Exercise – Page 5 – Andrea Arthur Owan

How Do Genes and Gut Bacteria Affect Weight Loss?

My ninety-seven year old mother is decidedly opinionated about seriously overweight people.

“How can they let themselves get like that?” she laments while shaking her head and cruising along with her walker.

Sounds terribly judgmental, doesn’t it?

Yet scientists are proving there is an undercurrent of truth to that sentiment. A strong undercurrent.

Research indicates that the majority of the obese people in our country—40% of us fall into that category—didn’t get there by having bad or “fat genes.” On the contrary, evidently genes account for only 3% of the differences in people’s sizes.

Most overweight strugglers got that way for a variety of other reasons than genes:

Learning how to and eating the wrong foods. (Family habits.)
Learning how to and eating too much food. (Family habits.)
Not exercising enough.

And now scientists know other variables play into the problem. Things like:

Not enough sleep.
Too much stress.
Wrong kind of stress.
Socioeconomic status.
Mental health.
Daily responsibilities at work and home.
The health of your microbiome—your gut bacteria.
Kitchen smarts and comfort—knowing how to cook and being comfortable preparing meals.

And I would add another variable:

Spiritual health.

So the verdict is in:

Experts agree that genes alone do not explain the rapid rise in obesity we’re seeing today.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientist, Kevin Hall, laments the fact that scientists still don’t know why weight loss can vary so much from person-to-person when they’re all on the same diet. He says it’s the biggest open question in the field.

What if you do have a “fat gene”?

It might seem easy to fall back on the knowledge of having a “fat gene” as a good excuse for not being able to lose and maintain a healthy weight. But John Mathers, a professor of human nutrition at Newcastle University in England sites a study of 9,000 people that found that being a fat gene carrier had no influence on that person’s ability to lose weight. Mathers says,

“Carrying the high-risk form of the gene makes you more likely to be a bit heavier, but it shouldn’t prevent you from losing weight”

(Sifferlin, Alexandra. “Why Your Diet Isn’t Working and What to do What It” The Science of Weight Loss: Special Time Edition, 2019; page 16).

What about that microbiome—the gut bacteria?

Researchers for the Personalized Nutrition Project at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have been studying how gut bacteria may play a role in weight loss and maintenance. Their researchis fascinating.

In a nutshell, they found that blood sugar levels vary widely among people after they ate the exact same meal. That finding alone debunks the common and popular idea of everyone responding identically to the same diet recommendations.

And they were able to go further. They developed a mathematical algorithm for every person involved in the test trial, and that algorithm can accurately predict that person’s blood sugar response to a specific food just on the basis of their personal microbiome!

Knowing that could be the next frontier in weight loss prescription—your doctor being able to design a tailor-made diet plan, just for you and your body!

Another big contributor to weight gain and weight loss struggles are…

Chemicals.

Yup. Chemicals we’re exposed to in our daily lives. Chemicals like:

BPA found in canned goods lining
Cash-register receipts
Flame retardant material in sofas and mattresses and children’s clothing
Pesticide residue on our food
Phthalates in plastics (think water bottles and food storage containers) and the makeup we wear

What’s wrong with these chemicals and how do they factor into obesity?

These chemicals are able to mimic human hormones. And that leads scientists to believe they can, and are, wreaking havoc on our endocrine systems. They’ve been found in human breast milk. And some doctors believe it’s what contributing to children experiencing puberty at younger ages.

Some doctors are going so far as placing this chemical-endocrine danger as the third lynch pin—along with poor diet and lack of exercise—in the trilogy of weight loss obstructers and obesity epidemic contributors.

Case Study—

I’d like to pin my current overweightness (not yet in the obese category) on a lot of things, including my slowing hormones. But when I take an honest look at my current lifestyle, it’s a far cry from what it was even two years ago, when I exercised regularly and paid closer attention to what I ate.

Although I’m eating healthier now than I did then, I’m eating more and burning off less. I had started sitting at my computer too much and stopped going to the gym regularly, all while continuing to consume the same number of calories I did when much more active.

I’d like to blame it on my slowing hormones, too, but first I’m ramping up my exercise again, before rushing off to my doctor for a thyroid test. I want to see if increasing my muscle mass will improve my metabolism to a point where the weight loss is regular and a healthy weight obtainable and manageable.

