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
TVs, three tape players, three radios, two VCRs,
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 weve come to a magic bullet to improve
health.
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