Sunday, June 15, 2008 Paquiao: The value of exercise By Calixto S. Paquiao fitness & you
IS exercise worth the effort? Some diet books claim that exercise does not burn enough calories noting that jogging for twenty minutes only burns 180 calories.
What they fail to mention is that exercise changes your body so that you burn calories during and after exercising.
For every 20 minutes of exercise, you reap calorie-burning results for up to four hours. Now there’s a bargain. In a fit body the benefits of exercise operqtes day and night. Why? Because exercise stimulates your metabolism so that everything you do during a day washing dishes, grocery shopping, walking to office, burns more calories than a person who does not exercise.
Exercise also makes dieting more successful! The well-exercised body responds more quickly and with less muscle loss compared to the stress of dieting. So, is exercise worth the effort? Absolutely!
You may be a fast-paced executive, or career woman or a busy mother, or a retiree. But whatever you’re job is you probably spend your days running around the office, jumping in and out of the car, chasing kids and so on.
Surely all that activity must count as exercise, right? No, work is not exercise. These interrupted spurts of activity require only 50 percent of your muscle power leaving the other 50 percent wasting away.
You may wonder: Why can’t I just go on a diet without exercising? Let me explain. Body fat is tenacious, it holds on as long as possible. In fact, the fatter a person is the more the body tends to try to remain fat. New scientific studies have shown that fat cells don’t just sit around waiting to be fed-they fight for food.
Once your body reaches its “fat plateau” it will do everything possible to stay at that set point. Your body doesn’t want to lose weight.
That’s why exercise is so important in weight loss. Your muscles burn calories. If you combine exercise with a wholesome low-fat diet you will not be hungry and the weight you lose will be mostly fat. Then you will have a lifestyle of eating and exercise that you can live with it.
(Coach Paquiao Wellness and Fitness Center, 2nd Floor JY Square Discovery Mall, Salinas Drive, Lahug, Cebu City/ 234-2811)
