BOSTON — Astronaut Suni Williams has been doing a lot of squats --- in outer space.
The Massachusetts native is discounting rumors that she’s lost weight while orbiting the earth.
“I’m the same weight that I was when I got up here,” Williams said during a recent interview from the International Space Station with the New England Sports Network.
Williams, 59, of Needham, said she has been working out in space, and she credits that and being in space to possible changes in her body. But, she said, she weighs the same.
“I think things shift around quite a bit. You’ve probably heard of a fluid shift, where folks in space, their heads look a little bit bigger because the fluid evens out along the body,” Williams said while orbiting about 250 miles above the earth.
Williams wore tan khakis and a blue shirt as she spoke while holding a microphone, while traveling around 17,500 miles per hour.
Going that fast would make anyone’s hair stand up. As she spoke, Williams floated gracefully in the air, and her long hair flowed upwards towards the ceiling, and over her head.
While somewhere between South America and Africa, Williams said she and her colleague have been working out quite a bit.
“We’ve been on the workout gear. We’ve got a bike, we’ve got a treadmill, and we got weightlifting equipment. And I could definitely tell that weightlifting, which is not something I do all the time, has definitely changed me,” she said.
“My thighs are a little bit bigger. My butt is a little bit bigger,” Williams quipped. “We do a lot of squats. "
“I think my body has changed a little bit but I weigh the same,” she added.
Due to changes in their metabolism, astronauts must eat twice as many calories as they do on Earth. They are also expected to exercise two hours a day to help make up for muscle mass and bone density lost in space.
Studies have shown that the effects of space travel are harsher on women.
Williams, a marathoner who has run the Boston Marathon and the Falmouth Road Race, also spoke about the importance of being active and athletic.
That activity, she said, has has helped her as an astronaut, and “Making sure you’re healthy and your body can take this trip to space and be up here, and that return to earth.”
“This is a good way to live your life, making sure that athletics and sports are part of it,” she said.
College football is something she can watch while in space, but Williams misses being home for those in-person games, and “feeling the cold air of fall football.”
“It’s just not the same. You don’t have the excitement of the crowd, you know, and all of that as well up here,” she said. “But you have a great crew. Everybody’s into sports.”
A Boeing Starliner capsule took Williams and Butch Wilmore to the International Space Station in June. They remained behind after NASA determined the problem-plagued capsule posed too much risk for them to ride back in.
Williams and Willmore will remain at the space station until February, flying back with SpaceX.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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