We all know exercise—or the lack thereof—plays a leading role in the on-going weight loss saga so many Americans are caught in the middle of. Though dieting is an absolute necessity in the battle of the bulge, the fact is, dieting alone is just not enough to make you reach your weight loss or fitness goals. The best way to achieve the strong toned, and most importantly, healthy body you are working toward, is to combine a regiment of both a nutritionally balanced diet with regular aerobic and anaerobic exercise.
To successfully tackle the weight loss challenge, you must first understand a few basic principles of how our bodies work, and the complex processes of our metabolism.
Here’s how it works.
- Like the simplest machines, our bodies require energy in order to perform even the most basic functions, such as breathing and circulating blood.
- We consume this energy in the form of calories found in what we eat and drink.
- The rate at which we burn these calories and create energy to keep our bodies operating is called our basal metabolic rate, or metabolism, which is in part naturally determined by our body size, gender, and age. Our basal metabolic rate, a.k.a the energy we need to keep us alive, accounts for about 60 to 75 percent of the calories you burn every day.
Knowing what we now do about our metabolism, this simple equation helps us to understand why and when we lose or gain weight.
Number of calories consumed daily – Number of calories a day a body needs to function = Weight
Very few we have the discipline required to consume only enough calories needed to fuel our body. That’s where exercise comes into the equation. Exercise helps our bodies burn the excess calories that otherwise would be stored as fat. In addition, consistent physical activity can even increase our metabolic rate, and help our body’s burn calories more efficiently, by increasing lean muscle mass. The more muscle you have, the more fat you burn. Plus, aerobic exercise keeps your metabolism burning calories long after you’ve stopped exercising, sometime for up to 8 hours.
To summarize, balancing the number of calories you expend through exercise and physical activity with the calories you eat, will help you achieve your desired weight.
We all know exercise—or the lack thereof—plays a leading role in the on-going weight loss saga so many Americans are caught in the middle of. Though dieting is an absolute necessity in the battle of the bulge, the fact is, dieting alone is just not enough to make you reach your weight loss or fitness goals. The best way to achieve the strong toned, and most importantly, healthy body you are working toward, is to combine a regiment of both a nutritionally balanced diet with regular aerobic and anaerobic exercise.
To successfully tackle the weight loss challenge, you must first understand a few basic principles of how our bodies work, and the complex processes of our metabolism.
Here’s how it works.
• Like the simplest machines, our bodies require energy in order to perform even the most basic functions, such as breathing and circulating blood.
• We consume this energy in the form of calories found in what we eat and drink.
• The rate at which we burn these calories and create energy to keep our bodies operating is called our basal metabolic rate, or metabolism, which is in part naturally determined by our body size, gender, and age. Our basal metabolic rate, a.k.a the energy we need to keep us alive, accounts for about 60 to 75 percent of the calories you burn every day.
Knowing what we now do about our metabolism, this simple equation helps us to understand why and when we lose or gain weight.
Number of calories consumed daily – Number of calories a day a body needs to function = Weight
Very few we have the discipline required to consume only enough calories needed to fuel our body. That’s where exercise comes into the equation. Exercise helps our bodies burn the excess calories that otherwise would be stored as fat. In addition, consistent physical activity can even increase our metabolic rate, and help our body’s burn calories more efficiently, by increasing lean muscle mass. The more muscle you have, the more fat you burn. Plus, aerobic exercise keeps your metabolism burning calories long after you’ve stopped exercising, sometime for up to 8 hours.
To summarize, balancing the number of calories you expend through exercise and physical activity with the calories you eat, will help you achieve your desired weight.
