week).
“Overall, study participants gained an average of 6 pounds in that time. Those in the two less-active groups were much more likely to gain 5 pounds or more than the most active women. Overweight and obese women tended to be less active than the healthy-weight women, and overall their physical activity was insufficient to help them control their weight. 13% of women were ‘successful weight maintainers’— they started at a healthy weight and gained less than 5 pounds at any checkpoint during the 13 years. They consistently did about 60 minutes a day of moderate-intensity exercise,” USA Today says of the findings of the study.
“Min Lee, lead author of the study and an associate epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School [says] this is what it takes to maintain weight given our diets […]. It’s not clear whether these findings apply to men and younger women, she says. Walking was the most common activity of the women in the study, but if you do more vigorous activity such as running or jogging, 30 minutes is equal to 60 minutes of walking, she says. Other studies show physical activity can be accumulated in short bouts of at least 10 minutes each,” the same publication further informs.
There are countless ways to “upgrade” walking to truly become our best ally in the fight against the pounds, as we also noted on a previous occasion. Simple things like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, going to see a work colleague in person instead of sending him/her an e-mail or a chat message, walking to work are all means to increase the number of daily steps we take towards a slimmer, healthier self.