Aiming for a body similar to the lithe or Amazon type bodies flaunted in women and men’s magazines respectively, is for most unnecessary and unrealistic.
However, an “over-endowed” body that carries body fat far in excess of that which is healthy, is hazardous and has been associated with several chronic diseases of lifestyle. Whilst the most popular means of trying to “lose weight” is employing some fad diet that promises miraculous results – it is definitely the least feasible and sensible.
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Weight management programme
To be effective, a weight management programme should have a three-pronged approach. It should assist you with:
Making appropriate food choices.
Assessing your eating behaviour and helping you to change your attitude and consequent behaviour where appropriate.
Incorporating physical activity into your lifestyle.
Whilst the first two points are integral to the process of weight control, this article will focus on the role of exercise in bringing about long-term success in losing excess fat and maintaining a healthy weight thereafter.
So considering exercise and your body’s physiological responses – how exactly does it help? Top researchers in the field of energy balance and Prof Tim Noakes’ “Lore of Running” explore some of these effects:
Raised metabolic rate: The actual exercise session will cause and increase in your metabolic rate (the rate at which you burn energy) as well as keeping it elevated for some time afterwards.
Thermogenic effect of feeding: Prior exercise may increase the thermogenic effect of food eaten for some hours thereafter. This means that more heat energy is produced when you eat, which translates into less of it being stored.
Loss of fat rather than muscle: Unlike restricting your diet, which causes a loss of water, muscle and fat, exercise causes a loss body fat and in fact increases your muscle (lean tissue) and water.
Loss of abdominal fat: Exercise helps you to lose fat from the stores you don’t want (i.e. abdominal stores), whereas dieting may cause loss from peripheral stores. This has very important health implications considering that excess abdominal fat (a large waist!), is associated with chronic diseases of lifestyle such as heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.
Increased muscle tissue – higher metabolic rate: The increased muscle mass that results from regular exercise should increase your basal (resting) metabolic rate, because muscle tissue burns up much more energy than does fat. Effectively, this means that even at rest your burn more energy than previously. Dieting alone, however, causes a LOSS of muscle tissue, which causes a fall in your basal metabolic rate, which means that you need less food to maintain your weight than before. In contrast, if you combine moderate dietary restriction with regular exercise, the exercise can offset this undesirable loss of muscle tissue.
Your appetite and food intake: They may fail to adapt immediately to your increased physical activity. Therefore, there may be an initial period in your exercise programme when extra weight is lost as food intake fails to match your actual energy expenditure. Research fortunately does not back the widely held belief that exercise stimulates appetite.
Exercise choice and weight loss: Walking, cycling and running appear to be the most effective forms of exercise to bring about weight loss. For some reason, swimming seems to be less effective.
Interestingly enough, how much your body actually adapts to each of the 7 points listed above is partly genetically determined.
Research shows that:
40% of the differences in resting metabolic rate are genetically determined.
81% of the variation in response to the points mentioned above due to training is genetically determined.
So hopefully, you chose your parents well!
Get those trainers on and get active!” - Kathy Mc Quaide, Sports Scientist, Manager of the Health Promotions Department at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa. (SSISA) and OptiFit Walk and Run Health Programme Manager.
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