How Much Exercise Do You Get?
This news article landed in my inbox shortly after I’d read this very funny post at Shapely Prose, and both got me thinking about exercise.
At Shapely Prose, Kate writes about a recent article asserting that people who are predisposed to being overweight can avoid being overweight by exercising a mere three to four hours a day.
I cannot fucking believe that instead of writing the obvious story — i.e., “people who have this genetic variant would have to do a tremendous, totally unrealistic amount of daily exercise to be thin” — they went with “people who have this genetic variant can be thin if they just work in three to four hours of daily exercise — easy peasy!” Seriously, you guys! It’s not as bad as it sounds! Just break it down to 48 five-minute sessions throughout the day!
The news article is about some new campaigns in California (my very own state) aimed at combating obesity blah blah blah. Here was the part that caught my eye:
One third of the adults interviewed did not exercise moderately or vigorously in the previous seven days.
“That one really surprised me,” said Sue Holtby, senior research scientist at the Public Health Institute… “Our thresholds were pretty low for moderate exercise, but a full one-third of the people we talked to said they didn’t walk anywhere, ride a bike, go swimming … anything. That’s pretty amazing.”
So, this made me wonder. If three to four hours per day is too much, and no exercise at all is too little, where do we all fall? I go to the gym every weekend, at minimum—these days, my workout is one hour of interval training on the elliptical. I also walk about a mile and a half to and from work three days a week. Not a ton of exercise—I would like to exercise more—but I do stick with it. I also occasionally do fun stuff like bike ride or swim.
So how about you? How much do you exercise? What kind of exercise do you do? Do you feel like it’s too much or too little? Does your doctor or an anti-obesity billboard or a partner make you feel guilty about it? Do you love it or hate it? I await your thoughts in the comments!
Posted by mo pie
Email us
Heh. I read that article, and thought, oh. That’s all I have to do? Yeah, I’ll get right on that, just as soon as I change my entire life to allow for 3 or 4 hours a day of exercise.
Well, I’m doing three to four hours of exercise a day and my scale hasn’t moved in MONTHS.
I’ve been asking myself that very question lately. I’ve gone from 2-day a week workouts a month ago to an attitude where if I don’t get in 6 60-minute workouts (cardio or strength or both) a week then I’ve failed myself.
I’m at the stage of my “revised health regime” (aka, eating less, working out more) where I’ve dropped 8 pounds in 2 weeks and hit my first plateau. I hate that the scale hasn’t moved in 3 days despite working out nearly every day so I switch up my workouts and wind up making my already so-so knees feel worse. But, I keep pushing myself to workout because I want to keep up with the “5-6 workouts a week to gain muscle and lose fat” regimen.
My favorite exercises right now, because they’re easy on my aching 32-year-old joints, are swimming and the pole dancing classes I take every Sunday.
I swim laps twice a week, bellydance for at least an hour once a week (more in short bursts throughout the week) and lift heavy boxes at work quite often. And yet I still feel that nagging puritan guilt that it isn’t “Enough”. It is hard to ever feel that we’re doing “enough” when articles like the one about the 3-4 hours of exercise pop up and try to insinuate that if you are fat then your punishment SHOULD be 3-4 hours of self-flagellation…uh I mean exercise.
I have to shamefully admit that I get very little exercise these days due to writing my Masters dissertation. I know it’s terribly bad for my body and I can feel the stark contrast to back when I did get regular exercise. I’ve also put on a bit of extra weight to my normal weight due to lack of movement and far too much sweets. However, this will soon change, I hand in my dissertation in mid-October, so then I’ll work on getting back into my old habits of regular exercise.
As for the 3-4 hours a day thing… hahaha…
I do the following:
– 20 minute brisk walk around the park in the morning (7 days a week)
– 45 minute brisk walk home from work in the evening (5 days a week)
– 60 minutes badminton (once a week)
I get about 4 hours of exercise a WEEK. 2 water aerobics classes at an hour a pop, plus I do yoga at home 3-4 times a week for 20-30 minutes each time.
I have lost 9 pounds, but I was definitely over my set point. I doubt I lose any more, and I would still be considered obese by the BMI “gospel”.
I get about 40 minutes a day in of a brisk walk, and I can’t do without it. I go nuts without it.
I average about a half hour a day. I get up at 6 AM and do *something* for half an hour to an hour most days. Sometimes yoga, sometimes bellydance, sometimes weight lifting. I also do fencing or swordfighting once a week, park at the far side of the lot (maybe a 5 minute walk if that), and walk to get lunch or run errands if possible.
