The Benefits of Exercising

The benefits of physical activity are available to people of all ages – not just to younger people.  Participating in vigorous physical activity for a few years when you are young probably contributes little to increased longevity of life expectancy.  However, a physically active lifestyle throughout your entire life grants significant health benefits.  Some of these benefits include decreased incidence of cardiovascular disease (including strengthening the heart, improving blood cholesterol levels, lowering blood pressure, and decreasing the risks of becoming diabetic or obese), decreased risk of some forms of cancer, strengthens bones, which decreases the risk of osteoporosis, reduces muscle atrophy, prevents or relieves arthritis, combats fatigue and also improves sleep.

In addition to these benefits, moderate cardiovascular exercise can be used to aid in the recovery from heart attacks or strokes.  Finally, and perhaps most importantly for increasing the quality of an older person’s life, exercise programs can improve self-esteem and increase one’s feeling of independence, while providing social interaction which combats the feelings of loneliness that face many mature adults.

In short, physical exercise determines how healthy you will be in the years to come.  It is very realistic to envision yourself as being healthy and independent long past midlife;  It’s up to you!  The matter of aging should be everyone’s own personal responsibility.  Take charge of your life and remain physically active to prevent the diseases that are  normally associated with aging from occurring, rather than treating the diseases after they have occurred.  Can you see how regular physical exercise can add years to your life and life to your years!

As always, when beginning an exercise  program, choose your exercises wisely.  If individuals who have been sedentary all of their lives suddenly started running, they can easily injure themselves, running is fine if you’ve done it all our life.   The key is to begin any new exercise program gradually, especially programs that involve physical activities that you are not accustomed. to.  Here at Phoenix Fitness Hamilton, our Hamilton Personal Trainers can help you choose activities that are safe for you will also design an exercise program around these activities.  For many inactive people who are beginning a program of regular exercise later in life,  the services of a Hamilton Personal Trainer is the safest and most effective way to start.

Facts About Fat

* Most North Americans eat about 35% more fat than is considered healthy.

* Dietary fat yields more than twice the calories per gram (approximately 9 kcal/g) as that yielded by carbohydrates or protein (approximately 4 kcal/g each).

*Research has linked high dietary fat intake with heart disease, hypertension (high blood pressure), obesity, gall bladder disease, diabetes, liver disease, cancer of the colon and breast cancer in women.

* Reducing saturated fat intake (from animal products) can help reduce blood cholesterol levels.

* A healthy percentage body fat should be about 17 – 22% in men and 19 -24% in women.  These percentages usually increase with advancing age due to an increased sedentary lifestyle.

* The body’s fat stores are used as fuel for moderate, prolonged exercise.  Thus continuous cardiovascular exercise of greater than 12 minutes duration is the best way to reduce fat stores in the body.

Strategies For Reducing Dietary Fat

*When cooking: boil, bake, steam or microwave instead of frying.

* Try to eliminate all deep fried foods.

* Choose the low fat varieties of mayonnaise, salad dressing and gravy.

*Replace sour cream with yougurt.

* Choose low fat (skim or 1%) dairy products, and add milk to coffee rather than cream.

* Mozzarella is by far the least fattening form of cheese because it is made from skim milk.

*Avoid “fast foods”, which are high in fat and salt and low in fibre.

* Choose lean cuts of meat, cut off visible fat  (including poultry skin), and drain off any fat that cooks out of the meat.

TO MAINTAIN PROPER WEIGHT CONTROL AND OPDTIMAL BODY FAT LEVELS, A LIFETIME COMMITMENT TO PROPER EATING HABITS AND REGULAR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IS REQUIRED!!

Nutritional Goals

Depending on your current dietary profile, the following guideline may be useful to you in pursuing successful health and fitness.

Since high levels of saturated fats (from animal products) raise blood cholesterol levels and are associated with coronary heart disease, they can be dangerous to your health.  Therefore, you should decrease saturated fat intake to less than 10% of your total daily calories, while unsaturated fats ( from plants) should comprise 10% to 15% of your total daily calories.  Thus, total fat consumption should represent only about 20% to 25% of you total daily caloric intake.

Reduce your cholesterol intake to less than 300 milligrams per day.

Increase your carbohydrate intake to 65% to 70% of your total caloric intake.  The majority of these should be complex carbohydrates (eg: pasta, rice, breads, cereals, potatoes and legumes).  Simple carbohydrates (sugars) should only account for about 15% of your total daily calories.

Maintain protein intake at 10% to 12% of your total daily calories.  This is equivalent to 0.8 to 1.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day.  This amount can be increased to 1.5 to 2.0 grams of protein/kg body weight per day for athletes during intense training.

Decrease salt consumption by about 50% to 80% (depending on your current intake to 3 grams per day.

Increase intake of fibre: fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

Increase your consumption of fish and skinless poultry in place of red meat.

Make a habit of eating regular meals, at least 3 average-sized meals, or 5 smaller meals per day, so that you meet but do not exceed your total daily caloric requirement.

NEVER MISS A MEAL:  SKIPPING MEALS WILL INCREASE FAT STORAGE AND WILL ALSO MAKE YOU HUNGRIER LATER ON IN THE DAY.