60+ minutes of exercise per day to maintain weight after age 50

[PamNY]

They're only talking about maintaining weight after menopause. And I maintain, as many other studies have found before, that a reasonable "suite" of ADLs is all one needs to do that.

I'm inclined to agree. I have very few friends who are overweight -- of course, they may have gained a bit after age 50; I haven't interrogated them. But most people I know don't look heavy at all to me.

I'm convinced that being largely car-free in NYC is the reason I haven't experienced (or seen much of) mid-life weight gain.

[emily_in_nc]

I'm convinced that being largely car-free in NYC is the reason I haven't experienced (or seen much of) mid-life weight gain.

Very good point, Pam. My mom lived in Manhattan car-free from her early 40s to early 50s and kept the weight off fine. She walked all the time. Once she moved back to North Carolina and to a car-based, suburban lifestyle, the pounds started coming on rather quickly, and she's never been able to get them off -- she's 78 now. She also quit smoking around the same time, which was certainly part of it, but the change from an active lifestyle to a much more sedentary one was obviously a major factor.

[Crankin]

Well, almost everyone I've known since moving back to MA is a lot heavier. That's over 22 years, from ages late 30s to late 50s/60-ish. Of course, this doesn't count the people i know from riding, but I didn't know them in 1990. An astonishing number of them (particularly the men) have huge guts. And these people are super strong riders. Not so much the women. Funny, everyone i've reconnected with from my childhood is thin. And my friends in AZ, well, they are the same. The heavy ones are heavy and the thin ones are still thin.
I do believe that living in a city keeps you thin. Every vacation I've ever taken that involves a lot of city walking and a lot of eating has been a test of this factor. I never gain weight on these trips.

[shootingstar]

All my friends, except for 1 over the past 25-30 years, who are around the same age as I, either are healthy slim or if they've gained weight it's been under 5-10 lbs. with effort to do something about it over the years.

It's not that I choose friends like that..just life works out that way sometimes. Each woman has found something to help herself: walking, organized yoga/pilates classes, weights, cycling, volleyball and x-country skiing. More proof that it does require some mindful habits and healthy diet.

Note: I actually haven't engaged much in any of these physical activities with each friend...except maybe for walking which we end up talking/catching up on news. So I haven't selected friends initially based on a type of exercise....there's other things that hold our friendship together. We actually don't have time when we see each other, to undertake some sort of physical exercise together.

[Slowspoke]

Update. I did get down those stairs and on to the trainer. I listened to couch to 5k to do a little interval work. That seems to help. I need some spinervals I think. I can tell you right now, my attention span will not last a full hour on a trainer!!!

[goldfinch]

Very good point, Pam. My mom lived in Manhattan car-free from her early 40s to early 50s and kept the weight off fine. She walked all the time. Once she moved back to North Carolina and to a car-based, suburban lifestyle, the pounds started coming on rather quickly, and she's never been able to get them off -- she's 78 now. She also quit smoking around the same time, which was certainly part of it, but the change from an active lifestyle to a much more sedentary one was obviously a major factor.

I recently read that one of the strongest correlations between the growing obesity problem in the US is the decline in smoking. The two track each other far more accurately than things like the growth of the fast food industry, lack of exercise, or portion size track weight gain. I thought it was interesting.

[tulip]

I recently read that one of the strongest correlations between the growing obesity problem in the US is the decline in smoking. The two track each other far more accurately than things like the growth of the fast food industry, lack of exercise, or portion size track weight gain. I thought it was interesting.

Curious; I'm not in agreement, though. I get that when you stop smoking, you gain weight. But I would bet that the obesity problem is not with people who quit smoking. It's the kids and people who never smoked who are obese. I would think it has plenty to do with cable TV, video games, and computers. And kids getting shuttled everywhere and not riding bikes and walking to school anymore.

[OakLeaf]

I wonder how far they took the correlation back. Is it just a myth that very few women smoked until after WWII? Because if not, then perhaps smoking delayed epidemic obesity, rather than quitting smoking caused it.

And come to think of it, I surely knew a lot of girls my own age who took up smoking to control their weight. So they started with the weight issues as pre-teens, before they started smoking. Again, a recent phenomenon.

[jobob]

A data point (a bit OT, admittedly): LeeBob was quite the skinny guy when I married him, and he stayed that way for several years. Then he quit his 3 pack a day habit. Within a year or so he was reaching tub-o-lard proportions. Sometime after that, he bought his first bike.

[Melalvai]

Exercise after 50, but not too much! "New Studies on Older Endurance Athletes Suggest the Fittest Reap Few Health Benefits"
No worries about me ever running faster than 8 mph! Or more than 25 miles per week!