Posted on: August 27, 2008
Pound Prevention
Maintaining weight loss means increasing your daily dose of exercise
By Genevieve Knapp
CTW Features
If you’re drinking eight glasses of water, eating one apple and exercising for 30 minutes every day, you might think you’re keeping the doctor away. The apple might be OK, but half an hour of cardio won’t cut it if you’re a woman trying to lose weight. Overweight women may need to exercise 55 minutes per day for five days a week to sustain weight loss, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.
Women enrolled in the two-year study consumed about 1,500 calories per day while burning 1,000 to 2,000 calories per week. After six months, they had lost 8 percent to 10 percent of their initial body weight. But two years later, most of the women only had sustained 5 percent loss.
“Among obese adults, long-term weight loss and prevention of weight regain have been less than desired,” the report says. “Therefore, there is a need for more effective interventions.”
Effective interventions mean more exercise. The women who successfully fought the pounds to maintain the original 10 percent loss performed a weekly average of 275 minutes of exercise.
“This clarifies the amount of physical activity that should be targeted for achieving and sustaining this magnitude of weight loss,” the report says. “But it also demonstrates the difficulty of sustaining this level of physical activity.” It might be harder to swallow than eight glasses of water.
