Intense Physical Activity when We Are Younger Linked to Less Weight Gain when We Are Older

There are two things that happen to us as we age. One is that we think we can eat like we're twenty when we're actually 50. We also think that we can go out on the weekend and play sports like we used to do when we were a lot younger.

Then when we try to get up the next morning, we realize that things that were moving on Sunday don't want to move anymore. At least without a lot of pain. A sudden burst of athletic activity on the weekend is also a good way to get a coronary, especially if you have a sedentary job sitting behind a desk all week.

We tend to gain weight with age. It's called the "middle aged spread." We also can't consume as many calories as we did when we were younger because we don't "burn them off." Eating too much food and not getting enough exercise is a sure way to become overweight and open up the possibility of getting all kinds of diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure.

But if you were very active when you were younger and exercised a lot, it can have benefits even when you slow down as you get up there in years. Exercise has not been proven to increase your life span, but it can make your golden years a lot easier to cope with. According to Medical News Today:

"Regular moderate to vigorous physical exercise in the 20 years leading up to middle age is linked to smaller gains in weight and waist size, particularly for women, according to US researchers who stressed the importance of doing at least 30 minutes of physical activity every day throughout young adulthood to help minimize middle age spread."

The problem is that we are not exercising as much as we should anymore when we are younger. Sitting on the couch or in front of the computer screen playing video games has replaced playing sandlot baseball when we are kids. And although some exercise is popular with young adults, over 30 percent of all adults in this country are now considered obese.

There have been many investigations into the benefits of exercise and treatments for obesity, but there hasn't been much research into how exercising when we are younger can impact how much weight we put on when we are older. If you want direct evidence that we are getting fatter, just go to you're local Wal-Mart and look at the men's pants rack. Chances are you won't find many small waist sizes. But you will find a lot of XXL and XXXL.

The study showed that staying active during the twenty years before middle age resulted in a smaller BMI and less addition to the circumference of the waist. This applied to women even more than men.

Men who maintained a high level of physical activity gained on average 5.7 less pounds that those who didn't. Women gained an average of over 13 pounds more than those who
exercised a lot when they were younger.

Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/211529.php