How to Lose Body Fat
Published May 11, 2012 | 
How to lose body fat seems to be a question that many people make in their lifetime. The older you get, the easier it is to gain fat. It seems no one can avoid gaining weight when they get older. The metabolism changes and/or they become less active. They stop growing taller and start growing wider. Although, an answer exists.
However, it is actually a good thing to ask the question “how to lose body fat?” You see that if you don’t ask that question, then you’re not realizing that there could be a problem when they’re actually might be one. The vast majority of us gain fat gradually over our lifetime. It’s always helpful to the monitor it somewhat closely.
Losing body fat really doesn’t have to be hard. Actually, most people already know how to lose it. You simply need to eat right and exercise. However, too many times people look at one specific area of their body and only exercise that part. This might help to build up those particular muscles but generally won’t reduce as much fat as one would like.
The trick to losing fat is to make sure that some of your exercise three or four days a week includes aerobic activity. It definitely is possible to build muscle from lifting weights and still carry a fair amount of fat. True, muscle mass does help to reduce fat because it requires more energy to make it work.
However, if the food and fluids that you eat and drink amount to giving you more energy than what you expend daily, your body will most likely store some of that excess energy in fat. Every day your body uses energy to function whether it is simply moving from one place to another, taking a shower, brushing your hair, walking out to the car, or any one of the other many things you do daily.
Most people don’t really continually watch what they eat every day. Therefore, since these people don’t have heavy laboring jobs or activities, they will likely gain weight. So therefore, exercise should be one of those activities that you do daily or even better at three or four times a week. You don’t want to do it just to reduce fat but also to keep your body healthy. For example, your heart loves aerobic activity.
So what you need to do is a few things in order to implement the answer to the question of “how to lose body fat?” Write down all the foods (and drinks) that you consume daily in a log. This will help to keep track of the energy that you consume. Analyzing this food and drink to understand how much energy you are consuming will help to know how much exercise and activity you need to implement.
Once you know your caloric intake, you’ll then have to reduce some of the food that you eat. Use a table that shows the caloric value that your foods have. Most people interested in losing fat will probably reduce their diet by about 500 cal. You will have to find out what is best for you.
Then you need to grab another table to understand how much energy you need to expend weekly. I say weekly because when your exercise, you’ll need to only exercise three or four times a week and not necessarily daily. Your muscles need to repair themselves. Therefore, look at a week’s worth to make it easier. However, you’ll then have to break it down into each day’s worth.
Now, with this information you should have a good idea as to how much of an energy deficit you’ll need to lose fat. As long as you have an energy deficit, you will gradually lose body fat. When you look at it, the process is rather simple.
One of the main problems people run into is being consistent. Consistency and being persistent will be the key to reaching your goal. Small steps are best. Losing weight fast could throw your body into a defensive mode so a few pounds a week will be good enough.
The answer to the question “how to lose body fat” really is not hard to understand. Staying motivated to continue the whole process likely will be the hardest. However, as long as you use more energy than you take in, you will be well on your way. Various important considerations need to be addressed in this process including eating the right foods, drinking plenty of water, consuming enough protein, and consulting with a doctor given your particular circumstances. However, with this information and a little motivation, your goal is not far from your reach.
Definition of Health Related Fitness
Published May 10, 2012 |
Health is related to fitness; that is one thing that can be easily overlooked. This is a basic fact, but with what the technology and other people have brought us, a lot of people forget to see this.
The definition of health related fitness is fitness done with balance among the development and improvement of the whole body. The definition can be better understood when elaborated. Health-related physical fitness includes two major parts; Activity and diet.
Activity (Cardio and Strength Training)
For health related fitness, the activity components included are not only for strength, and muscular development and endurance training. The lungs, heart, and circulatory system are also the focal points in health and fitness. The reason for this is to improve stamina, immune system, and maintain good body composition. Health-related fitness reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases and other diseases like cancer and arthritis, and may cure respiratory problems like asthma.
