The Benefits of Aerobic Exercise and Always Stick the Calorie Burning Exercises

Somebody maybe want to know what is aerobic exercises and which type of aerobic exercises do they need.  Aerobic exercises, such as running training program, bike riding, swimming, aerobic dance classes, brisk walking and similar types of aerobic exercise requiring steady, intense effort — are super calorie burning exercises. The sports therapist of American says that significant loss of body fat requires aerobic exercises at least 20 minutes per day, three days a week, with sufficient intensity and duration to burn 300 calories per session, obviously aerobic exercises fit this bill the best. The benefits of aerobic exercise also help you relax, and since stress is a common cause of overeating, relieving it is a step in the right direction.

Serious runners are renowned for their slender physiques and body type, thanks to the hundreds of calories a good run eats up with such intense calorie burning exercises. If you’re a beginner, you’ll need to build up your muscular strength and cardiovascular endurance slowly, and start from a beginner running program, actually simply walk a block or two, then run a block, then walk again. Slowly increase your distance, about 10-15 percent a week. Three times a week over a period of several weeks, try to run longer distances and walk less. You may start out feeling like a sorry heap of potatoes, but you'll probably be surprised at how quickly you can progress.

For example, maybe your friend of a physical trainer spent a good year hounding you to try a running training program, but you couldn’t imagine dragging your poor body down the street, then you are really eager to lose 15 pounds and enjoy the benefits of aerobic exercise, so you should try to go out one day early in the morning, walk a half mile, then ran a block, then walked home. The next day, you could ran a little farther, and the next day farther still. Before long, you must can running for 30 minutes straight, which then continue to do three times a week. Maybe you never run a marathon, but first you will feel great, and you will lose 15-20 pounds finally through these good calorie burning exercises.

A one-year follow-up study looked at a group of eight women who had lost weight in a supervised medical program by the sports therapist. During the program, they had exercised at least 9 minutes per day, including a 25 to 45 minutes run. A year after the program, no longer dieting but eating an average of about 1600 calories a day and continuing to exercise in the form of running or other types of aerobic exercise, they maintained their weight loss. They also maintained progressive cardiovascular endurance and normal cholesterol levels through above calorie burning exercises.

However, the body fat you lose through aerobic exercises and diet can be easily regained if you interrupt your calorie burning exercises, even if you keep dieting. So do your best to stick to your good exercises program. After you’ve lost all you want to and have quit dieting, continuing to play different types of aerobic exercise, sports therapist's research already shows, helps maintain your weight loss. 

Keep Away From the Swim If You Want to Lose Weight

One of the best all-around exercises, swimming increases both cardiovascular and muscle strength. There is hardly any stress on your body’s joints, because water turns you into a kind of weightless underwater astronaut, making your every movement an easy, flowing one. But water also offers resistance that helps you build muscle strength and tone.

Doing laps in a pool — no matter what the stroke — is excellent exercise. You can also “take a walk” underwater or perform calisthenics like leg lifts or arm circles. Research shows that water actually offers an equal aerobic workout in less time than one on dry land. A half-hour of walking in water equals the energy output of a two-hour walk in the woods, one study showed. Make sure you’re about chest deep (to benefit from the resistance) and simply go for a stroll.

However，there’s something you should know: Swimming isn’t the greatest exercise for losing actual pounds, according to at least one study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine.

Researchers followed the progress of a group of moderately obese but otherwise healthy young women who were trying to lose weight by exercising without changing their diets. The women were divided into three exercise groups. Group one rode stationary bicycles, group two took brisk walks and group three swam laps in a pool. All of them slowly but steadily increased their daily exercise period to 6. 0 minutes. After about six months, the bike-riders had lost 12 percent of their initial weight and the walkers lost 10 percent, but swimmers lost none, and then,keep in mind that swimming has been proven effective in improving muscle tone, and firm muscles contribute significantly to losing inches, if not pounds.

Yoga may help keep weight off at mid-life

Researchers found that overweight people in their 50s who regularly practiced yoga lost about five pounds over 10 years, while a group in the same age range gained about 13 1/2 pounds over the same period.

