Exercise Benefits: Weight Loss and Beyond

If exercise alone does not promote a substantial weight loss, why bother? For starters, when exercise is coupled with a reduced-calorie eating plan, it enhances weight loss. But the area where exercise appears to have its greatest impact is in weight maintenance. Exercise is a key strategy for keeping weight off. In fact, several studies have shown that regular physical activity is one of the best predictors of who will be able to maintain weight loss successfully. Exercise is essential to preventing lost pounds from reappearing.

Most people in the National Weight Control Registry are between the ages of forty-four and forty-nine, and about 20 percent are men. What’s fascinating to observe in this group of successful losers is that 89 percent of the participants used diet and physical activity together to lose weight, and 91 percent reported using extensive physical activity to keep the weight off. The average amount of energy they burned with exercise was 2,500 calories per week for women and 3,300 calories per week for men.

That is a very high level of physical activity and breaks down to doing about 60 to 90 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity (such as brisk walking, raking leaves, or bicycling on level ground) per day. If getting in 60 to 90 minutes of any type of physical activity every day sounds impossible, don’t throw in the exercise towel just yet. According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health, every little bit of exercise helps.

Numerous studies have found that 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity above and beyond one’s usual daily physical activity on most if not all days of the week provide a multitude of health benefits, such as a reduced risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, premature death, colon and breast cancer, and diabetes. It can also improve the health of muscles, bones, and joints. And studies are continuing to find that exercising regularly can reduce stress and improve mental health.

What’s even more motivating about the benefits of exercise is that the 30 minutes of physical activity don’t have to be done all at once. Physical activity can be accumulated over the course of the day in short bouts. For example, 10 minutes of brisk walking, 10 minutes of light gardening, and 10 minutes of raking leaves add up to 30 minutes of moderate physical activity and you reap the same health benefits as someone who exercised for 30 minutes all at once. Certainly the more anyone exercises, whether moderately or vigorously, the more calories are burned.

The key to exercising is finding activities that are enjoyable. Start with a goal of 30 minutes a day, gradually working up to it by taking a walk after dinner, climbing stairs instead of taking an elevator, or getting up to change the television channel rather than using the remote. Then find ways to increase the time, such as adding 10 minutes to a daily walk, taking an aerobics class, or golfing without a cart and carrying the clubs. The take-away message is that eventually exercise needs to be part of everyone’s weight-management plan, particularly after losing weight, so that the pounds will disappear for good.

FROM A WOMAN’S VIEWPOINT EXERCISE BENEFITS: WEIGHT LOSS AND BEYOND

When it comes to exercise, women certainly enjoy the physical results they achieve, such as getting more toned and dropping a pants size. But what really motivates many women to participate in regular physical activity is that they also enjoy the way exercise makes them feel. It’s not uncommon for a woman to say, “On days I don’t exercise, I feel crabby”or “I don’t feel good about myself unless I get a walk in every day.” Basically, the better a woman feels about exercise, the more likely she is to work out regularly.

A study conducted in 2006 found that when overweight women lost weight by following a behavioral weight-loss program (exercise and a diet that moderately restricted calorie intake), those with a weight loss of 10 percent or more reported feeling more confident about exercising and exercised more compared with women who engaged in lower levels of physical activity and lost less weight. Some women also feel good about exercising because rather than view it is as work, they see it as a social activity Tuesday is yoga with the girls, for example. Based on 2006 Weight Watchers research, women are far more likely than men to work out with a group of friends or take aerobics classes.

FROM A MAN’S VIEWPOINT EXERCISE BENEFITS: WEIGHT LOSS AND BEYOND

“No pain, no gain”is a mantra most men have heard somewhere in the course of growing up. While the “no gain” might apply to their weight, most men understand it more in terms of physical results, such as benching more reps or running more miles or showcasing six-pack abs. But it appears that men are starting to tune into the softer benefits of exercise as well.

A Stanford University study divided 264 overweight men and women into two groups: those participating in a diet-only weight-loss program and those in a diet-plus-exercise program. The goal was to evaluate the benefits exercise might provide. Compared with men in the diet-only group, men in the dietplus- exercise program reported feeling less hungry and were better able to follow the diet. The researchers found those results very encouraging, as the newfound benefits are predictive of sustained weight-loss success.