Exercise & Fitness FAQ

If you want to weigh 205 lb. then you should be 6' 1" to 6'4 1/2".

What is the most effective exercise to flatten the stomach?

Sit-ups, leg lifts, side bends are some exercises that strengthen stomach muscles. However, spot exercising may not produce the results you desire. If you belong to a health club, ask to talk to an exercise physiologist or personal trainer. Another good professional to talk to is a physical therapist. Best plan is to exercise and strengthen all muscle groups.

Why do so many weight loss diets now push exercise? I really don't mind exercising, but I just seem to forget after a while. What can I do to get into the exercise habit and why is it important?

Research has found that exercise when combined with a calorie reduced diet helps increase the amount of body fat burned and helps maintain lean muscle tissue. Lean muscle tissue is your muscles, organs and bones. Lean muscle tissue burns more calories than fat because lean tissue performs more work than fat. Fat just sits there like a dead weight.

Exercise also increases your basal metabolic rate for up to 15 hours after exercising. Your basal metabolic rate is the amount of calories your body burns, laying in bed, just to keep all your organs functioning. So exercise will increase the amount of calories you burn just doing your daily activities.

Exercise helps to suppress your appetite for food. That is, if you exercise correctly. You need to exercise at a rate that increases your heart rate and breathing, but not to a point where you can't catch your breath. Your body can run on three basic fuels: your blood sugar; your stored fat; your blood or tissue proteins. Your body prefers to run on glucose, but can run on fat or protein as well. However, glucose is the only fuel that can be burned without air, which is called anaerobic metabolism. In order for your body to burn fat, you need glucose and air, which is called aerobic metabolism. As long as you are able to take in enough air, you can burn some fat. If you can't carry on a conversation, you can't carry enough oxygen to your muscles to burn fat. When you exercise too intensely and are short of breath, glucose is the only fuel that you can burn. When your blood sugar gets low, a gland called the hypothalamus, sends a message to your brain that you are hungry and need to eat. So the next time you exercise and feel hungry afterwards, you exercised too hard and lowered your blood sugar to the point where your brain told you that you were hungry.

Exercise also helps fight depression. Your brain produces a hormone that gives you a good feeling. Exercise helps increase the amount of this hormone. It is the body's natural "feel good me". Exercise should make me feel good about me.

Many people accumulate excess weight because they don't adjust their food intake, but decrease their physical activity. This is age-related and called inertial weight gain. Most 20+ year old people still eat as if they are a teen, but don't realize that they sit around a lot more.

Establish a regular plan of exercise that you enjoy. Start with 15 minutes per day the first week for 5 days. The second week increases to 30 minutes, 45 minutes the third week and 60 minutes the fourth week. Maintain a schedule of exercise three to five days per week for 60 minutes each day. There does not seem to be additional benefit to exercising seven days, so take two days off.

When you exercise, time is important, not distance traveled. Work on exercising about of 60 minutes per day. The longer you exercise, the higher percent fat you burn. Your body switches from burning glucose to burning fat after approximately 30 minutes.

Choose an exercise you enjoy as long as it uses your large muscle groups in your legs or back. You are more likely to regularly repeat exercises you like to do. In spite of what some exercise gimmick ads tell you, a machine can't exercise for you. However, NASA is working on an experimental model now for astronauts whose muscles and bones become weak during space travel.

Think of ways you can increase your level of exercise. Increase your regular activity level by parking your car two blocks from your destination. This seems simple, yet even people at a health club will race to the closest parking spot. Take the stairs instead of an elevator or escalator. Walk up the stairs at a regular pace and remember to breathe in and out while climbing. Carry your own groceries out of the store rather than using the drive up door. Carrying grocery bags is similar to weight lifting!

Having an active and a busy lifestyle is not the same as exercising. Exercise benefits health by reducing fat, stress and depression.