Middle-aged people of normal weight generally put on pounds over 10 years, but those who did yoga gained less weight than those who didn’t practice yoga.

The researchers collected data from 15,500 people between the ages of 53 and 57 who were asked about exercise, weight, health and diet histories. The findings, published in 2008 issue of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, showed that those who practiced yoga tended to avoid junk food and overeating because they wanted to respect their bodies.

How to Fat-Proof Your Children

Now, with statistics showing that childhood obesity is on the rise, it is more important than ever to teach your child healthy eating habits. Of course, you cannot totally control whether your child is fat. The most significant factor is genetics. If one parent is obese, a child has a 40 percent risk of also being obese. If both parents are obese, the risk soars to 80 percent,

Even given the powerful influence of genes, childhood obesity has raised so much in the last few years that clearly there must be other factors at play. The good news is that, while researchers work to identify those factors, you can help your child avoid a weight problem by following five simple guidelines that I've developed:

1.      You select the food and mealtimes, children chooses how much to eat.

The healthy and positive way to manage feeding grows out of trust: trust in your child to eat in a way that's right for him or her. It's a process that relies on the child's internal cues of hunger, appetite and satiety to guide the feeding process.

A Duke University study suggests that the more parents control their children's food intake, the fatter the kids become, also, by restricting the food you give a growing child, you interfere with the natural growth process. There is evidence that children who under eat have less energy and slower rates of maturation.

The solution was not to put the child on a diet and promote under-eating. It was to reassure Todd that he would not have to go hungry. When you give children enough food and permission to eat, they relax and stop overeating. The object is to help your child regulate, by himself, the amount he eats.

Babies are born with the instinct to take in just the amount of food appropriate for them. Each child has within him the genetic-blueprint for his growth, and it's not only futile but destructive to try to change it.

Of course it will help your child if you go easy on high-calorie foods like french fries and candy. While studies suggest that fat children are no more likely to eat excessive amounts of these foods than thin children are. They pay more of a price because of their relative inability to burn off the excess calories.

Don't eliminate all high-calorie food, however. If you do, your child will want to sneak “sinful” foods. And don't go overboard on low calorie alternatives.

2. Remove feeding cues.

If there are visible reminders of food, people will often succumb. A candy dish or cookie jar is a booby trap for an eater sensitive to such cues. I don't advocate withholding candy or cookies, this is cruel and inhuman punishment. But we should give children such sweets only when they are truly hungry for them.

In the same way, if a child generally eats at a particular spot, say, on the floor in front of the TV, it can be an eating reminder whenever he's there, whether he's hungry or not. Wouldn't it be better to spare him the thought of food at all, except when it's time to eat?

You can help do this by limiting opportunities to eat. Maybe he should eat only at the table, and then just eat, not watch TV or read magazines. That way, he' 11 have to choose between eating and doing something else.

3. Teach slow, relaxed eating.

Your child will have time to enjoy his food and find his natural stopping point if he eats slowly. Have him sit calmly in his chair. Engage in pleasant conversation, don’t use the lime for scolding and airing grievances. If he eats fast, have him wait awhile before having seconds. If you don't deprive him of food, he will learn to tolerate his hunger because he'll know that, before too long, he can make it go away.

The slow eating technique and the delay before seconds are not tricks to get your child to eat less. They arc methods to help him be sensitive to his hunger and appetite, and to use those cues to regulate the amount he eats.

4. Don't treat your child differently because he is fat.

What was a parent to do? If your child is just behaving like other kids, and the only reason you can think of for curbing his eating is his weight, you'd better let it pass. Otherwise he Ml feel singled out and embarrassed, which could cause him to eat even more,

5. Encourage exercise.

The best way to increase exercise for children is to let them do what comes naturally. Even the least active child is a whirlwind by adult standards. Toddlers are constantly on the move; they prefer running to walking. Preschoolers want to climb higher, run faster and play harder than they ever have before.

Pick out active forms of family recreation like biking, but don't force your child to take part. If too energetic, efforts to get your child to exercise may result in his plodding along just to please you or refusing to exercise at all. As with eating, exercise demands division of responsibility; you need to create the opportunity, but allow your child to choose whether to do it.

