Health and Fitness
Regular activity has a number of proven, positive health effects on your health & fitness, especially on heart health. Vigorous exercise strengthens the heart as a pump, making it a larger, more efficient muscle. Even moderate activity can boost HDL (‘good’) cholesterol, aid the circulatory system, and lower blood pressure and blood fats. All these effects
translate into reduced risk for heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. Exercise can also offer other health benefits, including strengthened muscles, increased flexibility, and stronger bones, which can help ward off the bone-thinning condition called osteoporosis. Exercise also has other body-slimming effects. It increases muscle and displaces fat. A given volume of muscle weighs more than the same bulk of fat. So your bathroom scale may not record dramatic changes, but your clothes will be looser, and you’ll have a trimmer body shape. Regular activity also promises mental health benefits, like relieving stress and anxiety. It can help you sleep better and renew your energy. If exercise could be bottled, it would be a best-selling potion at the local pharmacy. The reasons for inactivity aren’t hard to figure out. Most of us have jobs where we sit most of the time, so chances are limited to be physically active at work. You don’t have to run a marathon or sprint 100 metres in 10 seconds to see changes – research is proving that benefits can be gained even from low – moderate intensity activity, like gardening, walking or even chasing after the kids! Little and often is the key!
Activity & Weight Management
For the majority of people the idea behind weight loss is simple – burn more calories through exercise and eat less calories through food and your body will start to lose fat. Making small changes to your food choices and adding 20 minutes of walking each day can accomplish this. Sounds simple? If it’s that simple, why can’t we seem to do it? There are several reasons that contribute to our weight gain that you already know. But it’s not just about finding time to exercise or choosing the salad over the burger; it’s about genuine commitment to make healthy decisions every day REGARDLESS of what’s happening in your life. If you’re not ready to make some changes, losing weight will be hard.
How Activity Affects Calorie Needs
The more active you are, the more calories you’ll burn, which can help with weight loss. Exercise also promotes fat loss and builds and improves muscle tone. This, in turn, increases your body’s metabolic rate, the rate at which you burn calories, even after you’ve finished exercising.
Weight loss by reducing your calorie intake without activity can have just the opposite effect: It can cause your body to break down muscle, which ultimately lowers your metabolic rate and makes losing weight even harder. The problem of reducing your calorie intake without exercise is compounded when people go off their diets. Because they’ve lost muscle, they tend to regain their weight quickly and then some. A better approach is to increase activity at the same time that you’re cutting back on excess calories from food. Physical activity can also reduce stress and regulate your appetite, making it easier to curb the urge to overeat. Hannah will help you with all your fitness needs and guide you in the right direction. Hannah has “bought the T-Shirt” so she knows & understands how you are feeling all the way through to your goal weight.
BMI Calculator
The BMI weight ranges, as set out by the World Health Organisation (WHO), are outlined below. If your BMI is less than 18.4, you are underweight for your height. If your BMI is between 18.5 – 24.9: you are an ideal weight for your height. If your BMI is between 25 – 29.9: you are overweight for your height. If your BMI is between 30 – 39.9: you are obese. If your BMI is over 40: you are very obese. The formula of calculating the BMI is the same for children as for adults. But the meaning is different. Click here to see our Children’s BMI charts
Understanding the Body Mass Index
The body mass index (BMI) is calculated solely based on height and weight. It is believed to be a good indicator to judge if a person is underweight, within the normal range, overweight, or obese. It is less expensive than other techniques to gauge body fat in individuals. Because the simple equation does not literally measure actual body fat, very muscular individuals are often categorized as overweight. This is not a perfect estimation of true body fat. In general, women tend to have more body fat than men, so if a man and woman have the exact same BMI, her percentage of true body fat to weight will be slightly higher. The same variation exists between younger and older individuals, as young people tend to have more muscle mass. Even with these differences the BMI is considered a fairly reliable gauge of fitness.