Groups propose lowering physical activity guidelines

[BenT]

Read this in the paper this morning. Anyone else see a problem with this?

http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/local/article/524988--groups-propose-lowering-physical-activity-guidelines

[physique]

if anything they should be higher

[Spyder122]

if anything they should be higher

Yeah no kidding. Get those kids off the Nintendo and go play outside.

[gicantor]

We have a fat kid epidemic, and they want to lower it?

[steve_d]

I hate how they make these guidelines anyway. eat x number of vegetables, and do 30 minutes of activity...In general, that might be good advice for people who aren't eating any vegetables or doing any exercise. But I hate how these researchers think there is a magic number that will produce a healthy individual.

The general public is (let's face it), stupid when it comes to calories, health, nutrition, and exercise. Now we tell them all they need to do is x number of minutes of activity and they are good to go. Meanwhile who's healthier - the guy who does 30 minutes of activity per day but has a flawless diet vs. some guy who does 2 hours of activity per day and eats 5000 calories of doughnuts thinking "i can eat this because I worked out".

It's surprising how little the general population knows about being healthy. Instead of 60 minutes of activity per day in children, we're better off using most of that time educating them about being healthy - otherwise they do their activity, and ruin it later.

[tiramisu]

dumb and dumber.

[bigtavi8]

holy shit thats all the obesity level needs is to further lower the amount of physical exercise. In the long term imagine the health benifits and healthier canadians we would have if the guidelines were slightly increased activity. Obesity would drop most def. But of course the fat ppl would riot saying that its too hard and its BS. soo.. cant please everyone i geuss.

[vakker]

fat kid epidemic comes from diet.

even fat kids are really active.

[O-Train]

Maybe they figured that if the guidelines were more realistic than people may be more likely to actually try to meet them. Kinda along the lines of doing something is better than nothing. Most people don't have a lot of time and they don't need much of an excuse to give up before they begin.

[steve_d]

no one follows the guidelines anyway....99% of the population don't even know what the guidelines are (food or exercise-wise). The only place the guidelines could potentially have an impact for kids is in the schools. And if I am not mistaken, PE is less important now in schools than it was when I was a kid. Meaning there is no substantial amount of activity mandatory in schools. I still think the key is to educate though. activity is in my opinion only 10% of the problem when it comes to the obesity epidemic. 90% of it is lack of knowledge.

Some people want to make a difference, they just have no clue. In university a guy wanted to lose weight, and he started forcing himself to eat a large quantity of quacker harvest crunch cereal....I am talking probbaly 3 cups of the stuff for breakfast thinking it was healthy cereal that would help him lose weight. It came out to over 1000 calories, and the kicker is, he told me "I hate this cereal"...Again, people need to be educated first.

[evoke]

They're also lowering physical activity guidelines for adults:
"For adults, the recommendations call for at least 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity activity, compared to current guidelines of 30 to 60 minutes daily."

150 min /week for adults? or 21min/day?
Be careful, don't over train in your 21min workout. hahah

[L3]

didnt u know, with a bowlflex extreme.. 20min/day is ALL u need

[JifeLacket]

^^^ I thought it was only 3x a week!!! hahaha