Last Thursday, Morning Edition on NPR had a story about a study by the University of Tennessee of the Amish in Ontario, Canada. They were interested in their diet and exercise.

Their diet consists of meat, potatoes, vegatables, fruit, pie, cake, in just about any quantity you want, and there are virtually no overweight Amish.

The researchers wanted the test subjects to wear pedometers to see how far they walked each day, and although the Amish usually shun technology they agreed to wear them, although they didn't have belts to which the devices are normally attached. The ladies wore them on their aprons and the gentlemen in their vest pockets.

To get a feel for the numbers, note that there are roughly 2,000 steps in a mile.

The Amish women averaged 14,000 steps per day, or about 7 miles. The men averaged 18,000 steps per day, or about 9 miles.

One gentleman returned one day with a team of five Belgian Draft horses (I would have liked to see that; Belgian Drafts - Brabants - are impressive horses!) and his pedometer read 50,000 steps: 25 miles! "And none of them steps was easy, neither."

So, eat whatever you want. Just remember to walk at least 7 miles every day.

 

It's not like they do nothing other than walk. If you chop wood, haul haybales, erect fences, dig holes, regular house work, etc., any regular manual farm labor, you would stay in fine shape. The walking is just one more thing. Working on a farm with no modern machinery would certainly keep you fit. Walking 7 miles a day might keep you healthier than you are now, but you'd not be getting the same exercise as an Amish man working his farm.

 

My wife's grandfather lived to be 92 and he didn't care one bit about his health. He busted his butt everyday of his life living on a farm in Yamhill, Oregon and working in te sawmills until his late 70's. He ate whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted and had some seriously questionable hygiene after his wife passed away and he quit taking care of his house. Never even used a cane. A stroke finally got him this past September.

Sure he lived a long life but it was a very tough one.

 

Similar for Asians in Asian countries. If you perform manual labor and walk or bike all over the place, then you are more likely to stay thinner than the norm who would drive, eat fatty/high kcal foods, have desk jobs, only exercise at the gym for 30 min(walk)/3x/wk, etc. Man, I feel fat!

 

wonder what the average person walks in america..... probably about 1-2 miles...... some people probably have it down to less than a mile......

 

i remember one summer i played golf everyday and i walked carrying my bag.

this was when i was still in highschool and every morning i'd play at around 7. the course was roughly 5 miles and sometimes i played 2 rounds.

everyday for like 3 months i did this! i was in pretty good shape, now i'm a lazy bum.

 

I remember playing volleyball one summer, and about two weeks into the class I began to ride my bike about 20 miles a day. Because my legs were getting stronger I started jumping higher, and for about two weeks my timing on hitting was way off.

 

Even at my desk job, I wear ankle weights all day to try to keep up. I have the wrist sqweezer thingy also, and I do lots of push ups on my break.