And because I’m getting older, I know my daily calorie requirements are dropping, so I need to take an honest look at what I’m packing in and when. And I’ve been accumulating sleep data, courtesy of the cool fit watch my younger son gave me for Christmas. From that I’ve determined I do best with 8 ½ hours of sleep. And, surprisingly, I seem to get more and better sleep when I go to bed later and rise a little later than an early bird.

Maybe that’s how my clock is wired, to be a night owl, even though I do on occasion enjoy waking up early enough to see the sunrise. Maybe not on a regular basis, though. So, I adjust to my personal biorhythms. Thankfully, I can do that since I’m self-employed. My poor husband—who definitely leans toward night owlness—doesn’t have that luxury.

Another thing that helps me immensely in getting adequate, restful sleep is shutting down all of the tech appliances well before bedtime. An hour is best, but I’m aiming for longer time between computer/phone/tablet and lights out. I find my sleep switch starts kicking in earlier and gradually ramps up the melatonin production in preparation for bed.

And one last thing I watch is how much food I eat for dinner and what time my last meal is. If my last meal is at 3-4 hours prior to bedtime, I sleep better. And if I consume my last glass of water 3 hours before going to bed, I’m less likely to be awakened by bladder pressure screaming its needs in the middle of a good dream!

As the long-living Seventh Day Adventists say, “Eat like a king at breakfast, a prince at lunch, and a pauper for dinner. It’s great advice!

NEXT WEEK, we’ll take a closer look at this Keto diet craze and the benefits of food restriction or fasting a couple of days a week.

Until then, take heart! You don’t have to be stuck in your unhealthy weight mode. Perseverance and consistency can get you where you want to be—healthy!

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

How to Maximize Weight Loss Success

What would you say the distinguishing factor is between your ability to lose weight and successfully keeping it off?

Genes? Family food heritage? Type of diet? Amount of exercise?

Well, according to the researchers at the National Weight Loss Registry (NWLR), the answer is…

Motivation.

Yup. It’s not genes or family food heritage or just exercise or the type of diet. It’s sheer motivation. Hard work.

And another important factor the researchers have learned?

That no 2 people lose weight the same way!

So what does that last finding have to do with you?

It means that in order to lose weight and successfully keep it off, you need to play around with ANY diet and exercise plan you follow, to see what works and what doesn’t.

Some of the things you can play with as variables:

Times of day you eat.
Amount of food you eat at one meal.
The times of day you exercise.
The types of exercise you engage in.
What food you actually eat.

Other things to keep in mind while designing a health and fitness program:

Understand yourself and where you personally struggle.
Don’t be discouraged if you need to try several different plans or programs before hitting on what’s right for you.
It may take about a month for a new habit or lifestyle to take hold. Keep at it and eventually the brain—and body—will respond.
Trying to lose weight can seem overwhelming. Having an accountability partner or motivating fitness coach can help.
Aiming for a health lifestyle change rather than just a weight scale number will provide you the most success.
Slow and steady, rather than fast and dangerous, wins the prize!
Write down all meals and food eaten throughout your day.
You may find eating more frequent, smaller meals is best.
When selecting an exercise program, choose to do something you love. You’ll be more likely to stick with it.
Don’t allow yourself to be pigeonholed into a specific diet.
Be determined to persevere and push through the tough days.
If at first you don’t succeed, then try, try again!
Remember, as you age, you’ll likely need to tweak your diet and exercise program again as your flexibility, metabolism and muscle mass change.
And in some cases, mental health must be addressed and successfully managed before you can find dieting success.

Some specific weight loss success tips:

Pay attention to your portion sizes. Most of us eat way too many monster meals, especially at restaurants or all-you-can-eat buffets.
If necessary, purchase smaller plates and fill them up. It will give you the impression you’re eating more.
Sit down to eat and slow down to eat. It takes a while (about 15-20 minutes) for your brain to get the notice that you’re full. Scarfing food usually means too much food intake. And then that stuffed feeling.
Don’t allow yourself to eat on the run, in the car, or while standing in the kitchen.
Keep a food journal. In it keep track of everything you eat and how you feel after eating it, even into the next day. If you do that for 30 days, you’ll start getting an idea about what foods may be causing you problems, from allergies to bloating to indigestion and sluggishness.
Also keep track of your food-eating triggers, like stress, lack of sleep, late night eating, etc.