If you consistently use these methods through your child's growth years, odds are he will be of normal weight. At the very least, you will give him his best chance of keeping the fat off, and of building good eating habits for life.

Get Thin Stay Thin -Tips for Weight Loss

1.Don't ignore hunger!

2.Eat a hearty breakfast!

3.Eat only when you're hungry!

4.Limit your consumption of "pleasure" foods!

5.Throw out the scale!

The world was divided into two groups: natural fats and natural thins. And, and the feast-or-famine cycle of traditional dieting may well be responsible for many chronic weight-control problems. The dieter first starves herself, then binges when her body can't take it anymore, Built-in survival mechanisms rebel, and the body builds up fat reserves so it can survive the next famine the diet.

According to Sheila Ramsey, director of the Georgetown U University Diet Management and Eating Disorders Program in Washington, D. C. "Very low calorie diets that leave a person chronically hungry are doomed to fail: Neural and hormonal signals from the body will drive a person to eat despite high levels of motivation and willpower.

As I applied these new insights to my own eating patterns, 1 stopped dieting. I began to listen to my body's signals for food and to eat more nutritious food more often. The changes I experienced in getting off the diet/binge cycle were gradual (because it took me awhile to break my bad eating habits), but eventually my weight went down. Here's how to get off the diet/binge roller coaster:

1) Don’t ignore hunger.

Everybody gets hungry, even thin people. The difference between the hungry thin person and the hungry fat person is that the first eats and the latter fights hunger in every possible way. The overweight person denies hunger, represses it, and ignores it. Bui hunger always catches up in the end. Sooner or later, dieters all report that extreme hunger causes them to lose control, to go berserk, off the diet, on to eating.

You can stop the feast-or-famine cycle by eating as though you have no weight problem, eliminating the intermittent diet famines your body has adapted to. You have to convince your body that it can safely stop storing fat. The key is to eat well whenever you are hungry and stop eating when you are full.

You are probably thinking. If I eat every time I am hungry, 1 will be enormous in no time. That's simply not true. You may gain a few pounds at first. But as you retrain your body, you will not be hungry for more food than you need: you will finally be able to consistently avoid over-eating, so you can lose weight.

2) Eat a hearty break fast.

Eating too little at breakfast to save calories for later in the day is self defeating. If you skip a morning meal, your blood sugar level drops and you start craving food.

To lose weight, start each day by eating some real food. Eat as much as you need to feel satisfied, no more, no less. If you don't feel hungry in the evening, try going to bed with your stomach satisfied but relatively empty. You will rest more completely because you do not have half the refrigerator to digest! And since you have been on a natural mini-fast all night, you will have an appetite for breakfast.

3) Eat only when you're hungry.

People with weight problems often have no concept of their own hunger. They are so busy dieting or starving themselves that they have stifled their bodies' normal hunger sensations. Studies have shown that overweight people are more likely to eat in response to external cues a plate of food, a clock that indicates dinner time, than internal hunger pains.

I have discovered that as overweight people learn how to stay well-fed, their response to external signals diminishes and they begin to respond to genuine hunger. Then they can lose weight.

Learn to recognize hunger. Ask yourself if what you’re feeling is something else: fatigue, thirst, boredom, even loneliness. But when you have identified your feeling as hunger, eat. When you're full, stop eating. As you begin to eat according to your body's fuel-need signals, your nighttime binging will stop. You won't be overwhelmed by the "munchies" because you will have supplied your body's fuel needs all day long.

4) Limit your consumption of “pleasure" foods.

I've divided food into two basic categories; real food and pleasure food. Real food is fuel for the body's needs, while pleasure food, which is high in fat and/or sugar, is primarily for taste satisfaction. The categories are pretty obvious. Broccoli is real food. Cookies are in the pleasure group.

When you're hungry, you are faced with choices. If you’re not suffering from excessive hunger, you can be rational about them. Go to the refrigerator. What looks good? If you have chosen a real food, say, a turkey sandwich, you can be certain your body can use it for fuel. Eat it and enjoy.

