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Older women need to exercise is the title of a recent USAToday article by Nanci Hellmich. It cites a Harvard Medical School study and this was no small study. The study included over 34,000 women across a 13 year period.

Nanci points out that normal-weight women who want to prevent weight gain as they age need to do an hour a day of moderate-intensity physical activity such as brisk walking, according to a recent study.

Over the years, some experts have suggested it takes that much to control weight, but this is one of the first large-scale studies to examine the question.

Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston tracked the leisure-time physical activity and weight of more than 34,000 healthy women over 13 years. The women, average age 54 at the start of the study, followed a regular diet and didn't try to lose weight.

Participants were divided into three groups:

•Women who were the most active and did at least 60 minutes a day of moderate-intensity physical activity, most of it walking.

•Those who were moderately active, at least 150 minutes a week (for example, at least 30 minutes a day five days a week).

•Those who were the least active, at less than 150 minutes a week.

Walking was the most common activity of the women in the study, but if you do more vigorous activity such as running or jogging, 30 minutes is equal to 60 minutes of walking, or so they say.

The article goes into much greater detail and we suggest that you check it out. Nanci Helmich always has wonderful material and her articles appear regularly in USAToday’s Life Section. She does wonderful work related to Weight Loss.

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