Five minutes a day keeps weight gain at bay
June 30, 2010
Andrea Gordon
FAMILY ISSUES REPORTER
Attention all women of a certain age. No need for extreme measures to fight off middle-age spread. Instead, it only takes five minutes a day of biking or brisk walking to head off those extra pounds, according to a new study.
Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health followed more than 18,000 healthy premenopausal women over 16 years and found those who added as little as five minutes of biking a day to their routine experienced less weight gain.
Women who walked briskly for five minutes daily also decreased the risk of extra pounds, said the study, published this week in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.
“It’s not as hard as you think,” said Anne Lusk, research fellow at Harvard and lead author of the study.
She said the main message for women is that exercise doesn’t have to be punishing, sweat-laden or subject to finger-wagging. Building it gradually into a daily routine, especially as transportation, is enough to improve health and help prevent obesity.
“See how you can put it into your daily life,” said Lusk. “If it becomes a habit and is convenient, you’ll tend to do it more often. Then the physical activity is almost subliminal.”
That sums up Nancy Kendrew’s approach to biking. She uses her bike to get to work, pick up groceries and do her errands. In really bad weather, she walks briskly. At 57, she’s healthy and fit, plays hockey in winter and paddles a kayak through the summer.
“I have to honestly say I don’t even think of biking as exercise. I just think of it as something I do in my daily life,” said Kendrew, one of the founding members of Urbane Cyclist bike shop in downtown Toronto.
She says it’s cheaper, healthier for both her and the environment, and more practical.
“I just think it’s the freedom of movement. On your bicycle you’re on your own schedule.”
In the Harvard study, the positive results from five minutes of daily biking showed up regardless of intensity. But to get the same preventive effect from walking, it has to be at a rate of about 140 steps per minute — “as if you’re late for the bus.” Slow walking offered no advantage.
She noted that overweight and obese women benefited the most by adding the daily activity and that for them, biking was easier and more comfortable than walking briskly.
The research comes on the heels of a study last week that also stressed the benefits gained from only a few minutes of exercise. That study, from Massachusetts General Hospital, found 10 minutes a day can trigger profound and lasting changes in metabolism and improve overall health.
The findings make sense to Erin Billowits, founder of Vintage Fitness in Toronto, which specializes in fitness for people over 50.
“What an extra five or 10 minutes of exercise will do is create a positive cycle of change,” she says. It can kickstart more exercise because people enjoy it, and inspire healthier eating and lifestyles.
Billowits recommends adding exercises to strengthen and stretch muscles to the daily routine.
Many are frustrated at the natural tendency to put on weight as they approach menopause, particularly around the midriff.
“You have to change to stay the same. So maybe those five minutes (of biking or brisk walking) can help you to stay as you are.”
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