You are what you eat! The key to success!
As harsh as it sounds, we are the result of what we eat and what we do. Over time, the general population have followed a pattern of eating more and doing less. The end result is a rapid growth in overweight, unhealthy people struggling to change their habits.
Did you know…
63% of British men
&
53% of British Women
Are now classed as overweight or obese
In order to overcome this ever growing problem, and more importantly, prevent this occurring with our younger generation, we need to educate the importance of healthy living and keeping an active lifestyle. A mixture of a healthy diet and plenty of exercise is the key to a successful outcome.
Energy consumed through diet + Energy burned through exercise = A change in % body fat
If we consume more energy (calories) than we work off through exercise, then this surplus of calories will be stored as fat. The body is very good at doing this, and is what many people find hard to overcome. If we can all eat healthier and do a little more exercise, then we can help lower the government figures for our overweight / obese population. The government uses a statistical measure to determine whether a person is classed overweight or obese, this is called BMI (Body Mass Index). It is a measure of a person’s weight in relation to their height. To work out your own BMI, please use the equation below.
Body Mass Index = Your body weight (Kg)
Your height Multiplied by Your height (M)
BMI Classifications
Underweight = Below 18.5
Normal = 18.5 to 24.0
Overweight = 25.0 to 29.9
Obesity Class I = 30.0 to 34.9
Obesity Class II = 35.0 to 39.9
Obesity Class III = Above 40.0
Diet
A healthy diet doesn’t mean you have to starve yourself and dramatically cut back on the calories you take in each day (Unless you consume in excess of your daily requirements). Starving your body of calories, means you are also starving your body of the vital nutrients it needs to perform its everyday functions. Starving your body with a low calorie diet may be a quick fix to your weight problem, but you will soon put weight back on once the diet wears off. This is called the Yo-Yo effect, and is a very common occurrence which does not resolve the problem long term.
“A healthy diet is a diet for life, and not just for a few weeks”
The main problem with the majority of people’s diets today is that we consume far too much of the bad stuff, and not enough of the good stuff. The average UK diet consists of approximately 40% Fat each day, this is too high and we need to limit our fat intake to at least 25 – 30%. The lower this figure is, the less chance we are giving our bodies to store Fat, which like I said earlier, the body is very keen to do. Other components of a healthy diet are things such as proteins, carbohydrates, Vitamins, minerals, fiber, and water.
Exercise
When we exercise we burn off calories to fuel the muscles in order to perform each action / movement. This is great for people wanting to get into shape and improve their physique. Through exercise we are able to burn off fat stores, whilst building muscle mass, resulting in getting the body you have always desired. Reducing your body fat and increasing muscle mass improves your body’s ability to metabolize your fat stores, which is ideally what we want to achieve. Keeping an active lifestyle is a good start to changing how you look. Walk places rather than taking the car, join fitness classes, start a home workout programme. There are many ways you could keep active, and they are just a few of them. However, it does take a lot of hard work and commitment to be able to carry this through and achieve the results you want. If you are serious about getting into shape then you’re already past the first step. Keep your goals at the forefront of everything you do, and when times are hard, push that little bit more and you WILL see success.
I hope you find this information useful, please leave any comments or questions you may have.
Trev
Sprint Personal Training