Rut what if you have ice cream on hand and nothing else sounds good? Although you don't want to eat pleasure foods whenever the urge strikes, there is a legitimate place for them in your diet. If you have analyzed your feelings and there are no other needs imitating hunger, eat the ice cream. You have not failed. On the contrary, you have accepted your natural appetite, but not blindly.

Surprisingly, when you know you can eat anything you want and that you never have to put up with unsatisfied hunger a-gain, it takes a lot of pressure off. You'll begin to want to eat what your body needs, and your body will begin to need foods that will lead to slimness.

5) Throw out the scale.

The bathroom scale has become something of a god for dieters worldwide. Its blessing? Showing a loss on a given day, can make the worst of circumstances easier to lake. But its curse, he little needle moving upward, will cast a depressing shadow on the best of times.

Discard it today. It is not an ex-weight watcher who wants to be naturally thin. For permanent weight loss, you and your body need to get together instead of fighting each other. As you satisfy your hunger by eating properly at the right time, the distorted, exaggerated hunger you have forced your body to endure will diminish. Gradually, you will begin to experience only normal hunger, which is not the enemy, hut a healthy feeling. Eliminate over hunger, and you will eliminate overeating. Gradually. Slowly. Naturally. Honestly!

Ten Big Fat Lies about Dieting

For Most of us, dieting is a frustrating fact of life. With so much conflicting nutritional information about, it can be difficult to tell which weight loss strategies really work. Start by discounting these confusing myths.

1. All calories arc created equal
What you cat，not how much, is the main factor behind weight gain, according to research at Cornell University in New York, Calories from fat pack on the pounds. The reason; during digestion, the body burns many more calories metabolizing protein and carbohydrates than it does metabolizing fat. For every 100 calories of carbohydrates we consume in excess of our daily requirement, only 75% are turned into body fat. But 97 of every 100 excess fat. Calories are turned into body fat.

The American Heart Association recommends that no more than 30 percent of daily calories come from fat. Some food-packa-ging labels should make it easier to calculate your daily intake. Avoid palm and coconut oils and other saturated fats — often contained in snacks like crackers and cookies—and opt for low-fat products, such as skim milk and low-fat yogurt.

2. Desserts are taboo
Ruth Lahrnayer. a registered dietitian, advises against categorizing foods as "good” and "bad". Even cakes, pies and ice cream can sensibly be worked into a diet, she says. Moderation is the key. Cut down on other meals if you will be eating out at a restaurant known for its lavish sweets. Or indulge, but take only a few bites. If you crave desserts often but want to save calories, try poached fruit, sorbet or sponge cake heaped with berries. All will satisfy your sweet tooth and supply nutrients as well.

3. When you lose and regain weight. It’s tougher to loss it again
Thomas Waddent, an obesity researcher compared  dieters with people who weren't, and found both groups lost weight easily. One caveat: other studies suggest that losing and gaining weight repeatedly may increase the risk of cardiovascular problems.Experts recommend diet plans that promote a steady loss of one half to one pound a week. Cutting out rich desserts or that glass of wine with dinner every day are painless ways to achieve that goal.

4. It makes no difference whether you are top or bottom heavy
In fact, where weight is distributed makes all the difference. Recent studies suggest that people who store fat on the upper torso and abdomen (apple shape), rather than on hips and thighs (pear shape), may have an increased risk of hypertension, heart disease and diabetes. There is probably little you can do to alter how your body is genetically programmed to store fat, but you can lose excess weight overall.

5. Fast foods are forbidden
A plain hamburger on a bun is still a healthful choice. So is grilled chicken or a green salad with low - cal dressing. But watch out for French fries, milkshakes and batter-dipped chicken or fish.

6. Fasting is the fastest diet
Some studies suggest that drastically reducing calorie intake switches the body into a "starvation mode" which conserves calories and decreases your metabolic rate. The more frequently you deprive yourself of food, the better your body may get at storing calories. So, in the long run, repeated fasting may actually undermine your weight- loss efforts."If you fast to cancel out a recent food binge, you'll probably rebound and overeat," says nutritionist Franca Alphin. What's more, unsupervised fasting for more than three days can create increased risk of gallbladder disease, kidney stress, irritability, hair loss and lowered immunity to infection.

