The good news is that women of normal weight who want to keep the extra pounds off do not need to diet. The bad news is they have to exercise an hour a day, seven days a week. Yikes!
The good news/bad news, published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, emerged from a 13-year-long study of more than 34,000 U.S. women who were, on average, age 54 at the start of the study. The Los Angeles Times reports that the researchers found that only those
women who were normal weight at the start of the study and engaged in
moderate-intensity activity an average of 60 minutes per day, seven days
a week, maintained a normal body weight, defined as a body mass index
of less than 25.
What exactly is moderate-intensity activity? The researchers cite activities such as walking or hiking, jogging, running, bicycling, aerobic exercise or
dance, use of exercise machines, yoga, tennis, squash, racquetball and
swimming. Sorry, housework and gardening were not included in the analysis.