Wouldn’t you know it? The very same day last week’s Move It Mama Monday came out, discussing research that indicates women need to exercise an hour every day to maintain a normal body weight, I saw another article in my local newspaper about how men need only exercise 30 minutes a day to lose their beer bellies. WTF?!!
I’m not sure what irritates me more – the fact that Tribune Newspapers can’t seem to agree on how much exercise a person needs to do to lose or maintain weight; or the fact that the two articles seem to imply two different standards of exercise for women and men.
Do men really only need to exercise 30 minutes a day, 3 or 4 days a week, to lose those extra pounds? That’s what the Tribune article seems to say…
So what’s the deal? I’m wondering if it’s just simply a matter that no one has yet been conducted similar research on men and weight loss as was done on women. Perhaps this is simply a case of one reporter looking at the latest findings published in JAMA while a second report writes up what’s been accepted as tried and true for the last decade or so. Or maybe women do need to work harder than men to lose weight?
I don’t know, but I sure wish someone would figure things out. It seems like every time I turn around, ever more conflicting information is published about healthy diet and weight. Between snack food and fast food industries that makes it too easy to eat your way to oblivion and a lack of definitive information on how to avoid such a morbid fate, it’s no wonder so many people are overweight in this country.
Again, all I can advise is to stay as active as you can, find activities you enjoy, get outside as often as possible, and eat as healthy as you can. Thought what’s healthy these days is anybody’s guess, it seems.
