I just read an article at MSNBC.com which says that:

The full article can be read here.

I'm flabbergasted at that number! Only 3% follow those four simple guidelines?? To me they seem like four no-brainers and not very hard at all to accomplish, but maybe I'm ? So I want to ask all of you - do you meet the four guidelines of:

• Not smoking
• Eating five or more servings of fruits and veggies a day (remember, a serving size is one fruit or 1/2 cup of veggies)
• Maintaining a normal weight
  and
• Exercising for at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week?

LOL, this is really a statistically valid population from which to draw a sample!

- not meant to be statistically valid at all. Just wondering how many of us meet the standards. When I read the article, it struck me that this is how most of us here in Maintainers live, without even giving it a seond thought.

Well ... they seem easy and no-brainers to those of us who have traveled down this path ... but it's not shocking to me that so few people follow ALL the guidelines. None of these are part of our culture, and as an anthropology major I can tell you that cultural influence is king. These things are cultural norms in certain SEGMENTS of society, but to the American public at large, they are not. I think a more interesting statistic would be, how many people don't follow ANY of the guidelines.

I agree - I'd love to see THAT number. Any guesses?

Well, I'm not a maintainer yet, but I do manage to do #1, and #4 almost all the time. The veggie thing I'm getting better at, and probably average 3 or 4 servings a day. Still working on the BMI!

It's funny that the new USDA recommendations of 90 minutes of something active a day were met by almost universal replies of "no one ever does that, nor does anyone have the time" but the stats about how much TV people watch on average tell another story.

I voted for all 4... but if I do my BMI on this calculator I am at 26.2, which is too high BUT according to the YMCA body fat calculator I am 18% body fat... I know this is because I am muscular though, I find the BMI is inaccurate...

Yes, it frosts me that BMI is used unilaterally with no caveats, even by "experts." Anyone with half a lick of sense knows that those numbers are just as worthless as weight as a stand-alone measure of fitness.

You're both absolutely right about BMI. The article (or the survey) used that as the definition of 'normal weight' but it's often misleading or just plain wrong. I see plenty of women at the gym whose BMI is normal but whose body fat % makes them close to or actually obese (32%) ... and then there's Ilene, with a slightly high BMI but an awesome BF % ...

I'm going to go back and edit my post so that it just says 'normal weight'. Glad you pointed that out, Ilene!

My dh jokes that the guidelines should be 5-10 fruit and 5-10 veg servings per day. (And he gets that much most days too.) I think his bmi is around 25. So I guess we both follow all four recommendations.

I voted yes, but I'm not at all surprised by the low percentage. Just think about it, sure we follow those guidelines now, but it wasn't all that long ago that the thought of eating 5-7 servings of fruits and veggies or exercising a minimum of 30 min. 5 TIMES A WEEK!??? was just ridiculous. I mean who does that!? Well, we do... now. But we certainly didn't always. You also have to think about the millions of others who've never had the pleasure of experiencing our "issues" with food and body image. The ones who probably never even give nutrition and exercise a second thought. Wow, I wonder what that's like? I'll certainly never know! But you gotta figure, to a whole lot of people, what we perceive as one of our most predominate struggles in life, isn't even a blip on their radar screens. And if it is, it may be such a low priority, that it's just one of those things that they never quite get around to, ya know? It's hard to fathom how living healthy can just be no big deal to so many people, because it is SUCH a big deal to me, in my little world. But it definitely isn’t surprising.

Beverly

wow! i exercise just about every day. i'm maintaining a healthy weight, even though it's still a bit higher than it should be [i figure that counts, doesn't it?] .and i don't smoke.

but that 5 servings of fruit and veg a day? i can't eat that much!!! honest!!! for 'normal' people, i eat about 2 servings of carbs and 2 of veggies... oh well. it's what works for me

Used to not follow any of it. I didn't exercise at all. In fact, I avoided taking two flights of stairs at work and opted to wait for the elevator...complained it was because of my knee. I never kept fruits and veggies in the house, instead opting to stop in a drive thru at the nearest grease pit. And I smoked about 2 to 3 packs a day.

So...I quit smoking in 2001 and started dieting in 2002 and exercising in 2003. I have to admit that, pre-pregnancy, I exercised approximately 60 minutes a day for 5 to 6 days a week. Now, I only do around 30 minutes. It's a bit harder at this stage. LOL I now keep a bowl of fruit on the table (mostly apples which I've come to love, oranges, pears & bananas) and I have to refill it every other day. And not having a lot of time to cook, I keep the freezer stocked with the Green Giant veggies so I can just nuke a pouch.

I also go through a case of bottled water in about 5 days. They should've covered water in that survey.

I was one of the anomolies in my "before" life. I could have answered yes to 3 out of 4. I exercised MORE than 90 minutes a day, I ate plenty of fresh vegies and fruit (and water), I haven't smoked since grad school...a very long time ago.... BUT, I also ate alot of other things that I shouldn't have eaten, and just ate to darn much. Which proves the point that no matter how much you exercise and eat healthy foods, eventually it comes down to calories in vs. calories out! What I was never able to do before, was put it all together consistently. Working on year 4, now!

Mel

Ok, fruit & veg - no problem.
Exercise - doing that since January.
Weight - well, me and my doctor think it's ok, BMI says otherwise...

I kind of hate the BMI, too - it keeps telling me I'm fat. Ok, I'm 5'6" and (as of this morning) I weigh 174. Which is overweight...

But I truly don't think I am overfat. You can see my ribs, I don't have much extra flab... And I *really* am bigboned... It makes me feel very disappointed sometimes, because my personal goal weight is the same as many people's start weight. I have struggled with this for a long time. But I think I look good - I'm a size 12, which is ok with me.

The key to maintainence for me is doing the 60-90 mins of exercise. I could NOT maintain before, because my exercise was sporadic. It's funny, though, because other people really find my exercise excessive, but here's it's normal. It's really not that hard to fit in, especially now that I have a TV in the workout room.