I went on a health kick about a month and a half ago, and since then, I’ve been making it to the gym about five times a week (usually after work) for 50 minutes of intense cardio on the stair climber and stationary bike. I hope I can keep it up. It’s helped a LOT in terms of stress relief and my energy level (no longer fighting to keep my eyes open at my desk around 2-3pm). I don’t care so much about how it affects the scale (and it hasn’t as I haven’t bothered changing my diet much).
I try to do at least an hour six days a week. In a good week when I swim twice with the masters group (90 minutes each) and get in a long bike ride I get up to about 10 hours a week. My body has adjusted to this schedule and I don’t lose weight even with eating very moderately.
I loathe exercise (except for Dance Dance Revolution), but I do walk everywhere because I have no car. I used to bicycle places but then I moved closer to a train station. Someday I will get a dog and then I will walk even more. Perhaps someday I will get a good DDR pad again. But really, walking everywhere is probably more exercise per week than if I drove a car but took up an activity on the weekends, and there’s no way in Hell I’m doing stuff on weekdays. There was a time when I had a gym membership, but it was completely the opposite of any fun at all and I never want to set foot in one again.
As I recall, Junkfood Science says the media neglected to mention that the Amish people in that study who worked like 10 hours a day were still fat, just slightly less fat than they would have been if they didn’t work so hard. It seems that exercise has little effect on weight loss.
3-4 hours a DAY?! That’s insane. That’s the level I feel like celebrities are at whose career it is to look good. No normal person has time for that what with having lives and such. Lives that don’t revolve around being thin. Honestly, I think if you have to work out THAT much not to be overweight at all, maybe it’s a sign that you’re just not meant to be that thin – particularly since we are talking about a genetic variant here.
When I’m in a good exercise groove (like I am getting back into now), I swim laps 4 or 5 times a week for 45-60 minutes. I also try to fit in a half hour of Pilates and walk the two miles home from work a couple of times a week. If I fit all of that into one week, I consider that pretty awesome.
I have a brisk 30 minute walk 5 days a week, I do 30 minutes of high impact cardio (Biggest Loser Cardio Max) 5 days a week, and yoga twice a week. This is for weight loss. I should make my goal weight by Thanksgiving, and I’m also changing job locations, so I’ll be losing the 30 minute walk. I plan to get out at lunch two times a week for 30 minutes.
3-4 hours a day? That’s it? Oh I’ll get right on that.
I exercise about 4-5 hours a week. Usually walking after work for a couple miles and then if I happen to crawl out of bed on time, I’ll do yoga in the mornings a few days a week.
1 hour spinning: 3x week
1 hour run: 3x week
45 min weight training: 2x week
1 hour pilates: 1x a week
45 min elliptical (usually before spinning): 3x week
And I usually do a long hike on one of the weekend days. Yeah, it’s like a part time job.
I get about three to four hours a day of exercise. But then again I’m on my college cross country team. We usually do about seven or eight miles of running a day and then stretching, and alternating weight lifting and core exercises and then it’s a little more then half a mile to the gym where we start, and I walk there and back. I also do rock climbing three days a week for about an hour, Saturdays we have races and Sunday’s I take long walks around town, usually about to hours.
I really enjoy it though. I don’t know if I would be doing as much if I wasn’t a full time student who lives on campus, lol.
PS. My diet? Like, 95% carbs. Couldn’t do this otherwise.
I believe this is my first time commenting.
When I was much healthier, I used to walk 2.6 miles every day, lift weights for 1 hour in the evening, and do water aerobics.
However, that was 10 years ago. Before I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. I now walk with a cane, sometimes two. The only exercise I get is when I work in the garden (I have to sit on the ground and crawl from one end of the garden to the other), ironing, and other household chores as tolerated.
I can work in the garden for 2 hours and spend the next 2 days in extreme pain. I don’t take to my bed I push through it because I know that in 2 or 3 days the pain will subside.
I was wondering if anyone out there was handicapped like myself and unable to exercise because of the pain factor.
And if so, what do you do? How do you compensate? I can barely make it to the mailbox and back and some days I have to drive over to pick up the mail.
I miss exercising. I miss how it made me feel.
I had to laugh when I read that. Oh, is that all!
I get 30-90 minutes a day, usually averaging 60.
