Weight loss can be a sensitive subject for many, especially when so many people look to anorexia, bulimia, and other eating disorders. Weight loss can be a very good choice for your health, but if not done right it can also be harmful to your health.
A lot of people who are overweight say that they are comfortable with their bodies, however, they could really benefit their health if they shed the extra pounds. Even if you do not mind carrying a few extra pounds, you should consider the health benefits of losing some of the fat.
If you are overweight, you are at a higher risk for several health disorders. You are at an increased risk of a heart attack, and studies have shown that you only have a 50% chance of surviving your first heart attack. High blood pressure and high cholesterol are usually symptoms of having your heart work too hard trying to pump blood through fat clogged arteries. And of course, simply having high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels puts you at risk for a stroke. Strokes happen when oxygenated blood cannot reach the brain.
Being overweight can make it a challenge for women who want to have kids. When a person is overweight, they often times do not produce the correct hormonal chemicals needed for ovulation or to have a child. Even if you do become pregnant, being overweight puts you at an increased risk for a miscarriage and health issues with the baby.
Of course, there are some of the obvious disadvantages of being overweight. These can be that it is harder to find clothing that fits you or maybe that the larger clothing is simply more expensive. Poor confidence can stem from being overweight. Sometimes being overweight can also make it harder to fit into seats and areas that are designed for smaller size people.
So how do you decide if YOU need to lose some weight?
First let me point out that weight loss is a personal option. However, if you are over 20 pounds overweight, losing the pounds is essential to your improved wellbeing and energy. You can compare your weight to others that are your same height but this is not usually the safest plan since there are differences between fat and muscle ratio to body weight. Your Body Mass Index (BMI) is actually a safer choice of measurement than looking at your bathroom scale. Having the right BMI can give you more energy, greater mobility, a healthy heart and more confidence.
The 3 Worst Reasons to 揇iet攨
First, if you are just comparing yourself to a model, then you may as well be comparing yourself to some third world country skinny kid. Let抯 get practical. Often times, models and actresses are airbrushed in photos to look more slender than they actually are in real life. They also are not necessarily healthy. If your body weight is normal, you do not need to lose weight, even if you are a size larger than your favorite celebrity.
Second, just because you put on xx number of pounds of weight this year, does not mean that you have to get rid of those pounds. Did you gain weight because you are now taller than last year? Or because you are now working out more and you have more muscle mass? Muscle does weigh more than fat, so in this case weight gain is ok.
Third, you should not start a weight loss program just because your boyfriend says that you need to. Everybody has a different body build. If you are within the normal weight for someone your age and height, then just eat healthy and be confident about who you are. Exercise is always good for anyone, whether you are overweight or underweight.
Warming Up...
When you have to fit an exercise routine into your already busy schedule, you might be tempted to simply skip the warm up routine, even though you抳e heard horror stories about people getting injured while working out. Three words: don抰 do that. When you skip your warm up, you are not only putting your body as risk for personal injury, but you are also making the workout more difficult and less effective. For the best results, it is important to warm up every time you work out.
Warming up doesn抰 have to eat up the time you allotted for exercise into your day. In fact, a decent workout only has to be 5 minutes long to do its job. It doesn抰 have to be boring either梱ou can mix up a number of great moves to make your warm up as fun as the rest of your exercising. Remember that a good warm up gets all of your muscles moving, even if you don抰 think that you抣l be intensely working out a set of muscles on any particular day. Warming up is also important regardless of if you抮e doing cardiovascular exercises or lifting weights.
The moves you do for a warm up shouldn抰 necessarily be difficult or make you break a sweat. The main goal of the warm up isn抰 to become a part of your workout, but simply to slowly move muscles that you haven抰 really thought about all day to wake them up. Good moves, therefore, include things like jogging in place, doing jumping jacks, lunging, and jumping rope.
A good warm-up can also including slowly stretching your muscles in a variety of ways, although this is usually more effective for a cool-down. Also consider exercises that work on balance and form in order to prepare you for the exercises you will be doing in the workout.
A good workout always builds in intensity. This is the best way to shed pounds and maintain a healthy weight. Weight loss workouts are only risky if you don抰 warm up, because otherwise your body will respond to prevent injuries. Although you may be tempted to skip this step, that is never a good idea.
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