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Archive for October, 2010

According to the American Heart Association (PCA), one third of children and adolescents and 66 percent of the adult population is overweight or obese. If the trend continues, there will be a reduction in life expectancy of our children, making it the first generation to live less than their parents.

Obesity in simple form is an excess of body fat. The body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference measures are most commonly used. The BMI is the ratio of weight in kilograms to height in meters measure. The normal BMI is between 18 and 24.9 kg/m2. Overweight is any measure between 25-29.9 kg/m2, and obesity a BMI greater than or equal to 30 kg/m2. The waist circumference should be <40cm in men and <35cm in women. Obesity is associated with the development of hypertension, stroke, blockage of the coronary arteries, diabetes, failure and heart rhythm disturbances. In young people, obesity is associated with the development of adult conditions such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes and cholesterol.

It is difficult to associate obesity a factor, as it develops a complex relationship that involves lifestyle, the environment and genetics. However, there is a causal relationship between poor nutrition and unhealthy lifestyles. The sedentary lifestyle, produced by busy lifestyles, overexposure to television, computers and video games, along with the excessive consumption of calories, breaks the balance needed to maintain a healthy weight.

Education is extremely important, particularly since early age, to establish good eating habits and healthy lifestyles.

To bring the message and awareness generation of young people about the importance of prevention, the American Heart Association created the Alliance for a Healthier Generation in conjunction with the foundation of former President William  Bill  Clinton.

On the Island, the association established partnership with the Government of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico Form.This government initiative and whose guidelines are based on those of the Heart Association, offers a real alternative for the prevention of obesity through education and offering physical activity programs, among other things.

Obesity, together with other factors such as hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipedemias and smoking is a risk factor crucial to the development of cardiovascular diseases. However, contrary to other factors, obesity (next to smoking), is the most changeable of all.

By developing or modifying good nutritional habits and increasing physical activity can have a healthier life

Very strange indeed! You have heard plans for gaining! Here you are thinking about a loss plan! And you are very serious about this loss! You have a loss-sharing buddy, you congratulate each other over the losses you have ‘gained’ in the period under review! Any reduction in the loss is not to your mutual liking!

Any weight loss plan that does not take the diet aspect into consideration, is no plan at all! Who are the starred generals in the weight loss plan that are expected to give sterling performances? Of course, the old war-horses! They are: Exercise and Diet!

How to get results from the weight loss plan? Whatever methods you use, they must perform two functions—stimulate metabolism which do the job of fat burning and continuously assist you in the process of loss, without intermission! Any plan or any ingredient that is appetite-suppressant without causing any side effects, is suitable for your weight loss plan. It must lessen your struggle with weight on various parts of your body. It must trim the excess fat around the waist and buttocks.

Relentless research is going on in this million-dollar weight loss project. The whole idea is to find sensible and sustainable ways for overweight patients to lose weight, and to maintain that gained position of weight loss over a long period. It is the most frustrating experience to gain weight after so much of trials and tribulations, after having once lost it!

The importance of exercises is emphatic. Nobody has ever said- I did exercise and I gained weight! The various yoga asanas and Ashtanga Yoga & Bikrama Yoga are very useful. The overweight and obese specialists emphasize on one thing even after prescribing medication—understand the importance of exercise for all successful weight loss programs. Physical activity is key to staying healthy.

You are fat because you are lazy. Now, you are moving in the right direction, because now you know the value of right nutrition. It goes without saying that when you talk about right nutrition, all items of wrong nutrition need to be avoided at all costs. Even for the sake of temptation, those should not be given a chance to enter into your system. They have created enough havoc in the past. Let them take the well-deserved rest now.

Keep a careful calorie count. There should be awareness in you about what should be done and what should not! You know what is your problem, you have understood the cause of your problem and therefore you will find the answer for your problem—definitely!

Metabolic Rate refers to the rate one expends calories in a given period of time. Essentially, it is the rate by which we expend energy through the chemical breakdown of “burning calories“. Not only do we spend calories during periods of work and during exercise, we also burn calories at rest simply to keep our cells alive. This is a vial point to understand! What I am referring to is known as the “Basil“, or resting, metabolic rate. In fact, you burn more during your ‘resting hours’ than you do during periods of exercise! For example, one hours worth of tennis or basketball could burn about 600 or so calories. One hour at rest may burn only 90 or so. But you might only play one hours worth of tennis three or four times a week, while your resting metabolic rate is what you burn 24/7. It is easy to see that 90 times 24 times 7 is significantly greater than 600 times 4. (90 * 24 * 7 = 15120 vs. 600 * 4 = 2400). The point I am making is not that exercise is useless, it is the importance of the bazil metabolic rate in determining the caloric balances within an individual.