Moving forward—

Losing weight can, and does, change your life!

If you’re already on a diet plan and haven’t seen much success with it in, say, a month, try tweaking it a bit. Change the food portions; change the time of day you eat the prescribed meals. Exercise more; sit less. And make sure you’re getting enough replenishing water. Believe it or not, many times we think we’re hungry when it’s really our thirst mechanism kicking in. First take a drink and then wait to see if the hunger pangs continue.

Understanding and taking into account all of these factors is known as the “whole body approach” to health and fitness. It’s not a one-size-fits-all undertaking. You’re unique, and you need a unique—or tweaked—health and fitness plan!

NEXT WEEK, we’ll talk a little about the genetic factor, and the newest research on the importance of healthy gut bacteria. Can anyone say “probiotics?”

Until then, don’t throw in the towel. Keep at it until you find your sweet spot. Your health will appreciate you for it!

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

Is Exercising More or Reducing Calories the Answer to Successful Weight Management? What You Need to Know About the Science of Weight Loss

Which of these statements have you heard?

“To lose weight, all you need to do is eat less and exercise more!”

“Losing weight is all about calories in and calories out.”

“All calories are the same—a calorie is a calorie is a calorie.”

For years this is what we were taught in nutrition and exercise physiology classes, and it’s what we told our patients.

Recent research is showing that these statements don’t paint the whole, complex weight loss picture. But before we dig deeper into what we’re learning now, let’s get an overview of the ugly reality of weight and fatness in the United States.

The discouraging facts—

In 1990, 15% of adults were classified as obese.
Now, at least 71% of Americans are considered to be overweight; nearly 40% are clinically obese.
Sadder still is that 17% of kids and teens are obese. When I was a kid it was rare to have a fat kid in your class. (I know that blunt statement sounds mean, but we need to start calling it like it is: these kids are in serious danger of having premature health problems and living burdened lives saddled with chronic health issues.)
Excess body fat dramatically increases the risk of serious health problems, like:

Type II Diabetes
Heart Disease
Depression
Respiratory problems
Major cancers
Fertility problems

Millions and millions and millions of us spend billions on diet pills, special meal plans and group weight loss programs, and gym memberships.
The National Institute of Health considers the problem to be so dire that the organization provided 931 million dollars in 2018 to research the problem.

What does the recent research show?

So what has all of that money and research shown us? The answer is both complex, and a relief.

Scientists have concluded that a calorie is not always a calorie, and that it’s not as easy as calories in and calories out.

What they have found is: it’s the composition of the food you eat rather than how much of it you can burn off exercising that allows you to sustain, and maintain, weight loss.

And these scientists know something else: the diet that’s best for your friend is probably NOT the best one for you!

Evidently people’s individual responses to diets vary enormously. But what they’re not absolutely sure about is why that’s true.

So what’s a dieter to do?

Apply yourself to finding out what works for you! And that may require some trial-and-error time.

A story of the dreaded calorie and counting it—

Before WWI, scientists throughout Europe had been focusing on and studying the concept of a calorie being a unit of energy. In college, that concept was hammered into my head, and into my nutrition calculations. We studied bomb calorimeters— wonderful devices you put food into and burned so you could determine just how much energy was released during the destruction process. That gave you the calorie count for that particular food item.

But in WWI, in the midst of a global food shortage, the United States wanted a way to prompt people to reduce their food intake. So the government devised its first-ever “scientific diet” for Americans to follow. At its core was the concept and practice of counting calories.

The following decades saw bone-thin bodies as the ideal body structure, so dieting plans were developed along the idea of eating low-calorie meals. One example of this is the still–popular grapefruit diet, where you consume half a grapefruit at every meal. People believed the grapefruit enzymes were natural fat burners. Then the cabbage-soup-every-day diet appeared. I’m not sure what they thought the cabbage might contribute, except to enhance digestion and whisk the fat away.

Then in the 1960s, a woman named Jean Nidetch and her co-founders became insta-millionaires with their Weight Watchers meetings program. She turned a small, weekly encouragement meeting she held in her living room into a billion dollar (today) business.

