Obesity is a big problem in America and the world. Our life is filled with temptations cheap food and laziness. Unless we force ourselves to do sports most of us could live their lives without ever getting out of their chairs. We use elevators to get to our apartments or offices and cars to get from point A to point B. Walking and running are consider a sport or a hobby and are no longer means to get to our destination. The results are evident: putting those extra pounds on or just obesity. In this article we will give some simple rules to follow that can help in losing those extra pounds and keeping your body healthier.
A word of caution: the views expressed in this article are in no way scientific or facts and the reader should observe caution when following them. The goal is to provide better understanding of why we grow fat and how the body can get rid of the extra pounds. Please consult with your physician before making any extreme changes to your diet or sport regime.
So why do we add fat? The simple answer is that our body is genetically programmed to build energy reserves for bad times. Every day we consume energy – calories – and use energy. If we consume more than we use the body will convert the extra energy to fat which is the body’s way of reserving this energy for times when it’s needed. In the same manner when we consume less energy than we use each day the body will have to get the missing energy from its reserves by burning fat.
In order to keep it simple we have ignored one important fact: the body has a choice when getting that extra energy: it can either use fat or muscle mass. Our genetic program always prefers to reserve fat for the worse times so if our body needs to get extra energy it will always prefer using muscles mass than using fat. You might have noticed people that go on extreme diets and in return seem to lose their muscle mass but keep their fat on – mostly around the waistline – this is exactly the reason why. The only way to force the body to use fat instead of muscle mass is by using the muscles and the way to use the muscles is to exercise. When we exercise and use our muscles the body program will assume that the muscles are needed for our daily survival and thus can not be compromised. In return the body will not use muscle mass as energy – in fact the opposite is true the body will build extra muscle mass. In order to get the extra energy needed the body will use fat.
So to conclude our discussion so far we can see that there are two facts we must understand: One is that the body builds fat when we consume more energy than we use and uses fat or muscle mass when we consume less energy than we use. The other is that in order to make sure that body uses fat and not muscle mass for extra energy we must exercise. Taking these two facts into account you can see that any diet will consist of both exercising and making sure we consume less calories than we use. If we exercise but at the same time consume too many calories the body will still have extra energy and will convert it to fat.
It is also important to make sure that our body gets the right nutrition and not just the right amount of calories. Make sure that your diet includes vegetables low fat meats such as fish and poultry and proteins from sources such as eggs and milk. Eat in moderation and use common sense you do not need to read a book to know that deep fried food is not good for you and that a chicken salad is better than a cheeseburger. Most of us can make a good judgment of what food is good for us but many of us just choose to ignore that judgment.
To conclude in order to shed those extra pounds off and to keep a proportionate body and muscle mass remember to exercise regularity eat in moderation and try to avoid the bad food and most importantly consume less calories than you use every day.