When my dog died I got depressed and put on weight, and grief aside I think a big part of that was not being forced to take a walk at least twice a day. I’m making a point of taking the bus to work and school now to combat that–it’s about a half-hour round trip to the station each day, with bursts of stair-climbing and other short stints sprinkled in. I go for long hikes (4 hours +) whenever I can on weekends, and before I hurt my back I did a lot of yoga. I’m getting better now and looking forward to getting back to that.
Short walks w/ the dogs, 2-3 times a day.
Push ups, sit ups, and squats, 2-3 times a week
Stretching / yoga exercises, daily
Biking, once a week
Dancing, whenever possible.
My overall goals have to do with joy and developing strength by gently pushing my limits. I have a pretty severe case of plantar fasciitis, so it’s been a balancing act, but well worth it.
Every day I think about exercising and every day I don’t do it. I self-sabotage. I know it is the one thing that makes a huge difference in my outlook and my energy level but I hide instead. It’s a real mindfuck. I have so much body hatred when it comes to feeling comfortable exercising in public. I’m struggling with this right now.
I walk the dog at a pretty brisk pace for at least an hour every day of the week. I really loved weight-lifting, but my work’s been eating my life and I can’t seem to make the time to take it up again. So lately I’ve been doing squats and abdominal exercises whenever I can – in the elevator, in the shower, at my desk, etc. I look like a moron, but it’s been two weeks and I can’t believe how much stronger my legs and tummy are. Huzzah!
Mattie, my mom and I both have chronic pain (Mom for sure has fibro, I am as yet undiagnosed). It sounds like mine isn’t as bad as yours, but I’ve found that things that focus more on building muscle and less on aerobic movement are easier on me (and help with the associated muscle weakness). So belly dancing, yoga, etc… are feasible while running, spinning classes, etc. are not. My mom has a balance ball that she sits on while she reads or watches tv. She also does small stretches, arm circles, etc.
I take a yoga class twice a week for 1.5 hours each session.
I’ve been slowly taking up running, and at this point I go twice a week and run for about a half a mile and walk for about another one mile. I’m working my way up to running a full mile.
I used to have tennis twice a week but that’s over now, so I’m thinking of adding another day or two of running and/or walking to my week.
i walk a *lot* and my exercise amount varies with work (I’m an archaeologist). sometimes I’m in the office and probably average 30minutes/day, other times i’m in the field surveying and may get 16 hrs of heavy hiking and digging meter deep holes in/day.
besides, a recent “fat and genetics” article on the AMISH showed that people from fat families were fat and people from skinny families were skinny, even with 10-12 hrs of HARD labor/day; there wasn’t a big change in size for the fat people until they had prolonged periods of 16+hr days!!! besides, I know my body, and if i’m exercising for *extended* periods every day, i don’t lose weight. I might gain a little muscle mass (I build bulky muscle rapidly) but the fat barely budges b/c i need it for *fuel* for the exercise, and if i’m working AND exercising as much as recommended, i certainly won’t have time to eat enough to fuel the exercise!!
Although I love to exercise when I’m in the groove of it, I have a really hard time getting going when I’m out of the groove.
I’ve been out of the groove for awhile now. I am fighting the urge to justify why this is so because I know that exercise is good for me and anything with the word “good” attached to it has the opposite of “bad.” “Bad” gets translated into a judgement about myself, then f***s with my self-esteem. So, I’m going to say that I’m learning how to take care of myself in other ways right now…and at some point exercise may be re-incorporated into that.
I am an accidental exerciser- as a NYer, I walk, lots. But not for the sake of walking. I am frequently cast in shows that require a lot of dancing or movement, so those rehearsals and shows count. I’m usually busy for about 14-16 hours of the day- I would like to start my yoga again to tone up and center myself, but all I can do when I have spare time is chill out and veg!
-Zaftige
My last comment wasn’t meant to imply that what works for my mom or I will work for you. Everyone has different pain/activity tolerances (there’s no way my mom could do a full-on yoga class, for instance). Those are just some strategies we’ve used that maybe you can adapt for your own tolerance level.
I have just stumbled my way into the FA community and I have to say, you have some awesome things to say! I am still struggling with accepting myself just as I am but I hope to get there one day.
3 or 4 hours a day is totally insane. I wouldn’t even have that much time to work out if I didn’t have a job. I try to get in some yoga and walking each week, it helps relieve my stress.
