Click here to visit the new home of that's fit!

Hot on HuffPost Healthy Living:

AOL.com
MAIL

En Español

That's Fit

Send Feedback

The key to successful slimming? A marathon a week

Posted on Feb 21st 2008 12:20PM by Martha Edwards

Filed Under: Fitness

For those of you who'd prefer to lose weight without having to partake in the pesky thing called fitness, here's a bit of news that might disappoint you: recent studies show that people who are successful at taking off--and keeping off--weight are those who do a fair amount of exercise. 60 to 90 minutes a day, to be exact. Or, to put it another way, those who walked the equivalent of a marathon a week.

I'm into fitness and even this number surprised me a bit -- really, who has 60 to 90 spare minutes every day of the week? I can manage to work in a hour a day three times a week and 30 minutes a day the rest of the week. I can't do any more than that and still keep my job and family happy, but I try to work in small bits of exercise where I can--by taking the stairs, walking to work and so on.

My point? 60 to 90 minutes is a lot, so try to find a compromise. But do know that fitness is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle.

Source

2 Comment

Tags: 90 minuts, 90Minuts, busy, day, exercise, fitness, half hour, HalfHour, hour, marathon

Around the Web

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Judy 2-21-2008 @ 2:00PM

That seems like an awful lot of exercise to me. 60-90 minutes a day?

I don't know though - I've never really had a weight problem, so it's hard for me to look at this objectively. I try to take my kids on long walks every day, and get to the gym 3 times a week, but even then I almost never stay for an hour even. I doubt I EVER get 90 minutes of what would be considered real exercise, and 60 minutes is hit or miss.

Then again, walking a marathon a week - that's roughly 3.5 miles a day, right? That seems totally doable, but how would that possibly take 90 minutes a day? Maybe that's where my confusion comes in.

Okay, I looked it up, and "average" walking speed is 3 mph, so I guess it makes sense now. That still doesn't seem that hard, but I admittedly have a fairly relaxed lifestyle with few time constraints, so walking an hour a day isn't hard to fit in.

This is more reason to plan communities so that things are walkable - stores, libraries, parks - and just have sidewalks people can use. Our library/community center/park is within walking distance of our house, so it's fairly easy for me to take my boys in the stroller, weather permitting. Then we all get exercise, and it's useful, purposeful exercise, which I think is better than going to a gym and working out just for the sake of doing it!

Michelle Koen 2-25-2008 @ 7:35PM

Don't be discouraged, try making at least a portion of your daily commute human powered. I bike to work and it's the fastest way to get there. No getting stuck in traffic of waiting for trains or buses plus I burn 350 calories in the round trip which means Friday drinks are a doable things!