Her idea promoted that if you ate less fattening food, then the weight would disappear. That helped propel the late 70s idea that if you just eat less fat, you’ll be less fat. I remember promoting that erroneous idea in the 80s. Based on what I’d learned in school, it seemed to make sense—fat gets stored in the body as fat, so if you consume less of it, then you should wear less of it.

How did that work out?

Not well. Not only did people not lose weight, they actually gained weight!

The metabolism factor—

Something else scientists have found contributes to what’s been a frustrating mystery.

When you lose weight, your resting metabolism (the energy your body burns while at rest, just to keep the system going) actually slows down. And when you gain back some of the weight, that metabolism doesn’t speed up. It remains stubbornly entrenched in slow mode. And the number of calories a day it doesn’t burn can be startlingly high.

For some contestants on the reality show The Biggest Loser, their metabolisms registered at burning around 700 fewer calories per day than they did prior to their fat burning journey on the show!

But my question is: could that result be due to the fact that contestants lost a huge amount of weight in a very short period of time, something doctors do not encourage, for a variety of reasons, including heart health.

Regardless of the answer, the sad truth is that most people replenish their lost weight at two to four pounds per year.

On the surface, this finding seems to support the idea that the body undermines your efforts to take away what it wants to keep.

More of the weight loss story—

Some people—and you probably know one—seem to succeed in losing weight with any diet approach.

Yet there is a bright side to the story.

Take a group of people eating a low-carb diet and compare them to a group following a low-fat plan, and you see almost no overall difference in the weight loss results.

What you do see, however, are three types of people: those who lose a lot of weight on the plan they’re following; those that stay stagnant, with no weight loss; and those that actually gain weight.

Do scientists understand why that happens? Unfortunately, not yet, but they are making inroads to cracking the secret.

Rena Wong, a Brown University professor of psychiatry and human behavior has been tracking dieters for 23 years through the National Weight Loss Control Registry (NWCR). What she and her colleagues have found is that most of the people on the list have lost significant amounts of weight—a minimum of 30 pounds—and been able to keep it off for several years by varying means.

The significant finding? Most of these people had to try more than one diet before landing one that worked for them.

How did these dieters keep their lost weight off?

It turns out that the most successful dieters have some similar characteristics:

Most modified their diet in some way.
Most reduced how much food they ate in a day.
94% increased their physical activity.
The most popular exercise among them was walking.
Most ate breakfast on a daily basis.
Most weigh themselves weekly, in order to keep an eye on weight creep.
Most watch less than 10 hours of television weekly.
Most exercise a minimum of an hour every day.

And they also have similar attitudes and behaviors:

Most do not consider themselves to be hard-charging, super-performer Type A’s.
Most are self-described morning people.
Most were motivated by a health scare; a desire to live a longer, healthier life; and to be able to spend more time with their loved ones.
And they were highly motivated to find what worked for them and to persevere.

Take-home lessons for us:

This information can be disheartening and encouraging.

It tells us that we can lose weight, if we diligently try to find the method that works for us, stay determined and positive, and persevere in best diet practices for our body, at any age.

It’s nice to know that there’s more to the story. It gives many of us a sense of relief and re-invigoration of determination and hope.

And I think it’s important for us to always remember that a loving God fearfully and wonderfully makes all of us. He starts knitting us together in our mother’s womb.

I know only too well how easy it is to throw up your hands in frustration when the one-size-fits-all plan fails you. But I invite you to rejoice over your uniqueness, knowing that you will find something that gives you success, if you want it badly enough and are willing to stick with it.

NEXT WEEK: How to find what diet and exercise regimen works for you.

Until then, take heart, you can find success if you know the science of weight loss!

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

For more information on this particular research, see the article “Why Tour Diet Isn’t Working and What to Do About It by Alexandra Sifferlin in Time magazine’s special edition publication The Science of Weight Loss, 2019.

The Science of Weight Loss: Rethinking Your Dieting Programs

Did you see the recent news report about the famous Keto diet, which is the big diet craze right now. While some extol its virtues, others claim it’s dangerous.

So what and who should you believe when it comes to healthful eating and lifestyle?

While anecdotal evidence can be helpful, it’s best to follow what the current research says, as long as the research you’re reading isn’t funded by special interest groups or the chemical or food companies promoting the food or protocol. (Beware, some information you find on “reliable” sites is also tainted by big money.)

So what are the recent findings?

Like a breath of fresh air, the recent findings are…(drum roll, please)…

ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL!!