When weather permits:
45 minute bike ride to work 5x/wk, 20 minute ride home (I take the long route to work)
weightlifting at the Y after the bike ride, 3-4x week, 20 minutes
2 hour bike rides on Sa-sun. I go nuts without these
When it gets snowy and crappy out
replace the bike ride with 30 minutes on some machine, 5x week (this includes weekends, honestly I don’t get to the gym 7x a week when its crappy out), plus strength training for a half hour after the aerobic exercise.
And i’m over my set point, I’m eating way too much lately, not to nourish, not to enjoy food, but to alleviate stress.
oh… and i have a 4- year old boy so i chase him around a lot.
Aw man, it ate mine – I’d guess because I put a link in. I’ve moved it to the Website box.
So what I was saying: 2-3 0.7mile walks a week – that’s a lap around the office on lunch. And some saturdays a gentle 15-20 minute bout of yoga.
Less than recommended, less than I’d like, but all I can talk myself to into.
Planning to start ballroom dance lessons next week, which will add an hour of movement to our week.
I teach Pilates 4 hours a week, I walk, we ride our bikes with the kids, I do yoga, and I lift weights. On my hard-core days I will work out for 2 hours (although last Saturday I subbed 3 classes in a row, then came home and collapsed, lol!) and i DO NOT recommend it!
Just a couple of years ago, the “experts” would have said that working out 3-4 hours a day is a sign of disordered behavior, and now it’s RECOMMENDED?!?!?! Puh-lease!
I usually walk 30-45 minutes 4 days a week, plus a hike on the weekends.
My body requires a lot of exercise and a strict diet to just maintain my weight. Currently I:
— walk 2-3 miles each day with my dog
— run at least 5 miles 4 days a week
— do an hour of strength/circuit training twice a week (or sometimes split one of these hours up for half on one day and half another)
Walking 30 to 60 minutes – 4x or more a week
Yoga – 2x a week
Weights – 2x a week
.5 hour aerobics – 1 or 2 times a week
I work out pretty often — 30 to 60 minutes of cardio on an elliptical or bike (or both) 4-5 times a week and 45 minutes of some form of strength training 2-3 times a week. I use public transportation to get to and from work, but use my car for errands and such on the weekends. My diet isn’t super restrictive (as in, I am not starving) but I avoid carbs, eat lean proteins and veggies and have curtailed my booze consumption pretty radically (as in almost down to zero) over the past 6 months. I’ve realized a lot of progress in terms of strength and cardiovascular health since I stepped things up in April, but not significant changes in my measurements or weight. The weight thing annoys me, but I feel pretty good otherwise.
I love the exercise I get… wish I could dance more… Here’s my routine:
1. Bicycle 6 miles a day, 5 days a week, more on weekends, but unpredictable. Half the weekday bike ride includes a 46-lb daughter on the tag-along bike or in the bike trailer. I do this in the Oregon rain, and even the snow we had last winter.
2. Gym: 5 days/week, 30-45 minutes of strength training and 30-60 minutes of aerobic workout (eliptical, bike, treadmill, just to change things up), depending on how much time I have in my schedule. All the machines I use I set on hill or some such “challenging” routine.
3. Every other Saturday there is a contra dance in my community: last year I only made it to 3 of them… this year I plan to get to more! I love dancing!
4. Unpredictable: walking, biking, or swimming with my 5 year-old.
Mattie, I have an auto immune disorder that necessitates my being careful to not overdo it or I will end up in a flare. I use a recumbent (sp?) bike 20 minutes a day and occasionally get to the park for a walk. When you are having a good day (I sure hope you have some of those…) some time in a pool would probably be your best bet. Low impact anything. I like the ball idea that KS’s mom uses. There are online support groups for Fibro that can probably give you all kinds of good advice.
I get an hour’s walking every weekday just from getting to lectures. I get another forty minutes if I go back onto campus in the evening (at least twice a week), another hour and a half if I go into town (at least once a week), and two or three hours intensive charity-shop/veg market trawling every week. Oh, and I usually go into town on a Saturday and get lunch, so another couple of hours there.
Then on a Sunday I walk for, hmm, call it an hour or so total, and spend three hours running/walking/swordfighting/shouting, which believe me is intensive exercise. It could be worse, I could be wearing chainmail, but leather and fake fur can get pretty heavy.
I make that 13 hours walking a week, minimum, plus three hours of moderate to intensive exercise, during term time. And I’m really looking forward to term beginning again – I need my exercise!
I walk six minutes a day (for school pickup), and can barely manage that because of my CFS. On really bad days, I drive. Last time I did, one of the neighbourhood kids chewed me out for it.
