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Your activity level

This is an area where my skills are much less developed. Nevertheless, the facts are clear. Activity level is an important element in weight lost, weight maintenance, and in maintaining health generally. In fact, it is so important that just changing from a sedentary lifestyle to one in which you walk 30 minutes three times a week can improve your chances of avoiding serious illness. Exercise (and weight loss) has been proven to help diabetes, lower blood pressure and prevent heart attacks. Increasing you level of activity, in fact, is the other major thing you can do to improve your health other than controlling your diet.

Calories and activity level

I have already expressed my philosophy of approaching diet through becoming aware of and thereby controlling calorie intake. There is also an obvious connection between calories and activity level. Generally speaking, the higher your activity level, the more calories you consume. So, if you just start exercising and eat the same amount, you will lose weight.

According to www.mydietbuddy.com, the average woman may burns 1700 - 2000 calorie per day. The average man .... 2200 - 2500 calories each day.

For example, let's say that I am consuming just enough calories to maintain my weight. Now let's say that I decide to walk 30 minutes a day, five days a week, at a rate of 2.5 to 3 mph, and I haven't previously been doing this. According to the Calorie Requirements Calculator I will have burned 250 extra calories a week. If I speed up my walking just a bit to 3 to 3.5 mph, I will burn an extra 350 calories per week, for a total of 600 calories per week. At this rate my weight will drop about a pound every 6 weeks.

Ok, so now suppose I start doing other things, taking steps up one flight, instead of using the elevator, doing my own housecleaning (and saving a bundle), taking up gardening or dancing as a hobby. Pretty soon, I am going to be knocking off a couple of pounds every three months. This, of course, provided I don't increase my calorie intake, which is why it is so important to learn to count calories. How would I know I wasn't increasing my intake (since your appetite may increase), unless I was keeping track of how much food I was ingesting?

Basal metabolism and set point

It is a well-known fact that people tend to burn calories at a certain rate. The basal metabolic rate (BMR)is the minimum number of calories that an awake individual uses at rest and under normal, non-stressful conditions. This figure is about 70 or 80 calories per hour. There is also another, somewhat controversial theory called the set point theory, which states that our body tends to return to the weight it has been at. There have been various discussions of how to change this set point. A lot of people believe that exercising regulary can raise your BMR. Since this increases the number of calories you need just to stay alive, continued exercise can help you to alter your weight permanently, and hence, eventually change your set point.

Exercise AND Diet

Much more could be said about the science of physical fitness. We haven't talked about the importance of aerobic exercise, the point of which is to exercise your heart by increasing its functioning to within a certain percentage of its maximum capacity. We haven't talked about your body mass index (BMI), which measures the percentage of fat in your body and which also is used as an indicator of your health. We haven't talked about how to exercise safely and avoid injury, and this is surely important, since many people set themselves back from attaining their weight loss goals in just this way. And we have yet to discuss the all important topic of nutrition. Nevertheless, what is important to note is that both diet and exercise go hand in hand in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Thinking about just diet and not exercise is like thinking only about the kind of gas you are going to put in your car and not thinking about how to regularly maintain the vehicle.

You should develop an exercise program that is right for you, given your sex, age, weight, and medical condition. You are unique, and no generic plan is going to be just perfect for you. You will have to modify any plan and test it carefully on yourself to see if you are thriving on it. Whether you decide to just walk three times a week or launch into a vigorous physical fitness program including weight lifting, exercise machines or various forms of sports activities, you need to thoughtfully and carefully develop and test a plan that works for you. In other words, you need to exercise your judgment as well as your body in developing fitness.