Hallelujah!! The research is validating what most of us have known all along.

Everyone is different, and my diet plan may not look like yours. And it probably shouldn’t.

What the recent findings tell us about diet and exercise—

A Time magazine Special Edition* supplement (2019) reports the U.S. weight loss industry to be 66 billion dollars annually. No wonder marketers push so hard for us to buy their new programs!

Some of the ways Americans try to lose weight are through:

Coordinated diet programs (Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, etc.)
Bariatric surgery
Week or more of expensive stays
Calorie and step-tracking apps
Fad diets (they list Paleo and keto in this category)
General high protein diets, like South Beach, etc.
Vegan

And yet, with all of these diet choices and dollars spent, more than 70% of Americans still tip the scales into the overweight or obese range.

And that’s a problem health-wise and finance-wise, for all of us. Why? Because more than 70 illnesses—like heart disease, Type II diabetes, and some cancers—area the “direct result” of being too fat!

But shouldn’t losing weight be easy, simply a matter of burning off more calories than you take in?

You would think so, and that’s why I was taught several decades ago. In fact, until just recently, that was the belief. Now scientists agree that isn’t the case. Losing weight, and keeping it off, is hard.

And anyone who has tried to lose weight knows it isn’t true. And 80% of us dieters are aware of another discouraging truth: we’ll regain all of the weight we lost and probably a few pounds more in two years. That sad fact is a finding of a UCLA review of 30 studies on the matter.

As Louis Aronne, director for the Center for Weight Management and Metabolic Clinical Research at Weill-Cornell Medical College says,

“Obesity is a real disease, with real physiological consequences: when you gain weight, the nerves in your hypothalamus that conduct signals from your fat cells to the rest of your brain become damaged. As a result, your brain doesn’t realize that you’re full, so you keep eating.”

If that’s the case, any over-fat person would probably need to stop eating before you get to a point of satiation or fullness.

In short, you probably need to religiously count calories so you don’t risk overeating!

But isn’t a calorie a calorie?

That’s what I was taught in college, and that belief held for years in the scientific community. Now we know that’s not the case. The body handles and digests food differently depending upon the food’s chemical make-up.

One thing I learned 30+ years ago that still holds true, however, is that when you lose an extreme amount of weight—defined as 10% or more of your body weight—your body starts preserving energy by switching specific hormone productions and sending your body into starvation mode. Result? You’ll be walking around feeling constantly famished.

Is that what it comes down to, though, always feeling hungry? Some researchers say yes, while others say there is a better way.

What about exercise?

When trying to lose weight, we can’t avoid exercise. It’s is a key component of the weight loss puzzle. But what type is best, aerobics or resistance training?

That answer hasn’t changed in some time.

For optimal health and successful weight loss that you can maintain, you need both.

While aerobic exercise increases the number of calories you burn off, resistance exercise improves your metabolism or metabolic rate. And a higher metabolic rate means your body burns more calories even when you’re in a relaxed state. You could say you “burn hotter.” You get more bang for the buck.

As my son would say, “Sweet!”

So what should your overall goal be for good health?

Scientists and doctors say your focus should be an improvement in overall health, not just an aim for a number on a scale, or weight poundage pumped in the gym.

But don’t despair! Researchers do know from their findings that It doesn’t really matter whether you’re on a low-fat or low-carb diet, because the end result for both types of eaters is the same amount of lost weight! That’s the opinion of Caroline Apovian, a weight-loss specialist at the Boston University School of Medicine. She’s also president of the Obesity Society.

Hallie Levine, the author of the chapter “What a Healthy Diet Looks Like” in the Time supplement also quotes Apovian as saying,

“I usually encourage patients to eat as much protein, fruits and non-starchy vegetables as they want, while restricting starch intake to one or two servings a day.”

Why is that? It’s because protein is essential to growth and healing and muscle mass building. That’s important because it’s the muscle that’s primarily responsible for your metabolism level.

Another critical take-home message is that

a lower carb diet (30% or calories from protein and the remainder from low-glycemic foods—the kind that cause your blood sugar to rise quickly) is much easier to stick to because it’s less likely to trigger those nagging hunger pangs.

