When walking makes you fat...

Was reading Prevention Magazine...
Would you lose more weight if you curled up with a good book or if you took a leisurely walk instead?  The end result is about the same...Unless your walk is fast enough to leave you breathless.  In a new study from Harvard University, women who strolled at a window-shopping pace throughout a 16-year period weighed about the same as women who didn't exercise at all!!  But the women who stepped up the pace to 4 MPH fared better at fighting age-related weight gain.

Thoughts??

makes sense - we're taught that we have to get our heart rate up.  While we might get excited about a pretty purse in a window, that's not going to get my heart racing for more than a minute, even if it's on sale.

Certainly 4mph is a generalized benchmark, but for a person of average fitness, 4mph would be a good pace for a fitness walk (i'm guessing 3.5-4.5 is the usual range for a good cardio walk).

I didn't look at the study, just wrote what I saw in Prevention.  I have a feeling they were using average size women in the study.  I personally believe that obese, morbidly obese, and severe morbidly obese people would be aided by movement of any kind.  I do remember in college that in order to gain (strengthen) lung capasity you needed to get your heart rate up to at least 120 beats per minute for at least 12 minutes.  So my thoughts are if you are overweight or normal size the above may apply to you more than for the obese person. 

oh, and I agree with you on that.  an obese person very well might get winded on what I call a "stroll", so the movement would be very useful.  I also abide by "a body in motion stays in motion".  any movement is good, at the very least for your mental health!

This is something I suspected all along.  I always say to people that I need to sweat to lose weight...these leisurely walks through the park are nice but that doesn't help me lose weight. 

 while it may technically be right, the problem is the message that an obese person hears - at least how I would have heard it when I was 360 pounds:  Don't bother walking, its not worth it.  Instead curl up on the couch with a half gallon of ice cream and watch another rerun of family guy.  

I think any movement is better than none, and most morbidly obese folks will get that heart rate up there by just walking.  

What if they read a book while walking??? Would that double the calorie burn??

What about a book on tape with an Ipod and rollerskates??

Read Maxim or FHM it will get your heart rate up a bit more

 Really? It just doesn't do that much for me.