Exercise
Lose Weight
Basics
Think
"exercise lose weight," and you'll be on tract to a productive weight
loss plan as well as a long and healthy life. The average person burns
energy
(or calories)
in three main ways. The digestion of food accounts for about 10% of
these calories, and physical activity burns about 30%. Something called
resting energy expenditure (REE) is how many calories your body burns
while you are just sitting there. This accounts for about 60% of the
calories you burn every day.
Physical activity is everything you do all
day long, like walking, getting up from sitting down, and brushing your
teeth. It makes sense that increasing your physical activity to
"exercise lose weight" would cause you to burn more than just that 30%
of calories. People who are not very physically active have about a 3-4
times chance of being overweight compared to someone who is very
active. Studies have shown that children who watch more TV are more
likely to be obese.
Exercising to lose weight alone
does not produce as much weight loss as diet and exercise. However, it
does decrease the amount of fat on your body. Physical conditioning
causes your cells to have more and bigger
mitochondria.
These are the parts of our
cells
that make energy. Your cells are then able to burn more calories from
fat, even when you are not doing as much exercise to lose weight. Your
body also gets better at using fat stores for energy. Muscle
weighs more than fat. By losing fat and gaining muscle, exercise may
not affect your total weight as much, but you will be healthier and
have less fat. With a lot of physical activity (for example in military
recruits) you may be able to see a substantial weight loss. Diet and
exercise to lose weight together will produce the most weight loss.
When dieting, you burn calories from not only
fat
but also
protein.
This means that by dieting alone, you will use some muscle mass.
Exercise prevents this from happening.
There is a
difference between men and women when it comes to exercising to lose
weight. Sorry ladies, but men will lose weight faster by exercising
than women. Women naturally have more fat mass than men. Men have more
lean body mass and muscle. Lean mass burns more calories at rest than
fat mass.
Another theory is that, at least from studies done on
runners, women’s bodies naturally are more economical for running.
Therefore, women may be more efficient at exercising and need to use
fewer calories than men to do the same amount of exercise.
Exercise
can help prevent weight gain. It is also extremely important for
maintaining any weight loss you have already achieved. As people get
older, they tend to exercise less. It is important not to leave
exercise out of our daily lives as we grow older and have more
responsibilities. Do not forget the responsibility you have to yourself
to be healthy.
How
Much Should I "Exercise Lose Weight"?
Different people are different. Some can exercise
more than others. In general, more physical activity is better. There
is an upper limit, especially for people with certain medical
conditions. For most people, a good starting point is walking 30
minutes per day 5 days per week. However, newer research is suggesting that
nearly 1 hour per day for 5 days per week is needed to lose weight. For much more information, go to
this page.
Benefits to exercise There
are several benefits to exercising. It is one of the best things you
can do for yourself. People who are more physically fit live longer
than those who are not. One study showed that being in shape can even
counteract the effects of having abdominal obesity on how long you will
live. However,
exercise did not help people live longer if their body
mass indexes (BMIs)
were more than 30. Here is a list of some of the other benefits of
exercise:
- Helps prevent the development of
diabetes
-
Helps
cholesterol levels
- Decreases the risk of blood clots
- Lowers blood
pressure
- Decreases the risk of heart
disease and stroke
- Maintains healthy muscles,
bones, and joints
- Better functioning immune system
- Reduces
depression and anxiety
-
Feeling
better overall
- Helps people quit smoking
- Longevity
- And do not
forget weight loss
Again,
researchers have found that the main things you can do to live longer
and have fewer diseases are: 1.) stop smoking, 2.) control your blood
pressure, 3.) maintain a healthy weight, and, you guessed it 4.)
EXERCISE. They have also found that children who participate in the
following activities 3-4 times per week have a better chance of
maintaining a healthy adult weight later in life:
rollerblading/skating, skateboarding, bicycling, baseball, softball,
basketball, soccer, swimming, and football.
Risks As
with anything we do, exercising does have some risks you should be
aware of. Most of the risks are things like
sports injuries. There are some medical conditions that can cause
problems with different forms of exercise. Some heart conditions even
carry the risk of sudden death when exercising. You should discuss this
with your doctor before starting an exercise program to lose weight.
Return to
Home Page.
It is important you
discuss any weight loss or exercise plan with your doctor. Only you and
your physician can decide what is best for you. Some people have
certain conditions that prevent them from doing all exercises, and goal
body weights may be different for different people. You need to discuss
all these things with your physician before starting any weight loss or
exercise program.
This
article was written by
John
Vickery, MD.
References Harrison’s
Principles of Internal Medicine 16th edition, Kasper et al.
chapter 62 “Role of physical activity and exercise in obesity”
UpToDate version 15.3 Lore of Running 4th edition,
Noakes, chapters 2 and 3 Sports Medicine 2006;36:239-262 Best
Practice & Research Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism
2007;21:415-430 “Overview of the benefits and risks of exercise”
UpToDate version 15.3 Journal of the American Medical
Association 2007;298(21):2507-2516 Arch Intern Med
2008;168(3):227-283 Arch Intern Med 2008;168(3):284-290
Arch
Pediatr Adolesc Med 2008;162(1):29-33
Arch Intern Med 2008;168(14):1550-1559

Last updated 7/19/09
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