So what would fall into the low-glycemic column? That would be foods like:

non-starchy vegetables, like carrots, peas, sweet potatoes
nuts
beans/legumes, like garbanzo beans, white beans, black-eyed peas and lentils
some fruits (Beware: many fruits will spike quickly your blood sugar! And fruit juice almost always will.)
eggs, dairy, meat, fish and fish oils

(For more in-depth information on low-glycemic foods, see the American Diabetes Association website.

And the Time article mentioned one more important fact:

When you do have carbs on your plate, try to eat them last.

Eating this way, rather than chowing down all of the hot bread the server delivers to your table to keep you occupied before the meal arrives, helps keeps your blood sugar down and those all-important insulin levels low

So you could eat your bread, if you eat it for dessert!

So how much weight loss is enough?

Evidently losing just 5% – 10% of your body weight results in positive health gains. Your risk for diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease can drop. And that’s great news!

So maybe before we make grandiose plans to whittle our tummies and legs into a size 6 jeans, when we’re currently wearing (comfortably!) a size 12 isn’t what we should aim for.

How many pounds lost would that be?

Unfortunately, because clothing manufacturers’ sizes are all over the map, it’s no longer easy to tell. But, in general, the consensus is that you would need to lose 8 -10 pounds to drop one pant size.

For a 150-pound woman, that’s within the 5% – 10% range.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

As we go forward, we’ll look at a variety of important findings, like what scientists learned from the reality show The Biggest Loser, why your particular diet may not be working for you, finding your dieting sweet spot for health, weight management and fitness, and what Blue Zone model living can do for your health longevity.

We’ll also delve more into the exercise component.

Exciting stuff!

See you back here next Wednesday with the next installment.

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

(*If you want this information in more detail and in your library, I encourage you to pick up a copy of the Special Time Edition The Science of Weight Loss at your local drugstore or bookstore. It’s on sale until April 5, 2019.)

Using the New Exercise Guidelines: Easier to Achieve Success

Even if you’re not a big exerciser, you probably know exercise, or physical activity, is a critical component of good health—both physical and emotional/mental. Even the Health and Human Services Department of the United States government thinks so, and they get in on the act of improving our nation’s overall health by establishing exercise guidelines.

They recently made some guideline changes you’ll be interested in, if you’re concerned about maintaining or improving your and your family’s health.

A little history—

While I’ve been studying guidelines for some 40 years, doctors and scientists have been writing about them and trying to establish norms since the 19^th century. As research improves, the guidelines change. They’re never perfect, but they usually do set a good foundation for people to aspire to. (I wouldn’t count the current food pyramid among those aspirating tools, though. Companies and special interest groups had too much influence in its development.)

Why exercise?

God created our amazing bodies to move in a variety of ways. When you keep that in mind, you realize that exercise can be a form of praise and worship to the One that created you!

But for those of you needing some extra motivation, remember there are tremendous benefits to exercise. Exercise can:

prevent chronic diseases
improve mood
improve overall health
improve quality of life
sharpen mental function
boost concentration
improve sleep
get you connected with nature (if you exercise outdoors)
increase your metabolism, which can help you lose or maintain a healthy weight
remove toxins from your body through metabolism and sweating
increase lung capacity
improve heart function
tone muscles and sculpt body, which can improve balance, increase metabolism, and improve your body image

Some background on the new guidelines—

The United State’s Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion has designed new guidelines (updated from 2008) that are better tailored for age and ability. This is great news because we’re rapidly shedding the one-size-fits-all in exercise and dieting myths!

The new guidelines wrap around the idea that the amount of exercise you should aim for and get, and the mix of activities you engage in, depends on your age and ability. Essentially, the exercise becomes more personalized. That’s great, because we’re all unique.

Do you have a preschooler at home? Then you need to make sure your bundle of energy gets at least 3 hours of run or jump-around activity. Shutter the video games and television and get your charges outside or to a pre-school gym. Mommy and me classes are also great to get their activity and yours in too.

Are you an “older” adult? You’ll want to aim for at least 150 minutes a week. (Since people say 80 is the new 60, I’m going to guess that a lot of technically “older” adults don’t feel old, but the technical definition is anyone 65 years or older.)

Does 150 minutes sound like a lot? Years ago we would say that amounts to 30 minutes of exercise, 5 times a week. Then more recently, experts said exercise needed to be done in no less than ten-minute blocks.

