Exercise, Physical Activity and Fat Loss

Exercise is an essential part of healthy living, disease prevention and disease control. Exercise controls diabetes, hypertension, obesity and many other diseases and disorders

Exercise: The most effective way

Exercise and physical activity are the best ways not only to lose fat, beneficially regulate blood sugar of a diabetic person but for getting numerous other health benefits including the following:

Benefits of exercise and aerobic exercise in particular:

1. Reduction in the the risk of premature death
2. Reduction in the risk of developing and/or dying from heart disease
3. Reduction in the risk of high cholesterol or the risk of developing high cholesterol
4. Reduction in the risk of developing colon cancer and breast cancer
5. Increased maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max)
6. Improvement in cardivascular/cardiorespiratory function (heart and lungs)
7. Increased blood supply to muscles and ability to use oxygen
8. Lower heart rate and blood pressure at any level of submaximal exercise
9. Exercise helps lose fat effectively and permanently
10. Exercise boosts metabolic rate
11. Exercise brings out the feel good factor in you by causing the body secrete certain hormones like endorphin
12. If you can do exercise for a period of 30 to 40 minutes continuously, your body will continue to burn calories for hours even after you have stopped exercise.
13. Exercise boosts your immune response, meaning that you visit your doctor less frequently
14. If you are a diabetic, (Visit this page: Diabetes) exercise not only bring your blood sugar under control, it improves the body’s insulin sensitivity requiring you to decrease the dose of medicines (You should consult your healthcare professional before reducing the dose).
15. If you are suffering from secondary hypertension, (Visit this page: Hypertension [High blood pressure]) exercise may bring it under control. (In the first place you should consult your healthcare professional before doing any exercise).

What exercise should I do?

Do any of the following physical activity for a period of between 30 and 50 minutes depending on the type, intensity and form of the physical activity and your personal capacity:

1. Walking at a moderately fast speed
2. Walking the dog
3. Climbing stairs
4. If you are not very bulky, aged or suffering from any kind of illnesses such as heart disease, hypertension, osteoarthritis etc., you can do any of the following cardio exercises:

1. Cycling
2. Stair climbing
3. Elliptical training
4. Nordik Track Skiing
5. Swimming
6. Dancing
7. Skipping rope
8. Sports (Tennis, badminton etc)

What should be the intensity of my exercise?

Generally speaking the intensity of your exercise should be such that your breathing rate is moderately fast. If your normal breathing rate at rest is say between 70 and 80, the intensity of your exercise should be enough to raise the heart rate roughly between 100 and 150, depending on your capacity.

There is another method to judge the exercise intensity. The intensity of your exercise should be such that your breathing rate is 60 to 70 % of your maximum breathing rate. Now what is your maximum breathing rate? It is simply 220 minus your age.

Suppose your age is 35. Then your maximum breathing rate = 220 -35 = 185.

Now 60% of 185 = 111 and 70% of 185 is 129.5.

So at the age 35, The intensity of your exercise should be such that your breathing rate is between 110 and 130.

The maximum heart rate should be sustained for more than 25-30 minutes to get the full benefits of cardio exercise. Why? Because for the initial 15 to 20 minutes, the body utilizes stored glycogen as the preferred fuel. Only thereafter it turns to stored fat.

Small things make big difference

1. Use stairs instead of elevators and escalators
2. Walk the dog 10 minutes in the morning and 10 in the evening
3. Rake, mow garden/lawn.
4. Consider tossing a ball with kids in the evening instead of watching TV.
5. Walk to nearby places instead of using cars
6. To increase the motivation, find a friend or companion to exercise with. Even a pet dog will do.
7. Gardening, pruning and weeding are also great exercises

If you sum up many smaller bits of daily activities, you can easily achieve the goal of 40 to 60 minutes of exercise

For more info:

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1200013

http://exercise.about.com/

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