7. Fake fats are a free ticket
As with sugar substitutes, some dieters believe that fake fats make once-taboo foods acceptable. Such foods have a place in a healthful diet. But, cautions Alphin, "Don't assume that because a food doesn't have real fat, you can eat lots of it. You still need to consider portion size and calories, and whatever else is on the menu that day. "Kathleen Zelman, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association concurs: ''Although fake fats offer more options for a low-fat diet, the products that contain them: ice cream ,cakes ,cookies, tend to be high-calorie foods to begin with.The key is moderation. "

8. Fad diets are an effective way to take off pounds
Diets that advocate eating, say, large amounts of only one type of food (such as grapefruit, nuts of meat) for several days or a week is big time losers. ''You don’t  earn a thing about eating sensibly, "says Alphin, "When you go off the diet, you'll have the same bad eating habits and regain any weight you lost. " Adds Alphin, "With any diet, unless you make a commitment to changing your life-style, it is unlikely the weight will stay off.

9. To keep weight off simply watch what you eat
According to Thomas Wadden, exercise combined with dieting ensures weight loss better than dieting alone does. Experts also agree that sticking with regular, moderate exercise is more important than occasional vigorous workouts are. Obesity researcher Kelly Brownell encourages patients to make a series of small physical efforts: taking the stairs instead of the elevator and parking the car far from where you are going and walking. "People think they have to do a lot to burn a few calories, so they conclude, Why bother? says Brownell. "They overlook the other positive aspects of regular exercise; appetite control, mood enhancement and possibly a raised metabolism. "

10. It's all your fault you are fat
Albert Stunkard's research at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine indicates that body shape and size are in large part determined by a person's genes. In short, some people are more predisposed to be fat. Moreover, someone who was obese in childhood will have more fat cells than an "average" person. Once made, the cells may enlarge or shrink, but they never disappear.

Yet genes don't have to control your girth. The size of your fat cells depends on you, on your eating habits and life style. Mere are ways to keep them small.

Fill up on low-fat, fiber, rich foods, such as noodles, rice, wholegrain breads, fruits and vegetables. Chew food slowly, putting down your eating utensils between bites. It takes 20 minutes from the time you start eating for the brain to registers that your stomach is full.

Keep a log for a week, noting what, when and how much you eat, as well as your mood. Then study the connection between your emotions and your diet. If anxiety triggers uncontrollable eating, enroll in a stress management, relaxation or exercise class.

Most important, before getting caught up in dietary myths, let good sense shape your eating habits. Your body will thank you for it.

Dehydration and Weight Loss

  
Diuretics and impermeable clothing have been advocated from time to time for losing weight. These, however, cause weight loss rather than fat loss, and the resulting dehydration can be extremely dangerous. Although diuretics are often used in the treatment of hypertension in obese people, they have no place in the treatment of obesity itself.

Sauna belts and rubber suits are often used by the uninitiated in their quest to lose weight and inches. The resulting dehydration of the cells under the belts does cause a temporary loss of circumference. However, the change is short - lived, as normal fluid balance is quickly restored.

Body Composition and Obesity Index

   
Body Composition
Body composition can be divided into lean body mass and body fat. Lean body mass is fat - free weight. It includes the skeleton, water, muscle, connective tissue, organ tissues, and teeth. Body fat includes essential and nonessential fat stores. Essential fat includes lipid incorporated into organs and tissues such as nerves, brain, heart, lungs, liver, and mammary glands. Nonessential fat exists primarily within adipose tissue.

Measuring Body Composition
The morning weighing ritual cm the bathroom scale is really an attempt at estimating body composition. Using this method, it is impossible to determine accurately if a fluctuation in weight is due to a change in muscle, body water, or fat. The method also cannot distinguish between overweight and over fat. A 260 - pound muscular football player may be overweight according to population height - weight standards, yet actually have much less body fat than average. A 40 - year - old woman may weigh exactly the same as when she was in high school, yet have a considerably different body composition.

