| Medical News You Can Use: Weight Loss and Exercise For Better Health | ||||||
| Contributed by Dr. Benjamin Newman M.D., The Village Doctor | ||||||
| Friday, March 06, 2009 | ||||||
| I would like to discuss the importance of exercise and diet. Proper weight is near and dear to my heart, as I am constantly fighting the battle of the bulge. The fact of the matter is: getting close to your ideal body weight enhances the quality of your life, extends your longevity and either prevents or elimanates the most common diseases that patients seek medical treatment for. In my experience, about 75% or more of the ills of mankind can be either eliminated or improved by a proper wellness program that includes exercise and weight management. There is no disagreement amongst healthcare providers that the following diseases can be prevented or positively altered by a wellness program that includes weight management and exercise. • Diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2 • Hypertension • Heart disease • Arthritis • Back pain & other musculoskeletal pains • Many types of cancers There are more books and magazine articles written about diets and dieting than for any other group of health problems. What do we know about obesity and it’s treatment? Unfortunately, not much. As with most other diseases, when we don’t know much about them we have lots of theories and treatments. If we really understood why people become overweight and knew how to treat them, there would probably be one or two diets that we would recommend. Dieting is a challenge for all of us who are overweight. The science for how to diet is pretty thin, but we can make some recommendations that are based on good science. Basically there are three kinds of diets: • Low carbohydrate • High protein • High fat There is always constant debate as to which diet helps us lose the most weight. The New England Journal of Medicine recently published an article that studied these diets involving thousands of patients. This was a well-designed and executed scientific study. The results showed that it didn’t matter which diet was followed as to how fast or how much weight was lost. What mattered was how many calories were consumed and how many calories were expended. The take home message from this study is: calories in - calories out is what causes weight loss. It doesn’t really matter if those calories are in the form of protein, fat or carbohydrates. Though dieting is difficult for all of us when we are hungry, there are many anecdotal tips that can make the dieting process less painful. As a family physician, I tailor my patients dieting program specifically to their personality, lifestyle, likes and dislikes. As far as dieting goes, it is not one size fits all. I believe that many patients are not successful with their diets because they receive advice that is very generalized and not tailored to them as individuals. Dieting without exercise is usually not successful. Dieting with exercise is by far the best approach to good health. How much exercise do we need to stay healthy? Again we really don’t have a scientifically proven answer. The recommendation suggests that we exercise 30 minutes a day - five days a week. Exercise is so beneficial that any amount is better than done, and more is better. Lets list the beneficial effects of exercise besides weight loss: • Decrease the symptoms of anxiety and depression • Decrease the aches and pains of low back pain, arthritic hips & knees • Decrease blood pressure • Lower blood sugar • Increase the good cholesterol (HDL) • Increase self-esteem • Improve the quality of sleep • Improve your sex life When starting an exercise program, the deterrents for those who haven’t exercised regularly are the aches and pains and tiredness they experience because they jump into exercise too vigoursely. In starting an exercise program, one needs to slowly increase the intensity over long periods of time. You do not need to go to a gym or have special equipment to obtain the amount of exercise that helps you loose weight and attain cardiovascular fitness. Just a pair of comfortable shoes and a little motivation will go a long way. A brisk walk, a slow jog, swimming, vigorous yard work or housework all burn calories. A great way to add bursts of exercise into your day is to park your car far from the entrance of a building and walk to it. As you increase your fitness I strongly recommend the addition of resistance training in the form of weight training. The optimal situation is to employ the services of a personal trainerwho can provide a personal fitness plan that combines diet counselingand exercise. I recently had the privilege of meeting Kriste` Bouvier who is a certified fitness therapist, personal trainer and nutritionist. Kriste` is based in Ellsworth and provides a very unique service, which I find extremely useful. She offers an on-line program that offers a physical fitness program in your own home. I feel this is a unique and great way to get involved in a fitness program. Kriste` also has a suburb Internet talk show where she interviews guests who talk about fitness, health, and nutrition. This website can be accessed at: www.designerhealthnet.com I find Kriste`s philosophy spot on when she says, “when it comes to loosing excess fat, the formula couldn’t be simpler, calories in and calories out. If you follow that rule the unwanted fat disappears! Making the time to apply these changes to your eating schedule can become a large hurdle in accomplishing excess fat loss. The fact is, we all have 24 hours in our day, the question is, how are you going to use yours?” The weather is getting warmer and we will spend more time outdoors. What better motivation to get moving. It is always a great time to shed those unwanted pounds and get in shape. The health benefits are tremendous and you will feel and look better. REMEMBER, NO ONE CARES FOR YOU MORE THAN YOUR HEALTHCARE TEAM!  Favorite (138) |  Quote | Views: 13300
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