Getting Started with Physical Activity for a Healthy Weight

Should I take any precautions before becoming more active?

People with chronic diseases, such as a heart condition, arthritis, diabetes, or high blood pressure, should talk to their doctor about what types and amounts of physical activity are appropriate.

Get Motivated!

If you've not been physically active in a while, you may be wondering how to get started again. Lace up those sneakers and find some motivating ideas here.

Here are some tips to help get you started:

• Look for opportunities to reduce sedentary time and to increase active time. For example, instead of watching TV, try taking a walk after dinner.
• Set aside specific times for physical activity in your schedule to make it part of your daily or weekly routine.
• Start with activities, locations, and times you enjoy. For example, some people might like walking in their neighborhood in the mornings; others might prefer an exercise class at a health club after work.
• Try activities with friends or family members to help with motivation and mutual encouragement.
• Start slowly and work your way up to more physically challenging activities. For many people, walking is a particularly good place to begin.
• When necessary, break up your daily activity goal into smaller amounts of time. For example, you could break the 30-minute a day recommendation into three 10-minute sessions or two 15-minute sessions. Just make sure the shorter sessions are at least 10 minutes long.

For many people, walking offers a great way to become more active. For some ideas on how to begin, see the walking plans at the following sites:

• Weight-control Information Network: Walking — A Step in the Right Direction
• American Heart Association: Why Start! Walking?

For more information about physical activity if you're overweight or obese, suggestions for initial  activities, and safety tips, see Active at Any Size.

Strategies for Overcoming Obstacles to Physical Activity

If you're just getting started, you might face certain obstacles that seem difficult to overcome. A few examples of common obstacles and strategies for overcoming them are shown in the following table.

Obstacle	Try This
I just don't have time to be physically active.	Identify available time slots. Monitor your daily activities for one week. Identify at least three 30-minute time slots you could use for physical activity.
I don't have anyone to go with me.	Develop new friendships with physically active people. Join a group, such as the YMCA or a hiking club.
I'm so tired when I get home from work.	Schedule physical activity for times in the day or week when you feel energetic.
I have so much on my "to do" list already, how can I do physical activity too?	Plan ahead. Make physical activity a regular part of your daily or weekly schedule by writing it on your calendar. Keep the appointment with yourself.
I'll probably hurt myself if I try to be more physically active.	Consult with a health professional or educational material to learn how to exercise appropriately considering your age, fitness level, skill level, and health status.
I'm not coordinated enough to be physically active. I can't learn something new at my age!	Select activities requiring no new skills, such as walking, climbing stairs, or jogging.
My job requires me to be on the road, it's impossible for me to exercise.	Stay in places with swimming pools or exercise facilities. Or find a DVD exercise tape that you enjoy and request a DVD player with your room.
I have small children and it's impossible to have time to myself for exercise.	Trade babysitting time with a friend, neighbor, or family member who also has small children. As children get older, family bike rides or walks might be another option.
Adapted from Physical Activity for Everyone: Making Physical Activity Part of Your Life: Overcoming Barriers to Physical Activity.

Want to learn more?

Physical Activity for a Healthy Weight
You are probably already aware that regular physical activity is important for good health, but did you know that it's especially important if you're trying to lose weight or to maintain a healthy weight?

Resources: Centers For Disease Control & Prevention http://www.cdc.gov

Physical Activity for a Healthy Weight

Why is physical activity important?

Regular physical activity is important for good health, and it's especially important if you're trying to lose weight or to maintain a healthy weight.

• When losing weight, more physical activity increases the number of calories your body uses for energy or "burns off." The burning of calories through physical activity, combined with reducing the number of calories you eat, creates a "calorie deficit" that results in weight loss.
• Most weight loss occurs because of decreased caloric intake. However, evidence shows the only way to maintain weight loss is to be engaged in regular physical activity.
• Most importantly, physical activity reduces risks of cardiovascular disease and diabetes beyond that produced by weight reduction alone.

Physical activity also helps to–

• Maintain weight.
• Reduce high blood pressure.
• Reduce risk for type 2 diabetes, heart attack, stroke, and several forms of cancer.
• Reduce arthritis pain and associated disability.
• Reduce risk for osteoporosis and falls.
• Reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.

 

How much physical activity do I need?

When it comes to weight management, people vary greatly in how much physical activity they need. Here are some guidelines to follow:
To maintain your weight: Work your way up to 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity, or an equivalent mix of the two each week. Strong scientific evidence shows that physical activity can help you maintain your weight over time. However, the exact amount of physical activity needed to do this is not clear since it varies greatly from person to person. It's possible that you may need to do more than the equivalent of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week to maintain your weight.
To lose weight and keep it off: You will need a high amount of physical activity unless you also adjust your diet and reduce the amount of calories you're eating and drinking. Getting to and staying at a healthy weight requires both regular physical activity and a healthy eating plan.

What do moderate- and vigorous-intensity mean?

Moderate: While performing the physical activity, if your breathing and heart rate is noticeably faster but you can still carry on a conversation — it's probably moderately intense. Examples include—

• Walking briskly (a 15-minute mile).
• Light yard work (raking/bagging leaves or using a lawn mower).
• Light snow shoveling.
• Actively playing with children.
• Biking at a casual pace.