Anthropometric
Anthropometric assessment of body composition uses various superficial measurements such as height, weight， and anatomical circumferences. Of these, height - weight is by far the most popular. Height - weight tables, periodically produced by insurance companies, are inadequate, however, because they are subject to individual interpretation they require people to decide if they are of small, medium, or large frame. In addition, they do not take into consideration individual differences in lean body mass and relative fat.

Body Mass Index (BMI)
The body mass index is weight/height², and it is moderately correlated to percent fat. Because data are easy to collect, this index is widely used and reported in large epidemiological studies. A BMI of 25 - 30 for men and 27 - 30 for women is considered moderate obesity. A BMI of 30 -40 is considered massive obesity, and a BMI greater than 40 is classified as morbid obesity.

Ideal Body Composition

  
Perhaps the three most important considerations determining ideal body composition are health, aesthetics, and performance. The average person tends to be most concerned with health and aesthetics, while the athlete is concerned about all three.

Although the ideal healthy fat percentage has not been clearly established, it is generally agreed to be between 16% and 25% for women less than 20% for men，actually the average man and woman fall above the recommended fat percentage in almost all age categories. Tile ideal aesthetic body composition is even more difficult to establish. In our society, the lean, athletic look is prized, while the more corpulent look of the turn of the century is disdained. Unfortunately, the quest for the "lean look" often leads to unhealthy dietary habits. This is especially disturbing among athletes, who usually have very high caloric requirements because of heavy training. Young teenage, female athletes seem to be especially prone to overzealous caloric restriction, which can be dangerous.

Body composition is an extremely important consideration in many sports. In sports with weight categories, such as wrestling, boxing, and weight lifting, serious abuses have taken place in an attempt to lose weight. Weight - loss practices have sometimes even compromised the health of the athletes. Successful athletes in various sports usually possess a characteristic body composition. Variability in body fat depends on the metabolic requirement of the activity and the relative disadvantage of carrying an extra load. For example, successful male distance runners are almost always less than 9% fat. For these athletes, excess fat is a decided disadvantage. The tremendous caloric cost of running long distances makes it difficult for runners to gain much fat.

Football linemen, however, are almost always greater than 15% fat. This may be advantageous because of the added mass and padding provided by the subcutaneous fat and the increase in lean mass that accompanies excess weight (muscle mass accompanies gains in fat to support the extra weight). Unfortunately, many younger athletes gain too much fat in an attempt to attain the high body weights of the professional football player.

Exercise and long term weight - control program

Exercise is an important part of a successful long term weight - control program. It increases resting metabolic rate, maintains lean body mass, and increases energy expenditure. It also allows the consumption of enough calories to supply the body with adequate nutrients as well as energy. Caloric restriction alone can lead to malnourishment because the low - calorie diet may not contain sufficient vitamins and minerals, and chronic caloric restriction max eventually have serious health consequences.

A single session of exercise causes little fat loss. However, regular training can make a substantial difference in the weight - control program. The expenditure of 300 calories during exercise, three or four times a week, can result in a less of 13 to 23 pounds of fat a year, provided the caloric intake remains the same. That may not seem like much weight to a crash dieter. However, the weight loss consists largely of fat and is not a combination of water, lean tissue, and fat which is what is commonly lost on most fat diets. Although dieting is a drudgery, exercise is an enjoyable way to expend calories.

As fitness improves, exercise has a more potent effect on caloric utilization. A change in maximal oxygen consumption from 3 liters per minute to 3.5 liters per minute increases the ability to use calories by almost 20% . Exercise for weight control should center on long - term endurance activity for a minimum of 20 minutes.

Exercise and Weight Loss

Short - term studies have shown that endurance exercise without caloric restriction causes weight less- However,

exercise by itself is less effective than caloric restriction (i.e. , dieting) or caloric restriction plus exercise. Studies  have shown that exercise plus diet is more effective than dieting alone in maintaining weight loss (six months to three years after the beginning of the program).

Dieting by itself reduces lean body mass and decreases resting metabolic rate, sometimes by as much as 30% . During the initial stages of a starvation diet, 40% of the weight loss may be from lean mass. Most studies have shown that after one year, most weight lost through dieting alone is regained, and the dieter may become involved in a futile cycle of dieting and regained weight.