I do pelvic floor and static quad exercises in an effort to not molder away any more than I already am.
I always feel pretty much out of place on “I go to the gym four times a week!” threads, but figured you were looking for a cross-section.
Every school day I walk at least 20 minutes four times a day, walking my daughter to school, walking home, walking to pick up daughter, and walking home again. And I push a 26+lbs toddler in a stroller, over VERY uneven sidewalks. And we live in an upstairs apartment, so I climb a full flight of stairs at least twice a day, carrying the baby. Not to mention all the other incidental physical movements of just being a SAHM and just taking care of living.
But I suppose that doesn’t count since I don’t do these things to punish myself for being fat. Oy.
I don’t have a car, so I’m forced to bus & hoof it. The walking is between 1.5 and 3 miles per day, depending on after-work errands, etc. On the days with less walking, I try to get in at least 20 minutes on the exercise bike, and at least that much time with weights. Have been doing this for more than 3 years and find that if I don’t get my walking for a few days I’m grumpy & can feel my legs stiffening. It’s all in what you get used to & what makes you feel your best.
3 – 4 hours? Not if someone paid me to! The comment re:that much exercise once being thought of as disordered behavior ? Hey – who cares if you’re nuts as long as you’re THIN???
Well, about a year ago I began to make a concentrated effort to change my lifestyle, improve my health, and reverse my diabetes. That included changing what and how much I eat, and insisting on daily exercise. I started out walking a half hour a day. Currently, my weekly routine includes almost daily walks of anywhere from 40 to 90 minutes, two half-hour workouts with a personal trainer, and several weekly gym trips for 30-60 minutes on the elliptical. I also have a couple of DVDs for days when I just can’t drag myself out of the house. I like the NYC Ballet toning/strengthening DVD … it’s slow paced and relaxing, but you really get a good workout!
Some days it’s hard to fit exercise in, but I always feel better when I do it and a little guilty if I don’t. But no one’s making me do it! I do it for myself.
I try to be actively active at least five days a week, either walking and jogging, working out with a weights to a fitness DVD, hiking or working in my garden. In the winter, I go to the gym and do a combination of cardio and weight-lifting, and sometimes add in dance and yoga.
Keep in mind though, exercise doesn’t always mean the stairclimber or lifting weights. Cleaning your house can be a form of exercise, as is walking to the bus stop. If you consider these kinds of mundane everyday activities, three to four hours of exercise every day doesn’t sound so dramatic and impossible.
As I am training for a 60 mile walk, all of my exercise pretty much is….walking!
I walk about 25-40 miles a week.
Once I am done with this event, I plan on heading back to the gym. A normal week is 2-3 days at the gym, 30min cardio, 30min weights.
I’m currently training for three ocean swims and two aquathlons – and soon, will begin training for three run events.
I exercise approximately 8-9 times per week, on a couple of days, training more than once at the gym. My average time spent exercising per day is 2 hours, though it can get as high as 3 hours.
It used to be 15 times a week, but my personal trainer told me off and said it wasn’t healthy – and he was right!
As for the reason behind all the exercise? It’s because I love it. Even if I wasn’t doing the exercise events, I’d still find ways to be exercising – I LOVE the Les Mills classes; Body Jam, Body Pump, RPM; my biggest problem is deciding on any given day which class to do because I enjoy them all so much O_O
[and to add, I do all that exercise and am definitely still fat – or at least was the last time I checked!]
3-4 hours? OK that’s just really ridiculous, and on top of that everyone responds differently to exercise and so some people can exercise a lot and be overweight and others can not exercise at all and stay skinny. i think they should be giving recommendations of how long to exercise if you want to be healthy. because if your healthy and fat it is WAY better than being skinny and dying of exhaustion, especially since there is absolutely nothing wrong with being fat in the first place. as far as how much i exercise..at the moment not at all. i started doing exercise my senior year (after finding out all about my family history of heart disease, osteoporosis, etc. my health conscious boyfriend started dragging me to the gym with him after school everyday) and i did about 30 minutes on the bike or elliptical machine every day and a little bit of weights. now that ive started college i stopped exercising (its my 3rd week here so im still sorting out my schedule) but this thursday i start a twice a week yoga class and then ill start doing cardio at the gym a couple times a week. and coming from someone who did no exercise whatsoever and then started suddenly…it makes a big difference. i used to barely make it up the stairs to the subway..it was so pathetic. but yea, 3-4 hours is definitely messed up