Exercise helps to control your weight by using up excess calories that otherwise would be stored as fat. Your body weight is regulated by the number of calories you eat and use on a daily basis, and everything you eat contains calories, and everything you do burns calories, such as exercising, digesting food and even sleeping and breathing.
Regular exercise is a very important part of any effective weight loss program or regime. It also can help to prevent the onset of various diseases and generally improve your overall health. It does not actually matter what type of physical activity you perform such as sports, aerobic exercise, household chores, or even work related tasks are all beneficial.
Studies have shown that even the most inactive people can gain significant health benefits if they partake in at least 30 minutes or more of physical activity per day. Research consistently shows that regular physical activity, combined with healthy eating habits, is the most efficient and healthy way to control your weight. Whether you are trying to lose weight or simply maintain it, you should always understand the important role of physical activity and include it in your general lifestyle.
Balancing the calories used through physical activity with those that you eat will help you to achieve your desired weight. When you eat more calories than you need to perform your daily activities your body will store those extra calories and you will gain weight, but if you eat fewer calories than you use, your body uses the stored calories and you will lose weight, so if you eat the same amount of calories as your body uses, your weight will stay the same.
Exercise is basically divided into two categories. Aerobic exercise, also called cardiovascular exercise or simply cardio, causes you to breathe harder and therefore increases your heart rate. Performed on a regular basis, activities such as running and swimming both improve your respiratory capacity, which is your lungs, and your circulatory system which is your heart and blood vessels. The other category is strength building, which is also also called resistance training. This increases the proportion of muscle on your body by doing activities such as weight lifting with free weights and using a machine with variable resistance. As muscle is a metabolically active tissue, the more muscular you are the higher your metabolism will be. This means that you will burn more calories even when resting.
You can challenge your body to improve by exercising just a little outside your “comfort zone.” each time, so that when what you’re doing is no longer a challenge, you can do a little more or do it a little harder, faster or longer.
When you work your muscles, you may feel a little soreness the next day. This is called “delayed-onset muscle soreness” and it is especially common when you first begin exercising. Stressing your muscles causes microscopic tears to their fibres, which is the cause of the soreness, but the positive aspect is that as your muscles heal they actually become stronger.
If you experience any other type of pain, stop immediately and see a doctor. Our bodies will always tell us when we are abusing them too much