To be successful, long - term weight - control programs should include exercise. Exercise spares lean mass and increases resting metabolic rate during caloric restriction. Exercise also increases the thermic response to food (i.e. , digesting and processing food increases metabolic rate) . In addition, exercise exerts an independent effect on reducing the risk of coronary artery disease.

Exercise intensity may be important for increasing metabolic rate. Several studies have shown that intense exercise increases metabolic rate in obese subjects, while moderate exercise does not. Ute metabolic effects of exercise are temporary, however. In dieters, metabolic rate decreases when training is suspended for as little as three days.

The literature is unclear on the effects of exercise on food intake. Studies have found decreased, increased, and no change in food intake in people involved in moderate exercise. Likewise, it is not known if exercise influences dietary composition (i.e., the percentage of fats and carbohydrates in the diet).

Weight training has been suggested as an important component in a long - term weight - management program . Programs stressing caloric restriction cause decreases in lean body mass, negative nitrogen balance (i.e. , body loses protein) , and diminished muscle strength. Including weight training in the weight - reduction program helps spare lean body mass and maintain nitrogen balance. Also, improvements in strength between 17% and 22% have been reported in subjects who weight - trained during caloric restriction. Lean mass is the most important determinant of resting metabolic rate. Weight training increases or maintains lean mass in people on low -calorie diets.

Like endurance exercise, weight training has no effect on regional fat deposition (i.e., spot reducing is ineffective) . Although the improved muscle tone that results from training usually makes a particular area of the body look better, the subcutaneous adipose layer that lies over the muscles is unaffected .

Medical Procedures for Obesity

Medical intervention in the hospital is sometimes employed in extreme cases of obesity. Hospital procedures include: prolonged fasting, jejunoileal bypass, and lipectomy. These techniques, although often effective, are sometimes accompanied by undesirable side effects.

Starvation

Prolonged starvation has resulted in weight losses of over 100 pounds. However, this procedure causes loss of lean body mass and can have serious side effects, such as gout, anemia, hypotension, and various metabolic disturbances. Also, starvation does little to modify eating habits, which will help maintain lost weight.

Invasive Treatments

Invasive procedures for treating obesity include gastric bubble, jaw wiring, gastric bypass, gastroplasty, jejunoileal bypass, and liposuction. The long - term effectiveness of temporary measures, such as gastric bubble and jaw wiring, is low — as with starvation, the resting metabolic rate is depressed and healthy eating habits are seldom substituted, so weight is usually regained.

Bypass Operations

Bypass operations, such as gastric and jejunoileal bypasses, are much more effective than starvation and jaw wiring. These

procedures are very expensive, however, and much riskier than less invasive methods. Gastric operations reduce the gastric pouch size, which limits food intake. Clinical reports suggest that these procedures cause substantial weight loss. Although failure rates are as high as 50% , the procedures are satisfying to a large proportion of patients. Surgical risk is present but low. Other risks include vomiting, diarrhea, and peptic ulceration.

Jejunoileal bypass operations decrease the absorption of nutrients. These procedures cause weight losses similar to those from gastric operations. Side effects are much more severe, however, so the procedure is much less popular than it once was. Side effects include surgical complications, diarrhea, electrolyte disturbances, bacterial infection, and liver failure.

Suction Lipectomy

Liposuction has become the most popular type of elective surgery in the United States. The procedure involves removing limited amounts of fat from specific areas. Typically, no more than 2.5 kg of adipose is removed at a time. The procedure is usually successful if excess fat is limited and skin elasticity is good. The procedure is most effective, however, if integrated into a program of dietary restriction and exercise. Side effects include infection, dimpling, and wavy skin contours.

Drugs

Drugs used in weight control include those that suppress appetite and drugs affecting the gastrointestinal tract.

Appetite suppressants include amphetamine, diethylpropion, fenfluramine, and phenylpropanolamine. Although these drugs depress appetite and cause weight loss, some have serious side effects. Amphetamine, for example , is highly addictive and can cause cardiac arrhythmias and impair temperature regulation.

