The
numbers on your scale do not indicate whether you are fit or fat. Far more
significant than your total body weight is the composition of your body tissue.
If a man’s fatty tissue is bigger than 14% up to 15% of his body mass, or if a
woman’s is more than 20% to 22%, he or she is overweight, or more precisely,
overfat.
A
small amount of fat is needed for padding the internal organs and as insulation
under the skin. Excess fat leads to such diseases as diabetes, gout, high blood
pressure, coronary artery disease, and gallbladder problems. There are very
few, very fat persons. The reason is that the fittest, not the fattest survive.
The
problem now is focused on how to resolve the problem. The problem with most
people who want to lose weight is that they have the propensity to concentrate
more on getting those numbers lower than what they are seeing now. What happens
next is that they strive harder to achieve a lower weight, according to the
“ever reliable” result of the weighing scale.
It
would be more important to think of the human body as a heat-exchange engine
that works on the basic principles of energy physics. The caloric balance
equals the total calorie intake minus the total calorie expenditure.
Some
of the calories people ingest are used for basal metabolism. As people get old,
their bodies require fewer calories for this basic upkeep. Some calories are
excreted as waste products. Some go into “work metabolism,” the energy
expenditure required for any physical activity.
Hence,
if people take in more calories than are used by these functions, there is a
definite caloric excess. By the laws of physics, energy is transformed rather
than destroyed. In this case, each excess of 3,500 calories is changed into a
pound of fat. If people want to reverse this process, they have to burn up
3,500 calories to lose a single pound.
Winning
the War Against Fat
When
you think of fighting fat with exercise, you probably think of hours of hard,
sweaty exertion. If this is the case, then, you will not get any farther. This
is because people who are so much into losing more by exerting more effort tend
to get bored easily.
Why?
Because experts contend that when people exert more effort than what they are
capable of doing creates a tendency to develop weariness and ennui. Hence, they
give up, stop doing their routine exercises, and end up sulking in the corner
with a bag of chips that seems to have all the bad calories in this world.
Now,
you might ask, "What should be done instead?" The answer: cross
training.
After
some intensive studies and experimentations, health experts were able to come
up with the concept of incorporating cross training in order to overcome or
break the monotony or dullness in an exercise program.
Cross
training refers to the integration of diverse movements or activities into a
person’s conventional exercise routine. The main purpose of incorporating cross
training into an exercise program is to avoid overdoing excess muscle damages
and to put a stop to an imminent boredom.
Three
of the most commonly used activities whenever a person decides to engage into
cross training are swimming, running, and cycling.
In
cross training, distance is one way to extend your activity as your condition
improves. For this reason, you need to traverse a measured distance.
If
possible, swim the course and measure the distance. If you will be using a
running track, such courses usually are a quarter-mile per lap for a complete
circuit.
Cross
training offers a variety of benefits for fitness and fatloss. It builds up the
strength and endurance of the heart, lungs, and blood vessels. It has also some
tranquilizing effect on the nerves, and it burns up calories as much as it
makes your “losing weight” more bearable.
Cross
training has three basic components:
1.
Endurance exercises to condition the heart, lungs, and blood vessels and to
induce relaxation. These begin with a careful planned walking and jogging
regimen, depending on fitness level.
2.
Exercises to strengthen the muscles, particularly those important to good
posture. These include some activities that are selected to encourage some
people who are already burnt out with a particular routine.
3.
Exercises to improve joint mobility and prevent or relieve aches and pains.
These consist of a series of static stretching positions that are safe and
effective for most of the people who wish to try to lose some fat.
Indeed,
cross training is a great way to modify the concept of exercising and losing
fat without having to endure monotonous activities. In fact, the idea of
exercising is to like what you are doing, hence, if you engage into cross
training, you will be aware of it that you have already achieve your desired
weight.
Boiled
down, cross training is, certainly, one way of having fun.
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