Midlife Weight gain in Women - Lack of Physical Exercise

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Current guidelines for physical activity
In order to promote & maintain health, the American College of Sports Medicine & American Heart Association guidelines for adults between 18 and 65 years of age recommend 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise on 5 days a week or vigorous exercise for 20 minutes on 3 days of the week.

In addition, they recommend 8- 10 strength-training exercises, 8- 12 repetitions of each exercise, twice a week. But, the big question is, does this level of physical acti vity help to get rid of mid life weight gain, or even maintain weight in a woman with normal body mass index?

"There is plenty of research on treating overweight and obesity - that is looking at strategies for weight loss among overweight or obese persons, but very little research on preventing weight gain in the first place. Most overweight and obese persons who lose weight do not successfully maintain their weight loss over time, and so, from a public health perspective, preventing that initial weight gain is important," said I-Min Lee, an associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), epidemiologist in the Division of Preventive Medicine, and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

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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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