But based on the current research, we now know that the exercise doesn’t have to occur in those compulsory, 30-minute chunks, or even the smaller ten-minute and can actually be racked up in much smaller increments. Little batches throughout your day seem to be just as effective as the dedicated blocks.

Exercising enough? Great, but you’re in the minority.

If you travel to Seattle, Honolulu, or the California coast, you’d think everyone in the country is an exercise addict, but that’s not the case. According to Harvard Health Publishing:

“Eighty percent of the population is not meeting the guidelines. Each year in the U.S., an estimated 10% of premature deaths and $117 billion in healthcare costs are associated with inadequate physical activity.”

If that’s true, encouraging exercise—and bringing it back into the schools!—would improve our nation’s health and have a positive effect on all of our pocketbooks.

What’s changed in the new exercise guidelines?

The primary change in these new guidelines is—

Move more, sit less!

We’ve heard a lot about the health dangers of sitting in the news the last couple of years. No matter what your age, you’ll benefit from exercise, although the benefit may emerge in different ways.

For a young person, exercise aids normal growth and development, both physical and mental. It strengthens bones and muscles and improves their lung and heart (cardiovascular) health.

For an older adult, it can keep muscles and bones from deteriorating and weakening and can help improve balance, which helps decrease the risk of falling and serious injury. In turn, that helps seniors maintain more independent and active lives for longer durations.

One of the critical components to the new guidelines is that it bases your dose of physical activity on the activity’s relative intensity.

For example, a brisk walk could count as a moderate physical activity. But what’s moderate physical activity? It’s working at an intensity high enough that you can speak comfortably but not sing.

Not in shape? Your intensity level might be reached sooner than someone who’s more trained or younger, so make sure you DON’T compare your efforts with someone else’s!

How to begin an exercise program or incorporate the new guidelines—

If you’re just starting out, you will definitely want to begin more slowly and carefully. Then you can increase the exercise duration, intensity, and frequency.

But as I’ve cautioned many times, DO NOT increase all of these factors simultaneously!! Increase one of them at a time, over a period of several days or weeks. You’ll notice more rapid improvement at the beginning and then a slow down. At the slow down point, you can choose to maintain the status quo, or you can mix things up by changing the intensity or frequency.

For example:

You’ve decided to walk your neighborhood every day. If you’re huffing and puffing after half a mile, you’ve gone too far. If you don’t feel as though you stressed your system much when you return home, you probably didn’t work hard enough during the activity.

Let me give you a more personal example.

My husband decided to take up our older son’s challenge to run a 5K race with him. (An easy length for my son who is a former high school long distance runner and now half-marathon competitor.) So, my husband consulted me on how he should go about training for it.

Since he’s really in good physical condition, (a recent stress test showed him to have the heart function of a trained athlete 20 years younger than his chronological age), I told him to run up the main street near our house—which heads uphill—and then back down, in a loop. Round trip from our garage is 1.2 miles. I told him to do that at least three times a week at a comfortable pace to see how he felt, and how the post-arthroscopy knees felt.

Things felt good after a week, so I told him to either increase his mileage by 10% OR increase his intensity by 10%, which would essentially improve his mile-a-minute time.

Things were going great, until he had chest pain, which curtailed his activity until we could determine the cause. It turned out to be a spasming esophagus, which can mimic heart attack pain. So after his down time, he had to start over.

Then he injured his ankle downhill skiing with our younger son right after Christmas, which has set him back again. He is just now returning to training, and plans to do so at the gym on the treadmill. We’ll see how it goes. I suggested he test his ankle strength and stability by doing heal raises, wind sprints, figure eight drills and high knee jogging and fanny kick running. But he’s bypassing those for straight-on running.

He’s also just returned to work after two weeks of holiday vacation, so it could be slow going due to mental fatigue (just being back to work!).

What type of exercise is best for your age?

What about straight forward, or single direction/single plane type of exercise, like running?

While it might be great for cardiovascular health, it’s not going to give you improvement you might want in balance or muscle strength. And therein lies the challenge:

To have a good, overall fitness level, you need to incorporate a variety of exercises, like—

Aerobic activity— walking, running, cycling, swimming. Something done for sustained periods.

Muscle-strengthening activity—resistance training with weights, bands. Something that improves your muscle mass, endurance, strength, power and muscle health.

