Hit the gym or make dinner? Most adults don't have time for both


Hit the gym or make dinner? Most adults don't have time for both —Even among those who were able to squeeze in both a workout and meal preparation in the same day, a 10-minute increase in time spent preparing food was linked to a workout that was 10 minutes shorter, the researchers said. 


In the study, a team of scientists from Ohio State University's College of Public Health analyzed nationally available data on more than 112,000 American single and married adults, with or without children, who had reported their activities for the previous 24 hours. 

Of those, 16 percent of men and 12 percent of women said that they had exercised on the previous day. And men spent, on average, almost 17 minutes preparing food, compared to an average of 44 minutes for women. 

The average time spent exercising for the entire sample of adults, including those who did not exercise, was 19 minutes for men and nine minutes for women. 

"As the amount of time men and women spend on food preparation increases, the likelihood that those same people will exercise more decreases," said Rachel Tumin, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in epidemiology. 

"The data suggests that one behavior substitutes for the other." "If we assume, for example, that adults have 45 minutes of free time to allocate to health-promoting behaviors, maybe we need to look at that holistically and determine the optimal way to use that time," she said. 

She presents her study April 12 at the Population Association of America meeting in New Orleans. jw/kc ( Relaxnews )





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