Drugs affecting the gastrointestinal tract include dietary fiber and sucrose polyester. Dietary fiber causes gastrointestinal distension and may restrict energy intake. Limited clinical trials suggest that including fiber supplements in the diet may aid weight loss. Sucrose polyester (Olestra) is a new diet ingredient of some promise. This substance cannot be digested and can be substituted for fats in the diet.

Diet and weight loss: Caloric Restriction

Caloric restriction is the most common treatment of obesity and is an essential part of any weight control program. Most quick - loss fad diets, however, stress weight loss rather than fat loss and fail to provide a regimen that can be followed for life. The goal of a dietary program should be to lose fat and then maintain the loss. Unfortunately, severe caloric restriction and the composition of these fad diets are so unpleasant and unnatural that rebound weight gains are typical.

Many of these quick - loss diets promote low carbohydrate intake, which results in dehydration as muscle and liver glycogen stores are depleted. Low carbohydrate diets lead to sodium diuresis and loss of intracellular and extracellular fluids. Although the weight loss appears impressive, most of it is in the form of water and lean mass rather than fat. Also, glycogen depletion greatly diminishes exercise capacity, which almost eliminates physical activity as a source of caloric expenditure.

The success or failure of any diet depends on its effect on energy balance. Studies of patients in metabolic wards, where diet and exercise are closely controlled and measured, have shown that people lose weight at a predictable rate when put on a low - calorie diet. Weight loss is independent of dietary composition. Fatter people tend to lose weight faster than people who are less fat. Men lose weight faster than women because of a higher lean body mass.

Although caloric content of the diet is most important for losing weight, dietary composition has an indirect influence on the quality of the weight loss. Protein (lean mass) loss is less in people consuming a high - carbohydrate diet.

Studies in metabolic wards have also shown that anyone consuming 1200 kcal per day will lose weight. They also show that water and protein loss are common during the early stages of the diet. These losses are most pronounced in more obese subjects. Exercise can slow the loss of lean

mass in obese people but cannot completely eliminate it.

Extremely low calorie diets ( <200 to 800 kcal per day) can be dangerous. Many people have died from cardiac arrest while on these diets.

Extremely low calorie diets have been associated with serious cardiac arrhythmias, loss of lean body mass, loss of hair, thinning of the skin, coldness in the extremities, gallbladder stones, gout, and elevated cholesterol. Such diets seldom result in the behavior changes necessary for permanent weight loss.

Some Key Index About Obesity

Obesity is a major health problem in Western countries, affecting nearly 30% of adults. Obesity increases the risk of a variety of diseases, including heart disease and stroke. Total weight and fat deposition patterns are related to increased mortality. People who store fat in the abdomen are at greater risk than those who store it in the lower body.

Energy balance determines whether body fat increases, decreases, or remains the same, The cause of the positive energy balance in obese people is not totally understood although the answer probably lies in the complex physiological and psychological factors that control food intake and energy expenditure. The control center for food intake is located in the hypothalamus. The hunger center max, be regulated by glucose, stored triglycerides, plasma amino acid levels, and hypothalamic temperature.

The components of energy expenditure include resting metabolic rate（RMR）, thermogenesis, and physical activity. RMR usually decreases during weight loss. Exercise increases metabolic rate and spares lean body weight during weight loss. Thermogenesis is stimulated by eating and processing meals. In some species, brown fat may be an important center of thermogenesis although its importance in adult humans is not known. Exercise contributes to weight loss and is important for maintaining weight loss.

Fat cells increase in size and number during growth. In adults, most increases in body fat occur due to fat cell hypertrophy. Recent evidence suggests that fat cells can be gained or lost in adults.

Common treatments for obesity include diet, exercise, drugs, surgery, liposuction, and hypnosis. Most weight - control programs are not successful. Successful weight - loss programs require caloric restriction and basic changes in lifestyle (behavior modification). Exercise enhances the chances of successful long - term weight loss.

The three most important considerations determining the ideal body composition are health, aesthetics, and performance. Exercise helps each of these by preserving lean body mass and decreasing fat mass.