According to a recent study, overweight women who wanted to lose weight needed to exercise for an hour a day, five days a week. The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, was headed by John M. Jakicic, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Health and Physical Activity at the University of Pittsburgh. The researchers found that women who exercised for an hour a day, five days a week along with their diets managed a 10% weight loss over a two year span as compared with others who managed only 5%.

More than 65% of adults in the U.S. are overweight and health experts till now have advocated 30 minutes of exercise a day or a total of 150 minutes per week to be adequate. John M. Jakicic said, "We know from previous studies that most people retain about 50 percent of the weight they lose within six to twelve months. What we found in this study was that the women who kept off the weight did about 275 minutes of exercise a week. It doesn't really matter which form of exercise you do, just pick one that burns calories, and it should be one that you enjoy, so you'll stick with it."

The study showed that the group, of women who exercised for an hour and controlled their diet lost more than the group who exercised for a half hour with a controlled diet. "This clarifies the amount of physical activity that should be targeted for achieving and sustaining this magnitude of weight loss, but also demonstrates the difficulty of sustaining this level of physical activity," said Jakicic.

Some experts feel that these results could put off people from exercising and losing weight. Pete Kupprion, head trainer of JF Gymnastique, an up market Madison Avenue wellness center for the affluent said, "My concern is that putting out a message like this can be overwhelming to the average person who has trouble exercising even two hours a week; Plus, the more you exercise, the more you are prone to overuse injuries such as tendonitis and cartilage damage."

Due to insufficient funding, the study only focused on women, though Jakicic feels the same findings would be applicable for men as well. "I don't think it would change that much for men and in fact, the excess body weight for men probably carries more health risks than it does for women," he said. "I think the forms of exercise men do are more rigorous and more sports related."

Jakicic said that overweight people shouldn't give up on exercise because they can’t work out by the study’s guidelines. "If you can't do 275 minutes a week, do what you can do. Everyone needs to find ways to become more active.  And if you can't do more exercise, then you may just have to be a little more diligent about what you are eating. Exercise is very important, but diet, or healthy eating behavior, still needs to be on your radar screen," he said.