After five semesters of keeping food logs, analyzing said food logs, learning the structures of vitamins, experimenting with recipes, and only starting one fire in a chemistry lab they are prepared to allow me out in to "real" world armed with the knowledge they gave me.
Now on to the real reason for the update, the reason I can procrastinate a little more before I resume studying for finals, I have NEWS YOU CAN USE!
A study recently published by the Journal of American Medical Association suggests that being physically active as a young adult can help prevent weight gain in later years. Now this physical activity isn't the occasional, get it when I can, do it because my significant other is getting on my case about it. This is regular 150 minutes a week, which breaks down to 30 minutes 5 days a week, of moderate to vigorous exercise. This is already the amount of physical activity suggested by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Now you know why that guy is climbing the food guide pyramid.
So what counts as moderate and high physical activity? Moderate and high physical activity can be running, weight lifting, walking fast, and even housework. You read that right, recreating Risky Business while washing windows and vacuuming adds up. For my winter weather warriors, go ahead and count shoveling too.
Moderate and high exercise did not prevent all weight gain however; many participants in this 20 year study did gain weight. What was different was how much weight was gained and how much their midsection expanded. After making adjustments for how much participants ate and age, men who exercised regularly gained 5.7 pounds less than their little to non-exercising peers. As for the ladies, regular exercisers gained 13.4 pounds less than women who exercised less consistently. When it came to waistlines, exercising men gained 1.2 inches less per year and exercising women gained 1.5 inches less per year.
It should be noted that women had a much greater benefit from regular moderate to high exercise. This may be attributed to factors such as having children, menopause, or possibly cultural differences.
Starting up a regular moderate exercise routine now can set you up for prevailing in the battle of the bulge later. But just because you aren't in a regular exercise routine already, it doesn't mean all hope is lost. It is never too late to start being physically active on a regular basis. It does mean you may have to work a little harder at it. It is suggested that in order to maintain weight after weight loss, one needs to participate in moderate to high physical activity for 90 minutes most days of the week. Now let's take that number and multiply that by 5 (for how many days a week you would ideally be working out), which comes out to be 450 minutes per week.
Here are your options: 150 minutes a week now or 450 minutes a week later. And you thought exercise took too much time now.