Bone-strengthening activity—Critical for post-menopausal women, or women who have suffered from eating disorders and low weight. Exercises like running, resistance training, jump roping, dancing, or impact exercises (keep it reasonable and on the low side), improve bone health and reduces your risk of fractures.

Balance activity—Another critical component for aging people, balance activities improve coordination and reduce the risk of falling and injury incurred from falls. Tai chi, yoga, dancing, walking backward, one-leg (stork) standing, standing or walking on your toes, skipping frontward, backward, sideways, and diagonally all help improve balance.

And surprisingly, doing some of your lower-impact exercises or calisthenics with your eyes closed can improve your balance. Just don’t be skipping around the house or gym with your eyes shut!

Multicomponent physical activity—Selecting several physical activities to keep your brain sharp and on its toes (along with your body) is the way to go. Play tennis and swim; hike and bike; dance and jog. It’s okay, and better, if you don’t limit yourself to just one exercise. For us ADD types, that’s a winner!

I really can’t stress enough just how important it is to find exercises that incorporate ALL of these components. I’ve personally learned that the frustrating way.

When I was a gymnast, my cardiovascular health was good, even though I wasn’t a runner. (I really loathe running, which is good, because I’m primarily a power muscle athlete; and my feet and ankles don’t tolerate running.) And my balance was superb, upside down or right-side up! When our high school psychology teacher had us do this little experiment of putting vision-warping glasses on and trying to walk a straight line, I had no problem. Super easy! I could walk a straight line with my eyes closed. I’d spent most of my life doing that; I knew where my body was in space almost all of the time it was moving, upside down or right side up.

When I played competitive racquetball in college and grad school, I was zigzagging all over the court, improving my hand-eye coordination (which wasn’t always good) and improving my reaction time, power, and balance.

But when I became a body builder, my physique and muscle strength improved, but the constant one-direction activity nearly destroyed my coordination and reaction time.

Now, years later, after sitting way too much every day and just walking or weight training, (I had to drop tennis after a nasty Achilles tendon injury several years ago), I’ve noticed that my balance has plummeted. (The fact that my hearing has plummeted too hasn’t helped the balance issues.)

So now I’m walking, hiking, and dancing. Doing morning calisthenics that wake me up while working on breathing, muscle tone, and balance has helped immensely.

I’m having to learn to regain my balance with my left foot too. For two years a bone spur in my big toe has caused me to walk primarily on the outside of my foot. Now that the spur is gone, I’m re-strengthening the big toe (I was amazed at how weak it had become) and stretching out the joint capsule and tissues.

It feels good to be able to put weight on that toe again, even though it screams at me before settling down for the exercise ritual.

And that story can help you as you select your exercise:

Know your body and your interests and tailor your exercise program to meet those personal goals and likes!

Keeping those things in mind will help you stick with your exercise program and find other, like-minded exercisers to workout with!

The basics of the new guidelines—

Keep in mind that these new guidelines are “evidence-based,” which means they’ve been drawn from an overview of scientific study/research results.

Preschool-age (3 through 5 years): physically active throughout the day with the goal of three hours of activity daily

Children and teens (6 through 17 years): at least 60 minutes daily of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity; include vigorous activity, muscle-strengthening, and bone-strengthening activity three times a week

Adults: at least 150 to 300 minutes weekly of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, or 75 to 150 minutes weekly of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity, or an equivalent combination of both, plus muscle-strengthening activities at least two days a week

Older adults: multicomponent physical activities that mix balance activities, aerobic activities, and strength training can help prevent falls and injuries; reduce overall sitting and replace it with light (or when possible, moderate) activity

Pregnant and postpartum women: at least 150 minutes weekly of moderate-intensity aerobic activity

Adults with chronic conditions or disabilities: follow adult guidelines as able, including both aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities

I’d like to tack on one caveat for pregnant women: Please follow your doctor’s advice and keep a close tabs on your blood pressure and heart rate during exercise. I had to curtail my walking toward the end of my older son’s pregnancy due to my blood pressure soaring too high.

I hope you found this overview of the new guidelines helpful, and you’re ready to get started!

NEXT WEEK we’ll start taking a closer look at the science of exercise and dieting and how you can improve your success rates in both areas!

Until then,

get moving, even if you haven’t moved much in a while. You will enjoy the many benefits!

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien