Exercise For Weight Control: Is It Worth The Effort?
Lack of exercise, rather than overeating, is the most important cause of the "creeping obesity" experienced in modern mechanized society. The key to effective weight control is balancing calorie intake (food) with caloric use (physical activity). When you are not active enough to do this, you gain weight.
For most of us, our job requirements, home duties and leisure activities do not involve activities that are vigorous or sustained. The trim adult woman, engaged in light activity, needs 2100 calories to meet her body's energy requirements. If she eats 100 extra calories a day without increasing her activity, she could realize a weight gain of up to 10 pounds in one year. Those extra pounds could be avoided if she were to take a brisk 25-minute walk every day.
Crash diets
For those who are overweight, increasing physical activity while avoiding high calorie foods could result in weight loss without going on a "crash" diet. Such diets are usually nutritionally inadequate and, if continued, could cause health problems. Also, crash diets result in rapid weight loss due to loss of body water. This weight is usually regained as soon as a normal diet is resumed. Permanent weight loss is more likely when a person eats nutritiously, avoids unnecessary calories and exercises regularly.
Exercise and appetite
The commonly held idea that exercise increases appetite and is therefore counterproductive to weight loss is wrong. The overweight person engaged in moderate activity utilizes fat stores to meet energy needs and therefore does not experience an increased appetite. A study of overweight adults showed that a decrease in activity was not accompanied by a decrease in appetite.
Exercising once a week results only in sore muscles
to be an effective weight control technique, exercise must be vigorous enough to burn up excess calories and be performed on a regular basis. Exercising once a week results only in sore muscles. In order to increase the likelihood that you will exercise regularly, choose an exercise program that you enjoy. A word of caution--before beginning an exercise program, it is wise to visit your physician to ensure that you are in good health.
Besides weight control, regular exercise has other advantages. It firms up sagging muscles so that the arms and legs lose their flabby appearance. You often feel better because exercises can provide a release for pent -up anxiety and frustration. Exercise programs which involve others, also provide a social outlet which often increases adherence to the program. For this reason, many women enjoy aerobics classes. Also, the exercises can be done at home on those days when there is no class. Other forms of exercise which encourage weight loss are swimming, tennis, bicycling and brisk walking.
Walking
Walking has become quite popular. By walking at a rate of 2 1/2 m.p.h., you can burn up 210 calories per hour and at the rate of 3 3/4 m.p.h. 300 calories an hour and you don't have to do the entire hour at once! What people like about walking is that it can be done anywhere, requires no special skills or athletic equipment. It has all the health benefits of running without the risk of injury. It is inexpensive--all you need are comfortable shoes and a place to walk. Some malls now allow walking between 7:30 am and 10 am--before the stores open.
In addition to planned exercise, you can increase your physical activity at home and at work to burn up calories. Why not walk up a flight or two of stairs instead of taking an elevator? Get out and garden on the weekends. Walk to the neighborhood grocery store instead of taking the car. Look for ways to be more active. Remember, increased activity, even in bits, can be cumulative and burn up significant calories during the day.