There are lots of activities that can be your favored workout plan. You may choose sports, aerobic any other or exercise work outs. The exercises are much better when you include another exercise that will focus on improving your strength, muscle development and endurance. It will make you less prone to injuries.
When strength training and cardiovascular fitness plans are combined, one will also look and feel younger. This will lead to improved self-esteem. Also, the level of stress and depression will decrease.
If you are wondering about the types of activities that will work best for you, visit a professional and consult with him or her. If you have certain health conditions, it is best if you consult with your doctor first. Aside from cardio and body composition, strength and muscular endurance, flexibility is another important thing that you need to consider. Your fitness health training program should be able to let you enhance your flexibility.
Healthy Diet
Eating proper and balanced food is a must. Your plan including any physical activity may render useless if you do not conform your lifestyle altogether. You are trying to become healthier, so eat healthy food. Your training will let you excrete the toxins in your body, but if you replace the flushed toxins with another unhealthy food, you are then wasting your time, because you will either take a very long time before you get a result, or might not be able to get a positive one in the end.
Also, it is best if you consult with your doctor or dietitian first. They can come up with a diets plan that will work best for you. Especially if you have a certain health condition, it is best to ask for recommendations to make sure your diet plan will not cause another health problem.
As suggested above, cardiovascular training plus strength training plus healthy eating is the definition of health related fitness. Movement and diet must complement each other, in short, opt for healthy lifestyles.
Health and fitness is something recommended to everyone. However, there are different categories that separate the needs that must be met for children, adolescent, young adults, and adults. Being healthy doesn’t need to stop once one reaches the age of 99!
5 Components of Physical Fitness
Published May 10, 2012 |
Physical fitness is the ability to function effectively throughout your workday, perform your usual other activities and still have enough energy left over to handle any extra stresses or emergencies which may arise.
The components of physical fitness are:
* Cardiorespiratory (CR) endurance – the efficiency with which the body delivers oxygen and nutrients needed for muscular activity and transports waste products from the cells.
* Muscular strength – the greatest amount of force a muscle or muscle group can exert in a single effort.
* Muscular endurance – the ability of a muscle or muscle group to perform repeated movements with a sub-maximal force for extended periods of times.
* Flexibility – the ability to move the joints or any group of joints through an entire, normal range of motion.
* Body composition – the percentage of body fat a person has in comparison to his or her total body mass.
Improving the first three components of fitness listed above will have a positive impact on body composition and will result in less fat. Excessive body fat detracts from the other fitness components, reduces performance, detracts from appearance, and negatively affects your health.
Factors such as speed, agility, muscle power, eye-hand coordination, and eye-foot coordination are classified as components of “motor” fitness. These factors most affect your athletic ability. Appropriate training can improve these factors within the limits of your potential. A sensible weight loss and fitness program seeks to improve or maintain all the components of physical and motor fitness through sound, progressive, mission specific physical training.
Principles of Exercise
Adherence to certain basic exercise principles is important for developing an effective program. The same principles of exercise apply to everyone at all levels of physical training, from the Olympic-caliber athlete to the weekend jogger.
These basic principles of exercise must be followed.
Regularity
To achieve a training effect, you must exercise often. You should exercise each of the first four fitness components at least three times a week. Infrequent exercise can do more harm than good. Regularity is also important in resting, sleeping, and following a sensible diet.
Progression
The intensity (how hard) and/or duration (how long) of exercise must gradually increase to improve the level of fitness.
Balance
To be effective, a program should include activities that address all the fitness components, since overemphasizing any one of them may hurt the others.
Variety
Providing a variety of activities reduces boredom and increases motivation and progress.
Specificity
Training must be geared toward specific goals. For example, people become better runners if their training emphasizes running. Although swimming is great exercise, it does not improve a 2-mile-run time as much as a running program does.
Recovery
A hard day of training for a given component of fitness should be followed by an easier training day or rest day for that component and/or muscle group(s) to help permit recovery. Another way to allow recovery is to alternate the muscle groups exercised every other day, especially when training for strength and/or muscle endurance.
Overload
The work load of each exercise session must exceed the normal demands placed on the body in order to bring about a training effect.