Government Exercise Suggestions
 

"Adults looking to manage weight should do 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous cardio most days of the week. To maintain weight loss, 60 to 90 minutes of moderate daily exercise should be added to strict caloric intake."

They changed the government exercise suggestions to this.

Does anyone actually think this is realistic? I usually spend an hour to an hour and a half running on a daily basis, but I know that's weird. Even my personal trainer told me that that much cardio adds a significant risk of injury. Does anyone think that normal people would actually listen and do 90 minutes moderate cardio every day?

That's for weight MAINTENANCE after a loss. And regardless of people and whether they'd hit that, it is in line with my experiences...BUT it doesn't all include cardio. Typically I do an hour a day of cardio, and half an hour of something else that isn't as intensive.

That is overwhelming. For the past 2 months I have committed to 30 minutes 5 days a week. I try to do it everyday, but with work, family and friends I feel like even a measly 30 minutes is overwhelming.

Shoot. There was a thread about this earlier and I have been trying to find it but can't. Lotta good thoughts in it. I'll keep looking.

It is interesting because I do know people who lose and who maintain on less than 90 minutes, but I they're people who know how to maximize their workouts and who are very careful about their diets. And I know more people who put in at least an hour a day or more.

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What counts as "moderate cardio"? I dont have an exercise regime at the moment but i have a very tiring job in a shop where i stand for 7.5 hours and run up and down stairs about 50 times a day. does that count for anything?

Photochick, I think this is the thread you are looking for: Study: More Exercise Is Needed To Maintain A Weight Loss.

Personally, I think the government's suggestions is :censored: insane. I don't do anywhere near that much cardio. I do about 30-45 min of high intensity cardio (a good portion of it HIIT) on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays (well, maybe more on Thursdays because I take a circuit training class that sometimes includes a fair amount of cardio). I swim for about an hour and a quarter on Saturdays, at a pretty moderate pace. I strength train with a personal trainer on Mon, Wed, and Fri and my trainer does sometimes include some cardio in that, but I can't imagine that it's more than say 15 or 20 min of my workout (it's pretty high intensity stuff, a lot of plyometrics). That's it for my cardio. I am pretty strict about my diet, however, and the only cardio I'm doing that you could call moderate is the swimming (and an occasional outdoor run or spin class), the rest of it is high intensity.

My trainer doesn't think I need to do any cardio at all, other than weight-based cardio. I don't know what the correct term is, but when you are lifting weights, you can get a cardio effect by doing more reps at a lower weight. If my trainer had his druthers, I think that's all the cardio he would have me doing. I won't do it because I hate weight lifting in any form (other than ab stuff and I can't do an hour of ab exercises). I'd much rather do HIIT on the TM.

I think the government guideline is damaging. I think it discourages people from trying to exercise at all. I know when I heard that recommendation for the first time, I was completely overwhelmed by it. I figured there was absolutely no way I could ever manage that, so I just gave up on the idea of exercising at all. I didn't start exercising until I decided on my own that the government was just whacked and I could ignore their stupid suggestion; that any exercise that I could manage would be better than no exercise. Personally, I think the government purposely picked a recommendation that is high with the expectation that most people wouldn't be able to do it, but with the hopes that it would encourage people to do, say, half the recommended amount of exercise. But I think it has the effect of discouraging people from exercising at all.

IrishRover: I'm not an expert by any means, so take this as the amateur opinion that it is, but I think "moderate cardio" is working at about 60% to 70% of your maximum heart rate or a 5-6 on the 10-pt perceived exertion scale. Standing probably doesn't count as moderate cardio because it doesn't really elevate your heart rate at all. Running up and down stairs probably would count as moderate cardio, provided that you find yourself getting out of breath when you do it (indicating that your heart rate is elevated). It might even be high intensity cardio if it is elevating your heart rate enough. The problem is that you are probably only running up and down stairs in short bursts and I think you want to be sustaining an elevated heart rate for a longer period, say, 20 min, to get maximum benefit out of it.

this might be...naive? dumb? of me to suggest, but perhaps the government is being careful, perhaps way too careful, with their recommendations. perhaps they dont want people to come back and say that they followed all their guidelines and still werent successful ?