Thursday, July 1, 2010

Thankfully you never forget how to do it . . .

198 pounds
This week The New York Times published an article about how biking is a more effective way to lose weight than "slow" walking.

First of all, I'm THRILLED to have this information.

I always have the sense there are things other people know that I don't—like which foods burn more calories when you eat them or what time of day you should exercise for maximum effect. In my weakest moments, I suspect that super thin people keep this information locked up in their closet full of skinny jeans and mini-skirts.

Also, as some of you may know, I am a BIG walker. Dave and I make it a point to walk 50-70 minutes every day. This doesn't always happen seven days a week during the school year, but it does happen about 90% of the time.

For this reason, it's been really frustrating to me that even though I do this pretty regularly, I haven't lose any weight lately—meaning over the past six months.

And this is unusual for me.

In the past, if I was walking and eating pretty well, I was losing weight. Maybe only a pound a year, but I was losing. The first year I started walking every day, I only walked thirty minutes a day, but the pounds still came off. But not anymore.

So when I heard about this new study about biking, I was intrigued.

I absolutely love biking, though I really only get on my bike once every other week or so. But if it's going to help me drop a few pounds, I'm more than happy to do it more often.

I'm not going to lie though--I have to wonder about this study. It says that biking helps women lose weight more than slow walking. Well, my first question is what exactly do they mean by "slow"? They also mention that brisk walking is as good as biking.

So let me get this straight. . . slow walking doesn't help you lose weight, but brisk walking and biking do? What are they reallly trying to say? That if you move like a turtle, you'll also be a little tubby? Come on! Tell us something we don't know. What I can't believe that is that people get PAID to do this kind of research. I think I could have figured this out myself, and I certainly didn't need a bunch of Harvard researchers to tell me.

But, okay, I'll play along and get my bike out, hoping that what I normally do is too slow to make a difference.

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