We’re heading into the holiday season, and a lot of people start to worry about gaining weight. If you read the previous post, you know that I’m trying to focus on gratitude, and that’s a great focus to keep at this time of year. So rather than worry about weight, how about being grateful for good health?
So many studies are coming out now, and being quoted in the popular magazines, about the benefits of even minimal exercise. And let’s face it, if you’re not exercising at all, minimal is where you want to start out. What’s important is to start with something small, so that you feel successful and so that you’ll actually do it.
More Magazine quotes a study on page 164 of its November 2008 issue from the University of Chile Clinical Hospital, which was just presented at a recent meeting of the Endocrine Society. This study found that exercise stimulates production of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF. What’s new about this is that scientists are finding that this chemical plays a role in appetite and calorie intake, and that exercise helps your body create more it.
Study groups exercised 20 minutes, 3 times a week, without changing their normal diets. By the end of the three month study, all of the volunteers experienced a significant drop in body weight, waist size, blood pressure and body fat, and they were all eating fewer calories a day without trying. Their blood levels of BDNF had risen by about 30 percent. The study found that the higher a person’s level of BDNF, the less they ate and the more weight they lost.
So the conclusion at least for now seems to be, exercise more, and you may very well want to eat less! Even if you aren’t losing weight, keep exercising, because the benefits to mood, cardiac health, and so many other areas are there. Start with what you can do, trying for at least 30 minutes of fast walking 4 or 5 times per week as a goal. (Naturally, check with your doctor first; never blindly follow advice from this or any other website!). The more you move, the better you’ll feel, at least after each workout. Soon enough, you’ll start looking forward to those workouts, and the sky’s the limit after that!
Happy exercising!
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