Ladies, are you having trouble meeting the general recommendation of 30 minutes of exercise five days a week? Then you're definitely not going to like the latest reports claiming that we actually need more than double that amount to keep our weight in check. Studies published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association insist that women need at least an hour of moderate exercise a day to fight the flab that creeps up with age.

The findings are based on research that monitored nearly 35,000 non-dieting middle-aged women over a 13-year time period. During that time, the only women who gained little or no weight were the ones who started off with a BMI of 25 or less and who exercised for at least an hour a day -- and that group accounted for only about 13 percent of participants. It doesn't take a genius to figure out the math here -- you have to log seven hours of fitness a week, and I'm guessing many of us don't even get half of that. Who has the time?


But while it seems exercise is crucial to keeping your weight down, it shouldn't be your only weapon against the battle of the bulge. Dr. Howard Eisenson of Duke University's diet and fitness center told the Associated Press that exercise is only part of the battle and if you don't watch what you eat, "you're fighting in many cases a losing battle."

So what's your excuse for not getting a hour of exercise a day? You can find time to exercise -- busy people like you do it all the time. But if, like most of us, you just can't find enough hours in the day to spend several of them on the treadmill, keep this in mind: the women in the study reported doing moderate workouts, not necessarily intense ones. Activities like long walks will definitely get you moving, but they might not get your heart pumping as much as it should. Most research shows that you can achieve similar results in less time by adopting smarter workout habits, such as doing interval training.

And while you should definitely make fitness a priority, you shouldn't be a slave to the gym if it means compromising other important things in life, such as spending time with your loved ones. Just make an effort to fit in as much fitness as you can. If you can only manage a few minutes a day? Make the most of those minutes with short but intense workouts.