Vigorous: Your heart rate is increased substantially and you are breathing too hard and fast to have a conversation, it's probably vigorously intense. Examples include—

• Jogging/running.
• Swimming laps.
• Rollerblading/inline skating at a brisk pace.
• Cross-country skiing.
• Most competitive sports (football, basketball, or soccer).
• Jumping rope.

How many calories are used in typical activities?

The following table shows calories used in common physical activities at both moderate and vigorous levels.

Calories Used per Hour in Common Physical Activities
Moderate Physical Activity	Approximate Calories/30 Minutes for a 154 lb Person1	Approximate Calories/Hr for a 154 lb Person1
Hiking	185	370
Light gardening/yard work	165	330
Dancing	165	330
Golf (walking and carrying clubs)	165	330
Bicycling (<10 mph)	145	290
Walking (3.5 mph)	140	280
Weight lifting (general light workout)	110	220
Stretching	90	180
Vigorous Physical Activity	Approximate Calories/30 Minutes for a 154 lb Person1	Approximate Calories/Hr for a 154 lb Person1
Running/jogging (5 mph)	295	590
Bicycling (>10 mph)	295	590
Swimming (slow freestyle laps)	255	510
Aerobics	240	480
Walking (4.5 mph)	230	460
Heavy yard work (chopping wood)	220	440
Weight lifting (vigorous effort)	220	440
Basketball (vigorous)	220	440
1Calories burned per hour will be higher for persons who weigh more than 154 lbs (70 kg) and lower for persons who weigh less. Source: Adapted from Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005, page 16, Table 4.

To help estimate the intensity of your physical activity, see Measuring Physical Activity Intensity.

Want to learn more?

Getting Started with Physical Activity for a Healthy Weight
If you've not been physically active in a while, you may be wondering how to get started again. Lace up those sneakers and find some motivating ideas.

Resources: Centers For Disease Control & Prevention http://www.cdc.gov 

Fat Burning Tip #2

Fat Burning Tip #2: Exercise Consistently

It may seem like a no-brainer that regular exercise can help you burn fat and lose weight. But, it's not just about the calories you're burning. It's also about the adaptations your body makes when you exercise on a regular basis. Many of those adaptations lead directly to your ability to burn more fat without even trying. When you exercise regularly, your body:

• Becomes more efficient at delivering and extracting oxygen -- Simply put, this helps your cells burn fat more efficiently.
• Has better circulation -- This allows the fatty acids to move more efficiently through the blood and into the muscle. That means fat is more readily available for fueling the body.
• Increases the number and size of mitochondria, also known as cellular power plants that provide energy for the body.

And, don't forget, regular exercise will also help you manage your weight. The more activity you engage in, the more calories you'll burn, and the easier it is to create the calorie deficit needed to lose weight.

Tips for Consistent Exercise

• Schedule some exercise time every day, even if it's just a few minutes.
• Split up your workouts. You can get the same benefit from short workouts spread throughout the day as do with continuous workouts.
• Change daily routines to incorporate activity. Park at the edge of the parking lot at work to add more walking time, or add an extra lap at the mall when shopping. Integrating more activity into your usual routines will help you stay active, even if you don't have time for a structured workout.
• Make exercise your focus and schedule the rest of your day around it instead of trying to squeeze it in when you can. If it's not a priority, you won't do it.

Go to Fat Burning Tip #3 

By Paige Waehner, About.com Guide

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by our Medical Review Board

Fat Burning Tip #1

Fat Burning Tip #1: Incorporate a Mix of Low, Medium and High Intensity Cardio Exercise
 
You may be confused about exactly how hard to work during cardio. You may even think that high intensity exercise is the only way to go. After all, you can burn more calories and, even better, you don't have to spend as much time doing it. But having some variety can help you stimulate all of your different energy systems, protect you from overuse injuries, and help you enjoy your workouts more.

High Intensity Cardio
 
For our purposes here, high intensity cardio falls between about 80-90% of your maximum heart rate (MHR) or, if you're not using heart rate zones, about a 6 to 8 on this perceived exertion scale. What this translates to is exercise at a level that feels challenging and leaves you too breathless to talk much. You're not going all out, as in sprinting as fast as you can.

There's no doubt that some high intensity training work can be helpful for weight loss as well as improving endurance and aerobic capacity. For example, a 150-lb. person would burn about 225 calories after running at 6 mph for 30 minutes. If this person walked at 3.5 mph for that same length of time, he would burn 85 to 90 calories. But, the number of calories you can burn isn't the whole story. If you do too many high intensity workouts every week, you risk:

• Overtraining
• Overuse injuries
• Burnout
• Inconsistent workouts
• Growing to hate exercise

Not only that but, if you don't have much experience with exercise, you may not have the conditioning or the desire for breathless and challenging workouts. And if you have some kind of medical condition or injury, forget about doing high intensity training (or any kind of training) without checking with your doctor first.

