Exercise: It's an hour a day, people. Seriously.

That 30 minutes of daily exercise you think you’re supposed to do to keep weight off? You need to step it up, people. As much as twice that amount may be needed to lose weight and keep it off.

A recent study found that overweight and obese women needed to exercise about an hour a day, five days a week to sustain weight loss. The findings bolster what some health experts — and those who have lost weight and kept it off — have been saying for years: copious amounts of exercise and adherence to a strict diet are necessary to take off the pounds and keep them at bay.

The women who exercised more and stuck to their diets kept off a 10% weight loss over two years, compared with others who maintained only 5%. The report, which appeared in the July 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, studied 201 women during an intervention that spanned from 1999 to 2003. All the women were asked to consume 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day, and they were assigned to one of four groups: one that burned 1,000 calories a week, one that burned 2,000 calories a week, one that exercised moderately and one that exercised vigorously. Participants also attended group meetings where they learned how to change their diet and activity and received follow-up calls via telephone.

Six months later, all four groups had lost an average of 8% to 10% of their body weight. But it didn’t last. After two years, the average weight of all participants was only 5% lower than their initial weight, and there was no difference among the groups.

But some did better than average. About a quarter of the women who managed to sustain a 10% weight loss exercised more, adhered to better eating habits and engaged more often by phone with the intervention team. For them, exercise amounted to an average of expending 1,835 calories a week, or 275 minutes per week.

"This clarifies the amount of physical activity that should be targeted for achieving and sustaining this magnitude of weight loss, but also demonstrates the difficulty of sustaining this level of physical activity," wrote the authors (headed up by John Jakicic, director of the Physical Activity and Weight Management Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh), who also recommended further research to discover how to continue to motivate people to exercise.

-- Jeannine Stein

Photo credit: Robert Lachman / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Universal Diet]

People, let’s be realistic…one person in one hundred may be able to exercise one hour each day. What about the rest of us?

[dragonlady]

One hour a day is easy - you spend more than that getting ready in the morning and getting ready for bed! break it up to 30 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes at night and maybe a 15-20 minute walk at lunch? It's not hard - it's a lifestyle commitment. When you're in the car or sitting at your desk - you can do core exercises to strengthen your abdomen and support your lower back. Put down the soda - diet or regular/redbull/coffee pick me up, and get out and walk briskly down the hall and back. One step at a time!

[Kate Collingsworth]

This goes to prove, if a person of a normal weight can eat a standard moderate calorie diet and only exercise on occasion (which most normal weight people I know do), then there is in fact something different biologically and metabolically with many fat people. If a person must continue with a strict diet and copious amounts of exercise if they are to be of normal weight, and others do not, then there is absolutely a difference.

[J]

I had to exercise 2 hours a day in order to lose and maintain 170lbs. I believe that this artical has merit, because I have had this experience.

[Erin]

How discouraging to people who want to lose weight! i mean not only do they have to work hard to lose it but now they are saying you have to work even harder to keep it off!! i think it is sad that people who are considering wanting to get healthy and lose weight will read this article and feel like they are climbing a never ending mountain!
I personally don't believe in this study at all especially through my experience with diet and exercise.

[Wendy Bergonse]

Actually, I would say in most cases it is NOT biological/metabolical but environment (i.e. level of activity and what you consume). To me this is logical because of the fact that our country's general population is getting fatter and fatter with each generation since the introduction of fast food, etc., and our ancestors came from countries where the general population is normal weight or thin and where it's very rare to find an obese person.

[Ryan]

If you want to change your quality of life, sexlife, and energy you will find the time. Turn off the TV. engage in playing, just as you did as a child. You will find the exercise comes naturally when you play.

[Matt Bryant]

At 38 years of age, without sweets or junk food, it takes 30 minutes of exercise a day to maintain my weight. If I want to lose weight, it takes at least an hour.

[Kit]

Erin: It is hard work. We, as a society, throw such crap down our throats that there is little recourse than to continually have to work hard in order to maintain. Losing weight isn't a easily/quickly fixed problem. If we were to avoid even some of the pitfalls in the first place, we wouldn't have to lose the weight to begin with! It isn't discouraging unless you're looking for an excuse to be discouraged.

[Cat]

Put down the cheetos people!

[Kim]

It is true that you need to exercise a moderate amount (1 hour a day) to lose weight and develop a metabolism that can keep it off. That's not supposed to sound disheartening or a hassle. It's not a lot of time really. Stop being lazy people!

[Teee]

If you can spend hours shoving food down your mouth each day, you surely can exercise for just an hour a day. Don't let your mind defeat yourself. Don't let your tiny mouth determines the size of your waist.

[Joe Don]

It's easy to find an hour a day to sit in front of the tv watching a reality show. Or an hour a day to talk on your cell phone. Or a half hour a day to put on makeup and take it off again.

But an hour a day to do something healthy? COME ON, who has time for that?!?

[A]

I'm exercising over an hour each day. I leave my car at home and I ride my bike instead. My commute takes the same amount of time whether I drive or bike, and this way I don't have to set aside any extra time for a workout. I'm saving lots of money and it's a lot more fun than driving.

