"Easy" way to keep trim as you age: Just run a marathon a week

Is weight gain really the best measure? I gain weight when I exercise more, because I'm building more muscle. I would think BMI is a much better measure of health, and would be interested to see the correlations between running and BMI.

That's terrible.

Weight gain can obviously be affected by exercise, but a study researching this should seriously consider diet and what you do when you are NOT running. Weight gain is generally fairly simple: Input - Output = weight gain. This study seems to focus on Output without any (posted) consideration for changes in Input. It also limits Output to only activities during an exercise regiment - ignoring non-while-you-are-working-out lifestyle changes. I've always found that if I wanted to control my weight, diet was a MUCH more effective way to do it than exercise.

I agree with the comment regarding BMI being a better gauge. Also, simply using running as a measure doesn't really say much anyway; walking briskly every day for 30 minutes along with 15-20 minutes of weight-bearing exercise every other day will have a greater effect on total weight gain/loss (as well as fewer injuries). I find that the more I eat, the more energy I have, the more active I am, and so on--each 'feeds' the others. Of course, what you eat is important: sugar -> bad, unprocessed (as much as possible) foods -> good. Eat healthy, stay active, and pay less attention to just your weight as an indicator.

I've been training up to run a half marathon (which I did last week, coming in at 2:00:52, thank you very much), running about 18 miles a week. I've definitely shed a few pounds along the way--the trick is, as always, how much weight you gain when you stop, even for a week while you have a cold (as I do at the moment). I won't be at all surprised to go back to the gym on Monday and find 3-4 months of weight loss wiped out entirely by the last week and a half of watching TV. Our bodies crave to be lazy, and it takes the metabolism weeks to adjust hunger when exercise drops off.

I agree with the other posters: I'd like to see BMI for the same kind of study. And for my own demographic, 35-45 year olds, too!

I guess BMI would be helpful, but isn't it proportional to weight anyway? Height isn't going to change much once you're an adult. Body fat percentage would be interesting though.

Rob, nice job on the half-marathon!

Well it also depends on what you eat, don't you think.

People keep eating at the rate they did when they are 20, even though their metabolism slows down. Exercise along cannot counteract this, at least, not easily given most diets.

Agreed on the criticism that this only looks at one factor. I'm no kind of runner at all -- fairly sedentary, in fact. Nonetheless, I've lost 15 pounds in the past three years by switching to a largely-vegetarin diet. I'm in my late 40's, and now weigh perhaps 20lb. more than I did when I gradutated from university (planning to shed another 5 or 10, hopefully by dietary restraint and walking/cycling).

I think I'd also like more information about what, exactly, the study was measuring -- for precisely the reasons other commenters mentioned. Some random thoughts:

(a) True, sometimes someone starts exercising, finds they are hungrier than usual (because they're burning more energy), and eat more than they normally would, thereby undoing the calorie-burning efforts of the exercise. That would cause a bit of weight gain.

(b) Alternatively, exercising can help you lose fat, but you should also be developing muscle. And muscle is considerably denser than fat. You can appear thinner, be much more physically fit, and actually weigh more.

(c) BMI isn't the best indicator, either, since it also doesn't take added muscle into account: in his prime, per the BMI, Ah-nold S. would have been considered "obese."

Without additional information, it's tough to tell which, if any, of these possibilities apply.

FWIW, I bulked up quite a bit to take a black belt test in jujitsu in 2000, packing on an extra 30 pounds. I wasn't rail-thin, but I wasn't fat, either -- perhaps a bit on the muscular, stockier side. It dropped off gradually as I adjusted my regimen: less animal protein and dairy, more complex carbs, fresh fruits and veggies, combined with more cardio at lower resistance (45 minutes 3-4X a week), and very few weights (low weight, high reps).

But people are individuals. What works for me won't necessarily work for someone else, and it might not always work for me as my body ages and my metabolism shifts. There is no magic bullet "one size fits all" when it comes to fitness.

I think it should be noted that you run for your heart, not to loose weight. True, you burn calories when you run, but only when your run. If you build muscle, it continues to burn calories long after you have finished exercising.

Another thing to consider, everyone is different. I'm 5'8", 145lbs. Same as 15 years ago, sophomore year in high school. Workout once sometimes twice a week and run about once a week. I'm considered strong for my size and relatively cut so I'm not just skinny from a healthy diet.

As other people have said, and I believe to be true, diet is a key factor. I eat reasonably healthy, but do not necessarily watch what I eat. I eat whatever I like. Foods (if you call it food) that I don't like include: cake, candies, cookies, sweets in general, and I rarely eat fast food, also I generally don't like heavy greasy food.

You might also want to note that I'm fairly active. I surf about once a week and hike once a month or more if possible as well as take the stairs once in a while. I do office work but am on my feet a lot.

I think life-style definitely needs to be factored in.

I agree with MidniteArrow. Diet is just as important as exercise. You can't possibly put on too much weight if you don't eat too much.

I think the take-home point of the study is that exercise alone isn't going to make you lose weight. Even people regularly engaged in extremely rigorous exercise over many years still gain weight. They may not gain it as fast, but gain they do.

Now just imagine if these people had self-refilling soup bowls!

The post that "Input - Output = weight gain" may be technically true, but the output factor becomes much more critical as you age. My metabolism has slowed to a crawl as I have aged. Generally speaking, if you're over 50, weight and a spreading body are going to happen. Diet and exercise help, but there is no (safe) way that I can weigh what I did 10 years ago.

I see people, especially women, who look anemic, like they have an eating disorder (they probably do) because they eat so little. No way can this be healthy.

I have years of experience with this, and now I accept that I'm going to weigh more, eat less, and exercise to try and be healthy. There is no one method for everyone to maintain weight.

Guess what? You will also lose height along as you age. As I discovered, this is common. I have lost a whole inch in height somewhere between 30 and 50 plus.

Aging is not fun. But if you observe, you learn a lot.

I had a wonderful doctor once who told me that a woman SHOULD gain one pound every year from her base normal weight after the age of 35. That way less wrinkles will form because the skin fills out. So at age 50 I SHOULD actually weigh about 15 pounds more than I did at age 30. Sounds like a good deal to me!!! ;-)