Keep On Moving - Exercise Regularly and Exercise Consistently

By Dietitian, Juliette Kellow BSc RD

Unless you work out intensively, constantly stopping and starting an exercise regimen means you’ll need to do even more exercise once you restart to lose any excess pounds you’ve gained.

A new report published in a sports journal this month, looked at data collected from the National Runners’ Health Study and concluded that any weight we gain as a result of stopping exercise can be much harder to shift when we finally get back into the exercise habit.

The study looked at men and women who had increased and decreased the amount of exercise they did over almost eight years.

The men who exercised intensively by running more than 32km a week, and women who ran more than 16km a week, didn’t seem to suffer any effects when they reduced the amount of exercise they did. Any pounds they gained by decreasing their activity levels were lost again when they returned to their previous activity levels.

This wasn’t the case for adults who exercised less intensively. Those who ran between just 0-8km a week, gained four times more weight when they reduced their activity levels than those who ran 32-48km a week and reduced their activity. Worse still, the less intense exercisers had to start running more than 16km a week to start seeing their weight come down again.

The report concludes that if you gain weight as a result of exercising less, it’s often not enough to simply return to previous levels of activity. You actually need to do more to shift those pounds.

The best solution: exercise regularly and exercise consistently throughout the year and avoid taking prolonged breaks!

Dietitian says:

This is an interesting piece of research and highlights just how important it is to exercise regularly and consistently.

Poor weather, extra-long days in the office and hectic social lives mean many of us go through times when our exercise routine drops off, or often even stops completely (think the run up to Christmas or school holidays). And if we do gain a pound or two during this time, we always believe that as soon as we get back into our usual exercise routine, they’ll drop off again. This research indicates that this isn’t the case. To shift those pounds chances are we’ll actually have to do more exercise than before.