[Common Sense]

What? So you're telling me that if you excercise more and maintain a healthy diet you will lose more weight!? Get right out of town!

[Tony]

Kit: Perfect response! No matter how many excuses people come up with it all boils down to simple math. If you are not burning what you are consuming you are going to get fat … Period. This study is based on averages and, on average; people ingest some pretty nasty stuff. Again, if we all stick to the basics (eat well and exercise daily) and follow just a little self control there should not be any fatties.

[Matt]

Attention fat people: You can do it. It seems so hard, but it gets easier. Keep trying. Don't beat yourself up emotionally. Just keep working. Remember why you are doing it. Accept your fat self for who you are, but keep thinking about what you want to be. I believe in you! Start right now!

[Nicole]

Every study always says something different. I know plenty of people who exercise only 3 times a week but make sure that they hit they're target heart rate for 30 min. They watch what they eat and they have all kept the weight off. I do the same and I have kept my weight the same for a long time. I use things like Calorie King but am not obsessed either. Maybe if you have a medical condition that makes it more difficult for you to keep weight down you have to do more, but I am very skeptical of this ONE study.

[Sam]

But I like eating and being fat. So I'll die young, and you all can have the world. Mmmcheetos

[Kat]

I do have something metabolically wrong with me. It's called Insulin Resistance Syndrome. And I've lost weight now that I'm on medication. I of course loose even more weight when I exercise. But not all big people are eating cheetos.

I wish I could work out at the gym for an hour a day, but I just have too much to do in a single 24 period and not enough time.

[Matt T.]

Seriously, if you cut out the red meat*, excess salt, and sugar (while increasing fruits/veggies, poultry and fish), you will make it easier to lose/maintain weight. By not having to work off excess consumption, you work less!

I work out maybe 2 hours a week, and eat very healthy. I weigh less than 150 lbs and I'm 5'7" @ 22 yrs old. If you're trying to LOSE weight tho, you're best off exercising about 4-hours a week.

*I do have to have the OCCASIONAL steak ;)

[observer]

I can understand the "Eeeeewwww! It's like Soooooo hard. Don't discourage people!" comments. We live in an instant-gratification world, and many of us won't even attempt anything difficult. We manage crises, not seek challenges.

But really, a dose of reality should be a big help to anyone trying to permanently lower their weight. It's well-documented that the fad diets and supplements don't KEEP weight off, and those who fall for those empty promises are doomed to being fat.

The principles of losing weight are no mystery. Take in fewer calories than you burn. For every 3,500 calories more you burn, you will lose one pound.

The strategies are no more difficult than the math. Eat a nutritionally-sound diet, starting with a good, solid breakfast each morning to get your metabolism going. Don't snack. Limit junk food and desserts. Limit alcohol consumption. Do increasing levels of exercise, starting easy and gradually increasing. Lift some weights (muscle burns more calories than fat).

Don't expect results overnight. It took us years to pork up; it's going to take time to take it off. Think months and years, not days and weeks.

It's not easy to do, but anybody who is really committed to doing it can succeed.

[Brian]

Kit: Perfect response! No matter how many excuses people come up with it all boils down to simple math. If you are not burning what you are consuming you are going to get fat … Period. This study is based on averages and, on average; people ingest some pretty nasty stuff. Again, if we all stick to the basics (eat well and exercise daily) and follow just a little self control there should not be any fatties.

Couldn't have said it better Tony- PS: Stay away from any food ,,that comes in a box or bag. The "basic food" thing is so true. Also not to blow smoke, I work nights and I work out 5-7 days a week. Mix it up, make time for # 1 it's worth it

[J Sanders]

this seems only natural, in ages past, transportation was done by walking or horseback and labor was done by hand, and manpower.
The diet consisted of locally grown food without pesticides, much less refined sugar,
and no food in plastic, which adds more, estrogen causing prostrage cancer.

Excersice was part of every daily activity, if you look at pictures of people before the 40s and 50s, there is no obesity. I am in europe at the moment, and see no obese people over here.
Most people ride bikes or walk to work, or take some form of public transportation, and on weekends they spend with family, doing physical activity.
they have 6 weeks off per year, paid vacation,
which lowers stress. High stress creates cortisol which adds belly fat in men, which causes heart disease.
America goes everywhere by car, and gets almost no physical activity on most jobs.

Obesity is only a symptom of a world addicted to oil, and unstustainable energy,
We need to look at the whole picture and connect the dots.

[observer]

The advice to exercise at a level which keeps your heart rate within the target range for 20-30 minutes three times a week is great advice -- for cardiac fitness. It is nowhere near what is required for weight loss. Different problem - different solution needed.

Weight loss is much harder than cardiac fitness. It's an order of magnitude different -- like doing a little jogging vs. running a marathon (really running, not a six-hour walk!) . Permanent weight reduction is much more difficult and requires much more of a total-body approach than just keeping your heart healthy.