More than 67% of Americans are overweight or obese. If you’re concerned about your weight, here are some facts you should know:

Back to basics

• Your body accumulates excess fat when you consume more calories than you burn as energy
• Many of the calories you absorb through food are used to power the normal functions of your body, such as breathing, heartbeat, brain function and digestion
• The number of calories your body burns while at rest is referred to as your basal metabolic rate
• Your basal metabolic rate increases with the amount of muscle tissue you have and decreases as you age
• If you’re interested in losing weight, you have two options:
  1. reduce the energy ‘in’ by lowering your calorie consumption
  2. increase the energy ‘out’ by burning more calories than you consume (increasing your metabolic rate)

Revving your metabolic engine

• Physical activity is one of the most successful ways to burn energy and use up calories
• Physical activity can increase your basal metabolic rate by approximately 10%
• This increase can last for up to 48 hours after you have completed your activity (so you can go home and watch TV after your exercise session and still burn extra calories!)
• The number of calories used in any type of exercise depends on your body weight and on the type and intensity of the activity
• For example, jogging for 20 minutes burns more calories than a leisurely, 20 minute stroll around the block – surprise, surprise!
• Not only will physical activity burn more calories, it will also reduce your appetite, so you’ll be less tempted to indulge in junk food and goodies

Physical activity and calorie reduction – a dynamic duo!

• The most effective way to lose weight is to combine physical activity with a calorie-reduced diet
• Research shows that weight loss is more effective through dieting alone than through exercise alone
• However, when you rely solely on dieting to lose weight, the weight you lose will be 75% body fat and 25% lean muscle mass
• If you combine dieting with physical activity, you will retain your lean muscle mass (exercise helps you build more muscle) and the weight you lose will be almost 98% body fat
• Once you have lost the weight you want, physical activity has been shown to be the most effective means of keeping that weight off
• The benefits of dieting and physical activity are rapidly reversed if you return to your old eating habits or stop your exercise sessions
• So, a lifestyle change toward healthy eating habits and regular physical activity is essential for maintaining the proper energy in - energy out balance

To make weight loss more effective:

• Choose a physical activity that puts large muscles (arms and legs) to work
• To make sure that physical activity becomes a part of your lifestyle, choose an activity that you enjoy – you’ll be much more likely to stick with it
• If you choose a less demanding, more comfortable activity, increase the time you spend at it – do one hour of moderate walking instead of a half hour of brisk walking, for example
• Break down the hour into shorter chunks of time if you can’t do a full hour at once - what counts is the total “energy out”

Tags: diet, dieting, Health, Health Tips, healthy weight, weight loss, weight management

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 30th, 2008 at 12:01 pm and is filed under Health Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.