If you're doing several days of cardio each week, which is what is recommended for weight loss, you would probably want 1-2 workouts to fall into the high intensity range. You can use other workouts to target different areas of fitness (like endurance) and allow your body to recover.
Some examples of high intensity workouts:

• A 20-minute workout at a fast pace
  You can use any activity or machine, but the idea is to stay in the high intensity work zone throughout the workout. You'll find that 20 minutes is usually the recommended length for this kind of workout and most people wouldn't want to go much longer than that. 
• Interval Training
  A great way to incorporate high intensity training without doing it continuously is by doing intervals. Alternate a hard segment (e.g., running at a fast pace for 30 to 60 seconds) with a recovery segment (e.g., walking for 1 to 2 minutes). Repeat this series for the length of the workout, usually around 20 to 30 minutes. You can learn more in my Interval Training Workouts.

Moderate Intensity Cardio
 
There are a variety of definitions of what moderate intensity exercise is, but it typically falls between about 70-80% of your MHR (a level 4 to 6 on this perceived exertion scale). The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) often recommends this level of intensity in its exercise guidelines. The lower end of this range usually incorporates the 'fat burning zone.' That means can carry on a conversation without much difficulty and you feel pretty comfortable with what you're doing.
Moderate intensity workouts have some great benefits such as:

• Comfort -- Hard workouts are, well, hard. It takes time to build up the endurance and strength to handle challenging exercise. Moderate workouts allow you to work at a more comfortable pace, which means you may be more consistent with your program.
• Better health -- Even modest movement can improve your fitness while lowering your risk of heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.
• More choices -- High intensity workouts will usually involve some kind of impact or, at the least, a fast pace. But, you can usually get up into the more moderate heart rate zones with a variety of activities, providing you work hard enough. Even raking leaves or shoveling snow, if you do it vigorously enough, can fall into that category.

For weight loss purposes, you would likely want the majority of your cardio workouts to fall into this range. Some examples:

• Walking 10,000 steps a day
• A 30 to 45-minute cardio machine workout
• A brisk walk
• Riding a bike at a medium pace

Low Intensity Activity
 
Low intensity exercise is considered to be below about 60-70% of your MHR, or about a level 3 to 5 on this perceived exertion scale. This level of intensity is no doubt one of the more comfortable areas of exercise, keeping you at a pace that isn't too taxing and doesn't pose much of a challenge. This, along with the idea that it burns more fat, makes this a popular place to stay. But, as we've learned, you can burn more calories if you work harder, and that's what you want for weight loss.
That doesn't mean that low intensity exercise has no purpose. It involves the kind of long, slow activities you feel like you could do all day and, even better, activities you usually enjoy such as:

• Taking a stroll
• Light gardening
• A long, slow bike ride
• A gentle stretching routine

This doesn't have to be a structured, scheduled workout, but something you do all day long by walking more, taking the stairs, doing more physical chores around the house, etc. For help in setting up a cardio program that includes a variety of different workouts, check out this sample cardio workout schedule http://exercise.about.com/cs/weightloss/l/aa022601b.htm

Go to Fat Burning Tip #2 

By Paige Waehner, About.com Guide
About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by our Medical Review Board

Want To Get In Shape But Feel Too Busy? Simply Follow This Article

By Dr.Ashraf Hanafy Mahmoud Mohammed

Some people say that they're just too busy to exercise during the day but really want to lose weight or be healthier. This isn't a problem if you're creative and come up with ways to work out while doing everyday things. Here you're going to learn how exercise can be incorporated into your busy schedule.

You've probably been at the store having to wait in line thinking of how much of a waste of time it is. This isn't the case if you take that time to do a few calf raises while you're standing there. Just don't be afraid of what people may think because it's not about them when you're trying to be more fit. If you have someone with you, see if they could stand in line for you while you go on a few laps around the store.

Every day or so we get mail. This is a perfect time to get some of your exercise in. Every time you get a piece of mail, make it a point to do a few laps around where you live. You could just walk down the street and back or even run around your home. If you have an apartment with a lot of stairs, try taking a route around where you live where you have to climb and descend the stairs on your way back.

You don't always need to take an elevator or an escalator to get up a building. This is the perfect time to get some exercise in. While it may take a little longer than just taking another route, you can compensate for this by showing up at least 5 minutes before you have to be somewhere. You could also try parking your car further from where you're going so you can get in a few minutes of walking up to the door.

If you watch TV then you know that there are usually a lot of commercials that come on. Instead of just sitting there and paying attention to the commercials that you can see any time on TV, try working out some. Do some jumping jacks until the show returns, or take that time to climb up and down some steps. Have someone watch for when your show comes back on so in case you're afraid of missing it they can tell you its back on. If you think about it, there are roughly 3 commercial breaks during a half an hour show and each break is a few minutes long. This is plenty of time to get in a great workout.

The tips you have read are just some of the ways you can incorporate more exercise into your everyday life. You'll be sure to find more creative things you can do to keep in shape when you're just too busy to exercise. Nobody is ever too busy to do some of the above things, so don't let your schedule get in the way of your health!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr._Ashraf_Hanafy_Mahmoud_Mohammed