Wheeling Walks Challenge: Week #6

Weight-Loss Maintenance

From 1960 to 1990, the number of Americans who walked to work dropped from 6.4 million to 4.5 million.

From 1977 to 1995, the number of local miles traveled in cars by the average American rose from 26 to 39 a day.

The typical American child spends almost 40 hours a week as a “media consumer” in a home that contains three TV’s, three tape players, three radios, two VCR’s, two CD players, a video game player, and a computer.

No one knows how many calories the average American burns, especially the “micro” energy spent on daily activities like walking down the hall instead of sending an e-mail. But researchers believe that it has dropped. And small differences add up. The cumulative reduction in energy expenditure can lead to a ten-pound weight gain each decade so it is a major contributor to the obesity epidemic.

But walking 30 minutes a day on 5 days a week can help! Walking has bee found to cause a 40% reduction in the risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and gallstones in people that walk just 30 minutes a day! The Surgeon General and the Centers recommend it for Disease Control.

The most important thing is to get off the couch. Walking is as close as we’ve come to a magic bullet to improve health.