USA Today reports, “Women who want to prevent weight gain as they age should hop on a bike or take a brisk walk,” discoveries that add “to mounting evidence of the importance of moderate to vigorous exercise for weight control.”
Those who participated in the Harvard study “gained an average of 20½ pounds over 16 years,” but “those who regularly biked or walked briskly were less likely to gain as much.”
The “findings are based on the second Harvard Nurses’ Health Study, which is tracking 116,608 female nurses who periodically fill out questionnaires about their health, weight, diet and behavior,” the New York Times Vital Signs reports.
The “new analysis, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, looked at weight change and behavior from 1989 (when the nurses were 25 to 42 years old) to 2005; to isolate the effects of exercise, the researchers controlled for other obesity risk factors.”
And, of course, losing weight can reduce the hot flashes of menopause as well as cardiovascular risk. It’s a great strategy for becoming both more physically and emotionally healthy.
You can read more about improving your health in my book 10 Essentials of Happy, Healthy People: Becoming and staying highly healthy. Autographed copies are available, along with my other books, here.