Permanent Weight Loss
Diet is key for weight loss but do ot overlook the workout. Often people get caught up in over general reasoning and media gimmicks. Here are answers to common questions to maintain permanent healthful weight range.
1. If I don’t look overweight, I should not need to exercise? Don't fool yourself into falling for this fitness fallacy. One barometer of healthful fitness level is body fat percentage, the amount of body fat in proportion to muscle mass. High body fat level may increase risks associated with heart disease, stroke, certain cancers and diabetes. The body is designed to move...just find an activity you enjoy.
2. If I exercise daily, I should not have to watch what I eat, right? Here's another tall tale you should not believe. Even if you exercise regularly, you should still keep track of how much and what types of foods you’re eating. Regular exercise coupled with complete and healthy nutritional habits go hand-in-hand. Without one, the other has a limited effect.
3. To lose weight and keep it off you must exercise hard all the time.
Absolutely not. Just adding a short, brisk walk to your mornings can help you start shedding pounds right away. And, if the habit continues, the weight is more likely to stay off. Do only what you can comfortably do; eventually you’ll be able to do more for longer. What’s important is to do something you like and do it on a regular basis.
Tammi Jacobs, Health and Wellness Expert
Results Health and Fitness Center, Chandler, Arizona
Exercise Can Make You Thin
Exercise is good. It is a principle that most people agree. It is good for permanent weight loss, accelerating the metabolism, burning calories, strengthening and sculpting muscles, keeping our bones strong and dense, reducing stress and releasing feel good hormones. However there are a few misinformed individuals at TIME magazine with a warped perception of what healthy really is. They even to go so far as to publish unenlighted information, “Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin.”
John Cloud, a reporter for Time Magazine, and self proclaimed exercise geek, attempts to disregard the importance of the three cornerstones of health and fitness: education, fitness and nutrition. Mr. Cloud misinterprets the research released at the European Congress on Obesity in Amsterdam, where a team of researchers from Peninsula Medical school presented their discovery on energy expenditure with children ages 7 -11, across different socioeconomic backgrounds.
It is common knowledge that exercise is a major component to a healthy lifestyle and the ability to maintain a healthful weight range, permanently. Myriad of research, thousands of health and fitness professionals who devote their life and research to exercise and the number of people who have lost incalculable pounds of fat all will confirm the fact that working out works.1. Exercise Annihilates Midsection Body Fat. To beat the belly bulge, moderate to high intensity cardiovascular activity is a must. The body utilizes the triglycerides stored in the visceral body fat as an energy source. This stored adipose tissue has the greatest impact with concern to the risks of stroke, high blood pressure and heart disease.
2. Energy In Energy Out. Keep it simple: You need to burn more calories than you consume to lose body fat. Regular exercise helps to keep calories in check and therefore helps to maintain a healthy weight range. 3. Consistent Exercise Keeps the Fat Away. 90% of people who exercise on a regular basis and have lost weight and kept it off for a year do so by exercising for at least one hour per day, most days, while maintaining a healthful and well balanced diet. 4. Exercise Boosts the Metabolism and Changes the Set Point. Regular exercise has double benefits if performed correctly. Cardiovascular activity such as walking, running, step aerobics and hiking burn the maximum calories while exercising. Weight training increases the lean muscle mass, which in turn increases the body’s BMI or ability to burn calories while not exercising. Long, lean muscles will torch calories and keep you energized. (which is another way of explaining a change in Set Point)
This is the area of concern in which Mr. Cloud further displays his lack of knowledge. His example of the “set point” theory as it was a theory to explain why repeated dieting was unsuccessful with long term in body composition. The “set point” is the only plausible theory to readjust the body's ability to increase the number of calories burned is sustained physical activity. The set point can keep weight fairly constant (stark contrast to his reference of increased obesity across the board: (children, adolescence and adults) and simultaneously pressures the conscious mind to change behavior. When a person’s weight is at set point is optimal for efficient activity and stable, optimistic moods. However, when a set point is driven to the lower end of the spectrum, depression and lethargy set in slowing a person down and reduces caloric expenditure, due to lack of movement, not the opposite. 
5. Exercise Curbs Eating. If you are an emotional eater, exercise is for you. Working out on a regular basis has been proven time and again to release hormones that regulate mood swings. So when planning your day, schedule in some sweat time and you won’t have the need to reach for the Ben and Jerry’s any longer.6. Exercise brings Joy. Let’s face it; dancing around listening to exhilarating music, hiking with a cool breeze through your hair is a lot more fun then eating a handful of baby carrots. If you examine people that schedule exercise successfully into their lives, you will have an opportunity to watch a group that truly enjoys what they are doing. 7. Exercise Decreases Hunger. A recent study by the Journal of Obesity found that people who exercise on a regular basis experience more self control with less hunger. 8. Exercise Causes a Chain Reaction of Good Things. Focusing on a balanced diet and a well designed workout program lends it self to other good habits as you will be surrounding yourself with people striving for a common goal. People who workout with a friend workout 40% more than those who sweat solo. Be a motivator and a health ambassador.