Balance in caloric levels is the whole point in weight control. The basic calculus is simple: calories in / calories out. The amount of calories consumed should approximate the number of calories burned for a caloric balance in maintaining weight levels. For weight loss calories in must be less than calories expended. This is a very obvious, even simplistic point, but you need to have a clear focus on that basic truth. We simply have to reduce our intake (in a healthy way) while we simultaneously increase our output. The reduction of intake through a healthy diet is the subject of a future article. This article focuses on the expenditure of calories as a tool of weight control and weight loss. The main weakness of many weight loss programs, even the good ones, is that they do not stress the importance of exercise. The main goal in weight loss ought to be the improvement of one’s health and well-being; not merely upon a more superficial look into the mirror! In fact: you CANNOT be healthy without exercise!

A very powerful tool in regard to weight loss is the manipulation of the resting or Basil metabolic rate. This rate does vary between individuals and even within a single individual from time to time. Size and age are important factors, which account for differences in metabolic rate between individuals. Another very important factor in influencing resting metabolic rate is the physical condition of the individual. Why this is true is a little too technical to fully explain here, but suffice to say that it has a lot to do with how your body is able to efficiently utilize oxygen in the chemical breakdown of sugar molecules in the process we simply call “metabolism”. If we can enhance the efficiency in which this oxygen is utilized, we can thereby increase resting metabolic rate. A different, and simpler way of looking at this is in the understanding that the human body in its miraculous design is amazingly adaptive. Push the body to habitually utilize more oxygen, push the body to habituate to burning energy at greater levels and the body will adapt to do so. What this all adds up to is the ability to increase the resting metabolic rate. This again is the rate which we burn calories 24/7, 365 days a year. We burn calories even at sleep. The idea is that even a small increase in the hourly rate of caloric expenditure will add up in time to real and permanent weight loss.

Of course, bearing in mind that the increase in caloric expenditure cannot be offset by an increase in intake. Calories consumed must be less than calories expend in order to create a caloric deficit that will translate to weight loss. The topic of exactly how to diet in a healthy way will be dealt with at length in a future article (I hope you will look for it). For now just understand that you actually need to create an imbalance of calories: calories in < calories out.

Resting Metabolic Rate can be increased, and such an increase when coupled with healthy dieting will lead to a healthy weight loss. Because it includes exercise as a necessary component, such a method will be among the Healthiest plans you will ever come across!

The way to increase resting metabolic rate, very simply stated is though aerobic conditioning. This is of course the same as what some people refer to as Cardio exercise. You should exercise at a sufficient intensity to reach about 80% or your “maximum heart rate“. Don’t let this term scare you! To find maximum heart rate, take your age - 220 = “Maximum Heart Rate”. Now find 80% of your Maximum. This becomes your “Target Heart Rate”

A NOTE OF CAUTION: If you are very overweight or over forty, use a healthy dose of common sense. Please don’t kill yourself!!!! If you are much older, you might consult a doctor before beginning a strenuous program. Even if you are younger and in fair shape, gradually work up to this over a few weeks time. At least in the first few weeks, don’t push too hard! This program will SURELY work if you follow it correctly, but please don’t go overboard and kill yourself trying to drop a few pounds! The #1 goal should always be good health. This is well above that of looking good in a mirror! Actually, when you take good care of yourself, through good exercise, proper diet and other healthy habits; everything should fall into place. You will be healthy, feel more energetic, look better, sexier, think clearer, and have a better sex life - the subject of a future article!

For the first week or two slowly condition yourself to program. Begin with a five-minute warm-up of simple walking. Then build to a heart rate of about 60%. If you opt for playing sports rather than running on a treadmill in a gym, just try to go a moderate pace to gradually condition yourself to where you want to be. When you are at the point where you can exercise to the full, then you still should begin with a warm-up of about 5 minutes. Some pre-exercise stretches can both help to warm the muscles up and prevent injury. After a five-minute warm-up, get your heart rate up to your target rate; hold it in that range for 20 to 30 minutes. Begin at lower levels and build over several weeks toward the 60-minute range, Do this initially at three times a week. Build to four. Then to five if your schedule allows. I do understand that many people have busy schedules but you must at least find time for three to four sessions if you want to gain the benefits of the program.

Over the period of several weeks you will find your energy and stamina improving dramatically. Remember, energy = the burning of calories. Therefore, if you are more energetic throughout the day, as you certainly will be, then just as certainly it means that your metabolic rate has been increased. This can be a very powerful tool in weight control! Again, watch the caloric intake as well! Eat healthy, but keep the calories down. Before long you will notice the benefits on the bathroom scale! Weight will come down as body fat is reduced. More importantly, your general state of health and well-being will be significantly enhanced! You’ll have more energy than you have experienced for years, and will even experience a sharper mental focus as well.

I truly hope that this article will influence your life for the better. I do know what I am talking about; however, I have no claim to absolute knowledge. Certainly there can be informed disagreement with some of the points I have expressed and the more knowledgeable among you may feel that I have only scratched the surface. Fine! There is a wealth of information on the web and elsewhere on the subject of health and fitness and I do hope that you continue to seek out that knowledge and understanding. This holds true whether you choose to obtain it from me or another source. But if you have enjoyed this article, and especially if you try this program and gets result from it, please consider visiting my Website for more health related e-books. I thank you for your attention and trust that your health and well-being will grow from this day forward!