THE SAFER WAY TO BEING HEALTHY

You only have to browse the internet to realize that there are as many health or diet plans as there are people to read them. Some boasting a guarantee of losing 18lbs in 4 days, some offering to supply fat-burning tablets with the promise of miraculous results; the list goes on.

I’m afraid empty promises abound on the World Wide Web as well as some well constructed and truthful plans: sorting out the good from the bad can be difficult.

What I can tell you is that it is better to lose weight slowly, ideally between 3-5lbs per week. Diets that cause you to lose more than this are potentially dangerous in that it is possible that the weight reduction may be because, at least in part, that your muscle mass is being depleted, which is definitely not a good idea. In fact muscles need fuel for everyday functioning and so it follows that the more muscle mass you have, the more calories will be burned on a day to day basis. We all need to consume calories just to stay alive, and as you already know; the recommended daily intake is 2500 for men and 2000 for women. However, if a man consumes 2500 calories and sits around doing nothing all day burning off only 2000 calories, then there are 500 calories still unused which the body will store away. Doing this for a week amounts to 3500 stored calories and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to realise that it will manifest itself as fat. If the guy in our example changes his ways but still eats 2500 calories per day but this time he does some simple exercise and as a result burns off 2600 calories he will at least maintain his weight but it is more than likely that he will lose some. To begin with he will only lose a little bit, but multiply that by days and weeks and then months and you can see how the principle of losing weight slowly works.

I’m not trying to tell you that from this day on you are to be a slave to a calorie chart; I wouldn’t do it myself and I don’t expect you to either. This is just illustrating the point that just because you eat healthily, it doesn’t necessarily follow that you’ll lose weight. After all, a calorie is a calorie whatever source it comes from and it shows us that exercise is important in maintaining the correct balance. Don’t worry though, you don’t need to sign yourself up for the next triathlon or Iron Man event; but if you currently do no exercise at all you should try walking for 30 minutes before meals. Not only will you burn up extra calories, but after exercise your body is more receptive to food. You should walk so that your pulse rate is raised but not uncomfortably so, and enough to cause you to take deeper, longer breaths. I recommend that you consult your family doctor before embarking on any exercise routine to ensure your personal safety. If the walking is going well you should try and develop an interest in another kind of exercise. Perhaps you used to swim for your school or college, or play football, squash or tennis. Don’t forget that exercise doesn’t necessarily equate to sport. Many people keep very fit by going dancing or even just by going on longer, more challenging walks. There are so many things to choose from.

The most important thing is to choose something you enjoy doing, for the simple reason that you are more likely to stick to it. If you do exercise because you enjoy it you will forget that you originally started exercise to feel fitter and to lose weight, and not the other way around!