Health and Fitness Oasis

Overweight and obesity in the US is increasing at a disturbing pace.  Every month more ideas turn up about the reason people can’t seem to manage to keep the weight off. Ideas include genetics, a heavy bone structure, a slow metabolisms and even contacting a virus.

But to be realistic, it is evident that if you are in a negative calorie balance you can lose weight. Put simply, if an individual eats less calories than they burn or they burn more calories than eat, they will lose weight.

Achieving this negative calorie burn can be accomplished using several different techniques.  The most common to eat less and exercise more.  But, before undertaking any fitness program to achieve your weight-loss goals individuals must consult with their primary care physicians to determine the level of exercise intensity and the length of time at which they should begin.  Your primary care physician will make suggestions based on your current health, fitness level and any interactions that exercise may have with the medications you might be on and any underlying medical conditions.

Another hard pill to swallow is that an individual who has a particularly slow metabolism will require less calories to maintain their bodily needs (like breathing and digestion) and therefore less calories, then another person.  This particular state of affairs will happen to each and every one of us.  As the body continues to age individuals find that they require less food in order to maintain their body weight or conversely, require less food in order to gain weight.  Many individuals find that this number changes drastically when they hit the age of 30, again at 40 and once again at 60.

However, if an individual puts their body into starvation mode by eating too few calories for a length of time this will slow the metabolisms down and they will no longer lose weight.

Using a healthy weight loss plan to achieve a negative calorie balance requires both fitness and a healthy diet.  Although the need for exercise and fitness has been well publicized to achieve a negative calorie burn and raise their metabolism for long-term weight loss, many people may not be aware of the equally important benefits to health and wellness.

By increasing the heart rate and respiratory rate through exercise individuals are also able to increase the blood flow through their circulatory system, increase the efficiency of their heart, decrease their blood glucose and improve the function of their lungs.  Individuals who suffer from diabetes will find that regular exercise will help them to maintain their blood glucose levels and often times decrease the amount of insulin required.  Through exercise they’re able to decrease the long-term negative effects of using animal hormones in the body while still incorporating a fitness routine into their daily lives.

Fitness also increases flexibility and strength so more people are able to perform their daily routine without any discomfort.  It increases energy levels, self-esteem and self-awareness of the body.  Individuals report that they feel muscles they’d forgotten they even had.

For these benefits to take effect it is important that the routine have both an intensity and duration.  The intensity of the fitness routine will equal how fast your heart rate goes and for how long.  Are you sweating?  Does routine make your muscles burn?

The duration describes just how long you’re doing the exercise routine.

Although both intensity and duration are important factors, if the initial level of fitness doesn’t allow the individual to exercise for more than 10 minutes then incorporating a 10 minute fitness plan three times throughout the day will give them similar benefits to doing 30 minutes all at once.  Then, as the fitness level improves, the individual will be able to maintain an intensity for a greater amount of duration.

The goal in any fitness program designed for weight loss is to do a moderate amount of exercise while maintaining that intensity level for 45 minutes to an hour and a half.  The amount of time (duration) which is chosen for the exercise program will relate to an individual’s lifestyle, overall health, amount of weight required for loss and the motivation of the individual.  The individual should also be working add an intensity level where they are producing sweat for at least half the work out and slightly out of breath when completed.

Individuals who are moderately to severely overweight should use only low-impact aerobic activities to decrease the potential for damage to the joints.  These types of activities include swimming, running in the pool, rolling and walking.  They are great exercises that continue to increase the heart rate while not damaging the joints.

Weight-loss and fitness programs can improve the quality of an individual’s life. Researchers also report that individuals who incorporate a fitness program into their lifestyle enjoy a lower risk of heart attack, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, common inflammatory disease and cancer.  It is a gentler way of making changes to your lifestyle that increases your success rate for your weight-loss program.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 9:43 am and is filed under Fitness Tips, Weight Loss Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.