Exercise
Melts Body Fat
If you want to reduce your body fat, focus on increasing
the amount of exercise you get rather than decreasing your
food intake. A recent national study was done using two groups
of sedentary men, one group in their 20's and the other over
age 65. A lot was learned from this accumulated data and it
is interesting to note that there was a significant relationship
between lack of physical activity and fat. Not surprisingly,
the most sedentary men had the most body fat.
These studies have also indicated that the governments current
recomended daily allowance for calories does not correlate
with the body's actual energy needs. For example, although
2400 calories have been calculated for older men, they in
fact burned an average of 2800 calories daily.
The leading experts now recommend that people who want to
lose
weight start increasing their physical activity. Just being
more active in general (such as climbing the stairs instead
of taking the elevator, moving around instead of sitting still,
sitting up instead of lying down as well as showing some excitement
and enthusiasm instead of boredom), are things that more effectively
burns calories and reduces body fat. Everyone seems to have
lost sight of the value of being active. Consider this, a
half-hour aerobic workout accounts for far less energy expenditure
than our minute-to-minute movement in the office or at home.
Millions of Americans are trying to lose weight, spending
approximately $30 billion a year on diet programs and products,
often they do lose some weight. But, if you check with the
same people five years later, you will find that nearly all
have regained whatever weight they lost. A national panel
recently sought data to determine if any commercial diet program
could prove long-term success. Not a single program could
do so.
Being seriously overweight and particularly obesity predisposes
individuals to a number of diseases and serious health problems,
and it's now a known fact that when caloric intake is excessive,
some of the excess frequently is saturated fat.
People who diet without exercising often get fatter with
time. Although your weight may initially drop while dieting,
such weight loss consists mostly of water and muscle. When
the weight returns, it comes back as fat. To avoid getting
fatter over time, increase your metabolism by exercising regularly.
Walking is one of the best exercises for strengthening bones,
controlling weight, toning the leg muscles, maintaining good
posture and improving positive self-concept.
To lose weight, it's more important to walk for time than
speed.
Walking at a moderate pace yields longer workouts with less
soreness - leading t more miles and more fat worked off on
a regular basis. High intensity walks on alternate days help
condition one's system. But in a walking, weight-loss program,
you are not requried to walk an hour every day as some people
would have you believe.
When it comes to good health and weight loss, exercise and
diet are inter-related. Exercising without maintaining a balanced
diet is no more beneficial than dieting whle remaining inactive.
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