Midlife Weight gain in Women - Lack of Physical Exercise

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Findings:

Results varied depending upon the initial Body Mass Index of women.
Middle-aged or older women having a normal BMI were able to maintain their weights with 60 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per day.
For women who were already overweight or obese, physical activity did not reap similar results. Hence, dietary changes with caloric restriction become important.

Conclusion:
Doctors & dietitians have been recommending 30-45 minutes of moderate intensity physical exercise to most patients. This study points to the fact that this level is sufficient to reduce the risk of developing lifestyle diseases, but not to prevent midlife weight gain. This also means that women who are not able to put in an hour of physical activity everyday must restrict their calories. The study focused on women, but the same is probably applicable to men as well.

By Poonam Vaswani
Dietitian, NutritionVista.com

NutritionVista

User Comments

13 August, 2010 | Shrihari | Reply

Sorry I forgot to ask you .Is it only for women or the same principles apply to middle aged men too?
thanks

13 August, 2010 | Shrihari | Reply

How long can you go one increasing exercise or changing the regime? Besides because of hypertension and arthritis the exercises permitted are also of moderate intensity and age has slowed down metabolism? So do you have a solution?

06 July, 2010 | Sangeetha Narayana Swamy | Reply

AMA recommends 1/2 hour of aerobic exercise on most days of the week. Resistance training should be practiced every alternate day or can be alternated with upper body and lower body daily. Abdominal exercises are an exception and they can be worked daily.

The difficult part about beginning a physical activity is, BEGINNING it! Get a clearance from your physician, if you have been inactive for sometime. Seeing the fat melt away and having more defined muscles give a high that motivates us to sustain the exercise regimen. Those who exercise regularly have low levels of stress and feel that, they have more control on their lives.

Regards,
Sangeetha Narayana Swamy,
Senior Dietitian,
NutritionVista.com

01 June, 2010 | Kanika Jain | Reply

As aptly said by Poonam and Geetanjali, our body gets accustomed to exercise regimen followed by us. So its important to keep on changing or modifying our exercise pattern in terms of frequency, intensity, time and type of exercise being undertaken to achieve desired results especially by women in midlife.

One can find many post menopausal women in neighborhood parks blaming their hormone level changes associated with menopause as the sole cause of their weight gain or inability to lose weight, but, they need to understand that this is not necessarily only cause of weight gain during this stage of life. Incorrect diet, lack of physical activity or even inadequate physical activity (burning fewer calories than required) could also be reasons for this.

Kanika Jain
Dietitian
NutritionVista

12 April, 2010 | Geetanjali Kelkar | Reply

Many men and women in the middle age walk regularly for 30-45min to shed weight and remain fit. If the same exercise regimen is followed over and over again, body gets accustomed to it. Individuals experience no further improvement in stamina or loss of weight. Its essential to periodically review and modify the exercise regimen to get sure shot results

Geetanjali Kelkar, PhD
Dietitian online
Nutritionvista

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