Exercise and Metabolism

Another important aspect of weight control is the role that exercise plays both in burning extra calories and in stimulating metabolic rate. Most of us understand the role of exercise as a calorie burning tool. There are many books listing the amount of calories burnt by doing a certain amount of exercise. These have been popular for many years.

Another developing area is the role that lean body mass plays in metabolic stimulation. Sometimes people fail to realize that the more lean body mass a person carries the greater the metabolic rate. This now raises the question as to the advantage of using weight bearing exercise as a tool for decreasing body fat. Because of the influence scales have on deciding whether a person is being successful with body fat loss, most individuals are scared to use resistance exercise to assist in losing body fat. Unfortunately society has developed a scale developed mentality with weight control and does not really understand the role body composition plays in determining what is fat and what is not. Our present perception is that increased scale weight equals increased fat and increased size. This may be right in the non exercising overeating person but is usually not the case in exercising individuals who cat correctly.

For any person participating in exercise the measurement of body composition is essential in order to judge progress. Body weight, body fat and site measurements should all be repeated regularly. Drops in body fat and measurements generally indicate that body fat is being removed irrespective of the change in scale weight. Unless this is well explained to your client, their gauge for success will only be determined by the direction of the scales and the speed at which they are changing.

Future research in this area will probably show that different individuals will require different types of exercise to achieve body fat losses. In those who simply overeat and lack exercise, increasing their activity and controlling their food intake will solve the problem. However, in those individuals who already consume low to moderate levels of food and still maintain higher than acceptable levels of body fat, the use of a combination of aerobic and resistance exercise will probably be the best course of action.

When most people use the word diet it can immediately stimulate thoughts of depression, boredom, monotony and in some cases misery. The point is that some people's perceptions are negative from the start.

Disturbing features that is found in repetitive dieters are the emotional ties with certain foods, for example, chocolate. This food generally has a number of emotional ties before and after eating it. Reward, pleasure, guilt, depression and relaxation are some of the feelings dieters have expressed when asked about the feeling they notice when eating this food.

The interesting point is that this food only has Cadbury, Nestle or Mars written on the label not depression, guilt or fear. However when people tie emotions to food, their perception of what this food is doing to their health changes. Tying negative emotions to foods is quite dangerous in the long term and can set up the wrong opinions on how to structure a healthy diet.

As discussed earlier, foods provide more to our bodies than good nutrition. The reasons we choose the foods we do are numerous. The role that less nutritionally attractive foods provide may also be important. For example, foods such as pizza, lollies, desserts, pies, alcohol, cheesecake or soft drinks may make up a part of our eating.

Accepting this, if you are told for the next ten to twelve months that you must avoid all these foods to lose weight, and then problems will develop. After a few months, how are you going to respond to certain circumstances? What will you eat when a friend has prepared dinner? How can you relax without a drink? What are you to choose when bored? What are you to eat when you're too tired to cook? What will you eat when you want something sweet? A better question is what is going to happen after many weeks of being deprived of these foods? Answer, - break-out - binge -explosion. Call it what you like, but generally deprivation leads to craving, particularly if your triggers for eating are not being dealt with correctly.

The main disturbing feature about tying negative emotions to foods is that over many years it can place unrealistic restrictions on your food intake. There are cases where because of the influence unrealistic dieting guidelines, individuals feel guilty every time they eat certain food, even ten years later. They develop the feeling that "Bad foods will always result in weight gain ".

A vital factor in controlling food consumption for weight control is having a healthy balance of foods with a bias towards those of better nutritional value. It is not the use of any particular food that creates excess body fat. However, the abuse of certain foods can contribute to fat gains. Successful weight control involves maintaining a steady balance of these foods, not merely avoiding all food with less nutritional value. In reality, people have to learn to live with food rather than without it.

The best food programs are those which are practical, nutritionally balanced, and able to be applied for long periods. Furthermore, these programs do not involve total deprivation. If a food program provides these features, it is likely to be successful. Any food program not providing these features, will usually result in long term failure because of the unrealistic restrictions it places on the dieter's lifestyle.

From reading above, it may be more apparent that weight control is a broader concept than just reducing food intake. The challenge in our present day is realizing the source of a weight problem and dealing with it correctly. Once the source has been found then action can usually be taken to treat the main factors involved.

source: Ultrametabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss by Mark, M.D. Hyman