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Fitness Articles |
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Deprivation
Doesn't Work! Each
time we go on another diet of deprivation, the weight becomes more
difficult to lose, and we become even more frustrated and discouraged.
Then we eat more and exercise less, causing ourselves more frustration,
discouragement, depression. Soon we are in a vicious cycle. We begin to
ask ourselves, "Why bother?" We begin to blame ourselves for
having no will power when what we really need is clear,
scientifically-based information that will help us develop a healthier
lifestyle we can live with for the rest of our lives. The
Weight Management component of the Global Health and Fitness (GHF) program
is not a diet that you'll quit because it's too difficult or because
you've reached a six-month weight-loss goal. GHF offers a healthier way of
eating and a happier way of living. We offer a realistic, sensible
approach to food and a more fun and more effective approach to exercise.
We teach you how to gradually adopt those new behaviors so that they
become part of an improved way of life, one without guilt, without rules,
and without deprivation. Reducing
Body Fat Reduces Disease Risk The
good news is that reducing body fat reduces the risk of disease. At the
University of Pittsburgh, researchers studied 159 people as they followed
a weight management program. The subjects were under age 45 and 30-70
pounds overweight. Those subjects who were able to shed just 10-15 percent
of their weight and keep it off during the 18-month study showed
significant improvement in HDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels,
waist-to-hip ratio, and blood pressure. In fact, according to the New
England Journal of Medicine, body fat reduction is a more powerful
modulator of cardiac structure than drug therapy. For
people with a family history of heart disease, an active lifestyle can
slow or stop the process for all but those with serious genetic disorders.
Studies by Dean Ornish, MD, have shown that a comprehensive intervention
program that includes regular physical activity, a low-fat diet and a
stress reduction program can even reverse the heart disease process. Evidence
also shows that an active lifestyle and its help in reducing body fat is
associated with a reduced risk for some types of cancers: prostate for
men, breast and uterine cancers for women. (Frisch, et al 1985) In
addition, regular physical activity and a low-fat diet are successful in
treating non-insulin dependent diabetes (NIDDM); for some patients, it has
reduced or eliminated the need for insulin substitutes. In general,
regularly active adults have 42 percent lower risk of developing NIDDM. Gaining
Weight Happens to Most of Us The
average American gains at least one pound a year after age 25. Think about
it. If you're like most Americans, by the time you're 50, you're likely to
gain 25 pounds of fat, or more. In addition, your metabolism is also
slowing down, causing your body to work less efficiently at burning the
fat it has. At the same time, if you don't exercise regularly, you lose a
pound of muscle each year. Consequently, people are not only increasing
their body fat stores, increasing their risk of disease, but they're also
losing muscle, increasing the risk of injury, decreasing activity
performance, and further slowing down metabolism. Very
few Americans exercise in any significant way. The President's Council on
Physical Fitness and Sports estimates that only one in five Americans
exercises for the healthy minimum of 20 minutes, three or more days a
week. In fact, the average American gets less than 50 minutes of exercise
per week. Even worse, two out of five Americans are completely sedentary. The
Answer: Healthy Eating and Physical Fitness But
there is hope. Moderate weight loss--of fat, not muscle--and a healthy and
active lifestyle--not dieting--have been found to lower health risks and
medical problems in 90 percent of overweight patients, improving their
heart function, blood pressure, glucose tolerance, sleep disorders, and
cholesterol levels, as well as lowering their requirements for medication,
lowering the incidence and duration of hospitalization, and reducing
post-operative complications eight times less likely to die from cancer
than the unfit, and 53 percent less likely to die from other diseases. Fit
people are also eight times less likely to die from heart disease.
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