Exercise and Weight Control

     Regular physical activity is an important part of effective weight loss and weight maintenance. It can also help prevent several diseases and improve your overall health. It does not matter what type of physical activity you perform sports, planned exercise, household chores, garden work, or work-related tasks all are beneficial. Studies show that even the most inactive people can gain significant health benefits if they perform 30 minutes or more of physical activity per day.

Research has consistently shown that regular physical activity, combined with healthy eating habits, is the most efficient and healthy way to control your weight. Whether you are trying to lose weight or maintain it, you should understand the important role of physical activity and include it in your lifestyle.

Just about everybody seems to be interested in weight control. Some of us weigh just the right amount; others need to gain a few pounds. Most of us "battle the bulge" at some time or the other in our life. Whatever our goals, we should understand and take advantage of the important role exercise plays in keeping our weight under control.

Carrying too much body fat is a major nuisance. Yet excess body fat is common in modem-day living. Few of today's occupations require vigorous physical activity, and much of our leisure time is spent in sedentary pursuits.

Physical activity helps control your weight by using excess calories that otherwise would be stored as fat. The number of calories you eat and use each day regulates your body weight. Everything you eat contains 'calories, and. everything you do uses calories, including sleeping, breathing, and digesting food. Any physical activity in addition to what you normally do will use extra calories.

Balancing the calories you use through physical activity with the calories you eat will help you achieve the desired weight. When you eat more calories than you need to perform the day's activities, your body stores the extra calories and you gain weight.

There are three types of activities you need to do to keep your body healthy: endurance activities, flexibility activities, and strength activities. Do a variety from each group to get the most health benefits. This book offers you a range of activities to choose from.

Excess body fat has been linked to such health problems like coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, diabetes, arthritis and certain forms of cancer. Some evidence now exists showing that obesity has a negative effect on both health and longevity.

Successful weight loss goes hand in hand with regular exercise. Being active doesn't have to mean a daily trip to the gym or running a marathon - everyday activities like gardening, walking to the market and even having sex all count as a form of exercise!

Exercise is associated with the loss of body fat in both obese and normal weight persons. A regular programme of exercise is an important component of any plan to help individuals lose, gain or maintain their weight.

Losing weight, gaining weight or maintaining your weight depends on the amount of calories you take in and use up during the day, otherwise referred to as energy balance. Learning how to balance energy intake (calories in food) with energy output (calories expended through physical activity) will help you achieve your desired weight.

Although the underlying causes and the treatments of obesity are complex, the concept of energy balance is relatively simple. If you eat more calories than your body needs to perform your day's activities, the extra calories are stored as fat: If you do not take in enough calories to meet your body's energy needs, your body will go to the stored fat to make up the difference. Exercise helps ensure that stored fat, rather than muscle tissue, is used to meet your energy needs.

On the average, a person consumes between 800,000 and 900,000 calories each year! An active person needs more calories than a sedentary person, as physically active people require energy above and beyond the day's basic needs. All too often, people who want to lose weight concentrate on counting calorie intake while neglecting calorie output!

The energy costs of activities that require you to move your own body weight, such as walking or jogging, are greater for heavier people since they have more weight to move.

Be Realistic

While using a gym is a fantastic way to lose weight, so many people enter a gym with unrealistic expectations. The reasoning often runs like this: go to the gym, and train two hours every single day, then watch as muscle builds and fat melts away. The assumption is that intense fitness training will lead to fast weight loss as calories are burned like crazy.

Well, maybe - but most of us aren't used to intensive fitness training. Trying to do too much too soon leaves us exhausted, full of aches and lacking in motivation. The fast weight loss we dreamed of doesn't materialize, and we stop going to the gym. In doing so, we forfeit any exercise-related weight loss and other health benefits.

Another point to note if you go to the gym to lose weight: throw out your scales! You'll be burning fat, sure, but also building muscle. Muscle weighs far more than fat, so though you might be in better shape, you may actually gain weight over the first few months! Ditch the scales in favor of a measuring tape to chart your progress.

Exercises can be of different kinds and different regimens (one should be careful in choosing the exercise regimen) and, except for a few, they must be carried out under the guidance of an expert.

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