One Life, One Body – A Healthy Lifestyle is Essential
May 1st 2009 - Candace Raymond
Recent studies are now demonstrating that dieting alone does not create or maintain optimal health. It has been proven that the best combination for anyone to lose weight is to change the mentality of the weight loss – to the mentality of being healthy and fit.
A recent study* compared a commercial weight loss program to a fitness centre noting those who participated in the weight loss program lost an average of 5 percent of the body weight or about 9 pounds. However, it was lean tissue and not fat. The fat percentage of their body did not change. Steve Ball* maintains that “It is advantageous to keep lean tissue because it is correlated with higher metabolism. Losing lean tissue often slows metabolism. What your body is made of is more important than what you weigh.”
The fitness centre group lost very little weight, but they improved their health because they lost a significant amount of intra-abdominal fat (fat around the vital organs) which indicates an increase of the metabolism.
Based on this study the recommendation should be to balance a healthy diet, with a fitness program. Most individuals are challenged with the daunting task of beginning and implementing the needed changes. Support increases your success rates. The more support you can surround yourself with – the more likely you will maintain the programs of healthy eating, and physical activity. If you encourage your family to participate, you will increase your ability to maintain lasting lifestyle changes, as well as create an environment that nurtures a new mentality for the next generation.
*June 2008 Issue of Journal of Exercise Physiology, “Comparison study of a Commercial Weight Loss Program to a Fitness Centre” by Steve Ball, assistant professor of exercise physiology at the University of Missouri.
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