Weight Loss - post exercise
Weight loss is not just about the exercise you do in the gym, its also about what you do after the exercise to ensure your body is able to recover quickly and safely. Many people, specially those who have not exercised forget that the muscular pain you feel a day or two after an exercise is often what stops you from going back in the gym.
Post exercise recovery
The human body is designed to adapt to situations it is exposed
to. When we exercise the muscle fibers we have exercised will
break down in order that they may be rebuilt stronger than before.
This is why over a period of time and after following a regular
and safe exercise program, we become fitter and stronger. It is
therefore important to enable the body to recover properly in
order to reduce the effects of any muscle soreness.
So what should you do to help speed up your recovery after an exercise session?
- Immediately after an exercise
Its important that you cool down properly for 10 minutes after the exercise. This not only gives your heart a chance to slow down gradually, but it also helps disperse any lactic acid that may be built up in the muscles. Its also important to eat a healthy Carbohydrate/ Protein meal (in a 3:1 ratio) to ensure your muscles are able to recover. You should eat a carbohydrate/ protein meal within 15 minutes of exercising.
- Stretch
It is important to stretch the muscles you exercised
with in 25 minutes of exercising. This ensures that the muscle
fibres are not tangled up when they are broken down and rebuilt.
Stretching also increases the blood flow to the muscles which
mean more amino acids are delivered to the muscles than normal.
You should allow ten minute of stretching for every hour of
exercise.
- Use hot and cold shower
By alternating between the hot and very cold water when taking a shower after an exercise, we can widen the blood vessels in the body, which help get rid of any waste products with in the muscles and hence reduce stiffness afterwards.
- Hydrate
We have already explained the importance of water for weight loss, but its even more crucial when you exercise. You should be hydrating your body during exercise
anyway, but, you should also drink a liter of water, by sipping
it slowly, within one hour of exercising. This gives your
body a chance to absorb the water and re-hydrate itself. If
you drink it quickly, the water will just be flushed out of
your body. After re-hydrating the body, just rest.
- Eat a healthy meal
You should eat a high-nutrient (high in quality protein and carbohydrate), weight loss low fat meal after 2-3 hours of exercising.
- Recovery period
Recovery period does not mean sitting in the arm chair doing nothing for the next two days! The following day you should do a much lighter exercise session to give your body a chance to recover. Do not be tempted to exercise a different muscle group the next day. Your body works as a unit and as such it needs time to recover regardless of which muscle group you have exercised.
Quite often, people who are new to exercise suffer from DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). DOMS is the pain you feel in your muscles after a hard intense exercise session, which is caused by the waste products produced in the muscle. DOMS can be reduced by increasing the blood flow to the muscles. This can be done by doing light gentle exercises and taking alternate hot and very cold showers.
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 Children & Obesity
In simple terms, obesity is caused when the body stores excessive calories.
Obesity in civilized countries is reaching epidemic proportions. What
is worrying is that the children too are now more obese than ever before
in the history of man kind!
Child Obesity and Weight Loss
 Calories and Weight Loss Weight loss depends on the amount of calorie intake. Calories are used by the body to perform its day-to-day functions. However, when the calories taken in is greater than the energy burnt, then the excess calories are stored as fat. The most common reasons for excessive consumption of calories are:
- Psychological
- Emotional
- Lack of knowledge
- Habit
calories and weight loss
 Weight loss plans There are a number of VERY dangerous diet plans used to target weight loss. A dangerous, or misleading, diet is one which provides "rapid" result. Remember, in order for a diet to be effective and safe, your body needs time to adjust to the change in your lifestyle. This is because rapid dieting will almost always have health consequences, and in fact research has also shown that as soon as your body adjusts to the diet, you will start to put on weight at even a higher rate than before.
Weight loss diet
 Weight Loss plans to be avoided For legal reasons we are unable to actually name dangerous or misleading
weight loss diets, however, the following is a list which should help
you identify these diets for yourself.
- Any diet that cuts out any essential food groups (Specially carbohydrates!)
- Any diet that promises or guarantees fast result
- Any diet that involves you drinking only liquid food.
- Any diet that involves you buying processed and ready made "food
substitutes".
Weight loss diets
 Diet The food you eat is the single most important factor in your
weight loss program. Weight loss is only achieved through
a healthy diet.
Weight loss diet and health
 Exercise Exercise is vital not only to a safe weight loss plan, but, is also crucial to the general operation and well being of the human body.
Weight loss exercise
 Measuring Body Fat Measuring the Body Fat is a much more accurate way of measuring
how your weight loss program is going than using a bathroom
scale. The bathroom scales are highly misleading!
Measure Body Fat
 Swimming Swimming is a VERY effective and safe way of burning calories. Its one of the safest ways of exercising as you do not put any excessive force on the joints.
Swimming
 Walking Walking is one of the safest form of exercise as you burn those calories without excessive wear and tear on the joints.
Walking
 Pilates and Yoga Pilates and Yoga are important to any weight loss program as they both encourage good body posture and alignment.
Pilates
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