- "With regard to excellence, it is
not enough to know,
- but we must try to have and use
it."
-Aristotle
Daily Dog Walks Work Off the Pounds
Dogs may be more than man's best friend; they
may also be a tool for losing weight, according to a new study that
shows making a commitment to walk a dog -- your own or someone else's --
leads to increased exercise and weight loss.
The goal of the study, according to Rebecca
Johnson, was to encourage sedentary overweight people to exercise and
specifically to walk.
"We know that walking is good for people but
we don't know how to get people to continue to do it. We wanted to see
whether bonding with a dog might be a motivator to continue walking,"
said Johnson, who is an associate professor of nursing and director of
the College of Veterinary Medicine's
Research Center for Human-Animal
Interaction at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
The dog-walkers in the study started by
walking 10 minutes per day three times per week and eventually walked up
to 20 minutes per day 5 days per week. One group walked for 50 weeks
while another walked for only 26 weeks.
For the study, the participants walked with
loaner dogs -- trained and certified "visitor" animals that were
provided by the Pet Assisted Love and Support (PALS) Program.
According to Johnson, the 50-week walkers lost
an average of 14 pounds during the one-year program. "That's a better
result than most of the nationally known weight-loss plans," she told
Reuters Health.
The walkers "bonded with the animals, improved
their flexibility, balance and ability to walk, lost weight and felt
better about themselves so it was a very positive thing all around,"
Johnson added.
It's important to realize, she said, that
these were a sedentary, economically disadvantaged group of people with
multiple chronic illnesses. Some had trouble walking even 10 minutes per
day three days per week at the beginning of the study but they gradually
improved their ability to walk.
"We had one lady," Johnson said, "who relied
on an electric scooter when she was outside of her apartment and by the
end of the 50 week program she was able to walk to the neighborhood
grocery store and back."
The 26-week walkers did not lose as much
weight as the 50-week walkers "so we know that it takes a year to see
the weight come off," Johnson said. Having a dog or being responsible
for walking someone's dog may be just the motivating factor to keep
people walking or encourage more people to walk, she said.
Source: REUTERS/By Megan Rauscher and
worldhealth.net
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