Once excess weight is lost, how much exercise keeps it off? University of Chicago and University of Wisconsin at Madison researchers trying to answer that question followed 33 women, ages 20-50, for one year after they had lost at least 26 pounds. The results, published 1997 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found the “threshold” for weight control averaged 80 minutes a day of moderate-intensity physical activity (such as walking between 2.2 and 3.7 mph, playing softball,golf or table tennis) or 35 minutes a day of vigorous activity (jogging, active dancing, tennis).
Researchers didn`t compute daily totals but suspect the most practical approach to be alternating: doing vigorous exercise one day, moderate the next. The level is much higher than the recommended half hour a day of moderate-intensity activity to promote health and reduce disease, researchers said.
But the results should not be taken as gospel, add John Foreyt, Ph.D., a leading obesity researcher at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston. “It`s good study, but it is one study. Many people are able to maintain their body weight with less exercise [than this].” While “physical activity is a must to keep off weight loss,” he says, those who maintain a weight loss often figure out for themselves how much they can eat and how long and hard they must exercise.
Source: Shape mag, 1998