Why women are destined to be chubby
Image by www.WinningMan.com via Flickr
I’ll confess to being a fan of The Biggest Loser. I find the stories of the contestants and the way they can get many of their medical problems under control with exercise, nutrition, and weight loss inspiring. I also appreciate how the trainers emphasize the fact that what the contestants are going through is entirely unrealistic. No one, save for professional athletes, has the time to exercise four to six hours a day. Nor should they, as evidenced by the uptick in injuries featured on the show in recent seasons.
So I found this bit of news particularly discouraging, for both personal and professional reasons.
At least an hour of moderate activity a day is needed for older women at a healthy weight who arent dieting. For those who are already overweight — and thats most American women — even more exercise is called for to avoid gaining weight without eating less, the study results suggest.
via Older women need 1-hour workouts to fend off flab – Yahoo! News.
As someone with a strong family history of obesity and diabetes, I make it a point to wake up early and exercise most days. I watch what I eat. I encourage my patients to do the same. But many days, I just can’t. Take today, for example. I am a hopeless insomniac and could probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve slept through the night in the past ten years without at least one 30 minute interruption. Last night for reasons I can’t explain was an exception. I not only slept continuously, I had amazing dreams, the kind that leave you with an intense sense of well-being. My alarm went off at 4:45. I promptly turned it off. There was no way in hell I was going to let this go. I awoke an hour and a half later feeling better-rested than I had in years.
Aside from the very real need for a good solid sleep every now and then, as I’m bumping up against the big 4-0 I’m finding my body rebelling when I try to exercise for more than a few days in a row. I’ve tried cross-training, different stretches, even breaking up my workouts into small segments scattered throughout the day. It’s no use. In order to do any exercise, some days I need to do none at all.
Then there’s simply the time management issue. Part of the reason I moved to an area that most would consider the middle of nowhere is the beauty of the five-minute commute and the massive amount of time I freed up by doing so. I also work about 60 hours a week. I have three kids involved in soccer and piano lessons. I’m pretty active in other activities myself. I don’t have time to do much else. Although I do make it a priority to exercise, some days I literally do not have time. I can’t imagine what it’s like for those of you with longer commutes.
So let me be the first to say to my patients and all of the rest of you out there: if scientific research is saying that it’s going to take an hour of exercise a day to keep the weight off, I’m going to say it’s okay for you to be a little chubby. Not obese, mind you, but if you’re exercising regularly, eating a healthy diet and still struggling with an extra 5 or 10 pounds, don’t beat yourself up. While I don’t want to write off all of the other health benefits of regular exercise, for many women finding an hour a day, every single friggin’ day, to prevent weight gain is almost as unrealistic as the Biggest Loser campus.
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As Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” But like Orang Utans we share the capacity for long term memory allowing us, like them, to plan our food intake ahead of time. Take Japan, for example. I almost never see an overweight woman here from 15 to 70. They plan their eating scrupulously. They also work very long hours too but more surprisingly, they generally never exercise after finishing high school. The environs of Tokyo almost prohibit it. Gyms are expensive, few and far between.
So I’d take the excuse mongering of USA fitness experts with a pinch of salt… and a healthy diet. If you don’t buy it, you can’t eat it. Get out of the big box stores and hit your Asian food specialty store. Discover Konyaku, miso soup, tsukemono and… smaller portions.
I take my inspiration from real people, such as yourself, not fake TV shows. I’m glad to hear there are still people out there with genuine willpower. We should all be more like you.
And I have to agree with the commenter above — nothing does wonders for your health than smaller portions. More protein, less refined sugar; more fiber, less animal fat — they’re such no-brainers. (True, none of that will do for you what a pint of ice-cream does when you’re down, discouraged, fearful or just lonely. For the record, I’m none of these; but I do sympathize with people going through a rough patch.)
I could argue that metabolically, a good night’s sleep is far more important than exercise. But at the topic at hand, exercise is only part of the problem. Diet has much more of an effect on one’s fat accumulation than exercise.
I’m glad you picked out the Biggest Loser, because they perpetuate more fraudulent diet information than the American Heart Association. There have been reports that most if not close to all of the Biggest Loser contestants gain back their weight mainly because the diet they recommend (a semi-starvation high-exercise) has failure built in.
The problems with weight usually is highly-refined carbs, sugar, gluten, cow milk products, and non-real food. Exercise at best burns the excess blood sugar, but the problem with exercise is that it makes you hungry! And weight-training is much better for you than 10 hours of yoga, or running a marathon. And it’s funny, when I train, I find that I actually need LESS sleep than more. The body is strange that way.
Exercise is necessary to stay healthy, but it is indeed a difficult way to lose weight. It doesn’t really burn off that many extra calories, and in fact a lot of people will eat more after they exercise. The way to lose those extra pounds is eating less. Quite achievable, if not easy.
The older I get (I’m 47) the more of a struggle it is to keep weight off. It takes longer work outs and much more diligence in keeping a proper diet than ever to keep from gaining weight, let alone losing it. I work out 40 minutes a day during my lunch hour (we have a gym at work, I stick to the elliptical and/or treadmill) but still find it tough to keep fit.
My daughter is 20 years old. She weighs about 98 pounds (she’s only 5′2″). I keep telling her to not take her size for granted and tomaintain a healthy diet and exercise program because her metabolism won’t stay like that forever. Better to be fit all along than to reach your late 30s and realize your body is rebelling against you and you went into this war on the losing side.
I blogged this recently as well….I have been told to lose more than 10 pounds and am ready to slug my doctor with frustration — as I have also (an additional challenge) been slammed with repeated injury/surgery/recovery since May 2008 — every six months, something new has hit me just as I had healed from the last — that has kept me away from ANY vigorous and aerobic exercise for weeks or months at a time. When you lose 2 hours a DAY in physical therapy/travel three times a week (and your body is recovering as it is), subtracting from your limited time yet another full 60 minutes? Are you kidding me?
In the past month, due to another orthopedic issue (osteoarthritis) I have been ordered to rest…and I am heavier than ever as a result. It’s spring — I would prefer to be out walking and bike-riding. The frustration of all this is hard to overstate.
I do not spend my days consuming junk food, cream pies, chips. Once the weight is on — I gained 23 pounds in one year, (the year my mother had a brain tumor and I lost a month caring for her and I focused the rest of that year writing my first book) — it is extremely difficult to shed without enormous, consistent, daily, extraordinary willpower to eat very little and the willingness to walk around hungry for months.
Good luck with that.
Having quit smoking in 2001, within a year I had put on about 20 lbs. I was not happy. I had been overweight as a child and it took years for me to get to a comfortable weight. I was 34 when I quit smoking. I had read that just cutting out 150 calories a day could result in a weight loss of 10-15 lbs in a year.
So, I began keeping a food diary, and I started walking 2 miles every morning, and doing very light weight lifting every other day. Then I found the Healtfit Counter, which has over 4000 food items (including fast food)already programmed. Made the food diary much easier.
I also read that every year after about 30, our metabolism slows down at a rate of about 5 calories/day, which is why a lot of women wake up at 40, with no change in eating habits and have put on about 20 lbs. So, what I did, is every year since I started, put my goal calories at 5 calories less.
I’ve kept the weight off the past 6 years. If interested (I don’t own stock in this company, either, just love the product) you can get a Health Fit Counter here: http://healthfitcounter.com/
Hope this helps some of you!
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