Dance Dance Revolution Totally Counts
A recent study (yes, another study) found that overweight people get less out of exercise. Slightly less.
Everyone gained strength and muscle. But the overweight and obese volunteers gained 4 percent to 17 percent less than those of normal weight. Differences could be genetic, the researchers said.
But if you are overweight, don’t despair! Exercising for even 10 minutes a day is beneficial, and losing 15 pounds can take 100 pounds off your knees:
“For every pound of weight you carry on your body, you put about 7 pounds of weight on the joint behind your kneecap” during high-impact activities, such as stair climbing… “So if you are 15 pounds overweight, you are putting more than 100 pounds of extra pressure on your knees. … If you lose just a little weight, you can make a tremendous difference.”
I guess overall I feel okay about this. I mean, I have this great plan for a summer exercise regime and I’m glad that it won’t be entirely for nothing.
Posted by mo pie
Email us
DDR Does rock! LOL!
It doesn’t surprise me that overweight people such as myself get slightly less out of exercise. We have to weed through the fat to get to the muscle and as we exercise more, we gain more muscle and melt the fat.
Exercising more, Kellie, does not automatically result in fat “melting” – I tend to gain muscle and nothing happens to my fat. It’s a seriously frustrating – indeed, tear-inducing – facet of my gym-going. Because I love working out with weights but it never accomplishes what the trainers say it ought to accomplish. Human physiology is a bit more complex than most “health professionals” would have us believe.
Ummm…I also wonder if it doesn’t have something to do with the fact that most fat people already have more muscle mass than their thinner and equally as in/active peers.
Please share with us your summer exercise regime! I love to hear about other people’s way of making it fun or new.
I am curious, too about others experience with a trainer and whatnot. I went to a gym for awhile (like curves, but a mom & pop shop). I can’t stand high-pressure sales people and when they see a 300+ lbs girl come in I can see the dollar signs in their eyes…suggestions? advice?
Jesus, so when I weighed 372 pounds I was putting 2600 pounds of pressure on my knees when I walked up the stairs? No wonder they hurt. Explains the creaking sound too.
Although I am sure that my 216-lb body is putting way more pressure on my knees than is healthy, I find the calculation about x lbs.=x. lbs. of pressure on the knees to be more of a shock number that I’m not sure actually means anything. I guess what I mean is, being 15 lbs. overweight is not like being 100 lbs. overweight, it’s like being 15 lbs. overweight. Without knowing how many psi my knees are equipped to handle as an instantaneous load before they become injured or fail, the number doesn’t mean a lot to me. It’s probably more than we think–human bones and joints seem almost ludicrously strong, after all, I’m still walking my 216-lb ass around and not collapsed in a pile of goo.
It’s not that I think it’s wrong to say that a small amount of “dead” load on your knees equates to a large amount of live load when you are jumping or running or walking, more that I would need to know how much of that kind of load the human knee can handle before I can really understand the numbers. Not that I could probably understand them then either.
I love how it’s okay to admit that exercise not doing as much for overweight people as it does for smaller people could be related to genetics, but when it comes to fat related to genetics? Oh no. You’re just a lazy blob who eats Twinkies and watches Jerry Springer all day. I think my blog needs to write about this, hmm…
i always though the opposite would be true as the same exercise often caused overweight people to work harder as carrying moe weight. interesting
I have to say — running at 180 lbs is a lot easier than running at 205 was. It has made an amazing difference in my joints and my overall ability.
DDR so counts, in fact I think the version you can buy for home consoles, track how well you are doing. Like you can keep track of how the time you spend on DDR affects your health.
I also think that high energy games for the Wii, like Rayman Raving Rabbids could count too. It gets your heart rate up there. I’m serious, it’s not as easy to alternately whip the Wiimote and the nunchuck controller up and down as you would think.
Jackie, have you heard that they now have a Wii diet? I think it’s pretty cool. Then again, I’m such a game geek. hehe
Exercising alone could not make me lose significant weight. And while DDR and Wii is great tools to exercise at home I find that my greatest problem is in my eating appetite instead of exercises.
My knees are sufficiently bad (congenitally, apparently, after the visit to the sports doc — would have been nice to know that at 12 so I could have done something about it earlier) that I can’t do DDR. I’m jealous of people who can do it.
On the other hand, there is Zumba, Tae Bo, and prepping for Salsa Congresses. I think all that twisting is sorely underrated for creating core functional strength.
Jessica, it’s great to hear you say that because I am hoping the same will be true for me. Lately I find that I now have a new motivator for staying on program–each pound gone will make my runs that little bit easier and hopefully I’ll get faster too. I really enjoyed your recent entry about your great run and the 10-minute-mile average and I hope I’ll get there too. So far at least I have no joint pain, only muscle pain, to bring it back to the topic at hand.