How to Measure Your Health and Fitness Progress
Roberto Parezze asked:
There are a number of ways in which you can measure success. When it comes to your health and fitness it is important that you measure your progress by both new healthy habits and your appearance. The most important measures of success with a health and fitness program is the long-term decrease in medical problems, injury and other health risks while improving your quality of life either with or without weight loss.
You can also measure short and medium term changes regularly during the process of your health and fitness program. Some obvious changes can be noted in health related behavior patterns like a decreased need for medications, an increased ability to perform physical tasks, a reduce fat intake and an increased intake of dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals.
Watch what you eat closely:
One way to make great improvement towards a healthier lifestyle is by making slight changes to how your food is cooked and prepared. You may even notice yourself checking labels at the grocery store or discovering new tastes and textures for food. If you feel good about yourself and know about these changes then you are more likely to keep making progress with your health and fitness program.
A physical way in which you can measure your progress towards a healthier appearance is by measuring the fat distribution through the waist circumference and waist-hip ration or WHR. Abdominal obesity is most commonly linked to risk factors such as diabetes and heart disease. This is why any slight reduction you notice in waist circumference or in the WHR is a good step towards having a healthier fat distribution in your body even if you aren’t actively losing weight.
Body fat can be a good measure of fitness:
Another way you can use to measure you physical progress is through body fat measuring with either hydrostatic weighing, electrical impedance or just by using skin fold calipers. The last method is obviously the cheapest and most accessible method. However, it is also a less accurate method, but it will give you at least a beginning point for you to measure decrease in your body fat.
No matter how you choose to measure your physical progress you should never rely on a scale for your indicator. Your overall weight loss in numbers and pounds doesn’t determine your healthy progress. Your weight is merely a combined total of both your lean body weight and body fat weight. Two individuals can have the save body weight while having completely different body compositions. One individual can be in more shape than a person with the exact same weight.
A scale has no way of measuring your body composition and the actual changes that are occurring. While a scale may show you’ve lost seven pounds it can’t tell you if half of the weight was muscle loss and water instead of fat. People also become discouraged when the scale shows they haven’t lost any weight but in fact they have lost pounds of fat and just replaced it with healthy, firm and fat-burning muscle. So consider other methods other than the scale to get a true measure of your health and fitness progress.
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There are a number of ways in which you can measure success. When it comes to your health and fitness it is important that you measure your progress by both new healthy habits and your appearance. The most important measures of success with a health and fitness program is the long-term decrease in medical problems, injury and other health risks while improving your quality of life either with or without weight loss.
You can also measure short and medium term changes regularly during the process of your health and fitness program. Some obvious changes can be noted in health related behavior patterns like a decreased need for medications, an increased ability to perform physical tasks, a reduce fat intake and an increased intake of dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals.
Watch what you eat closely:
One way to make great improvement towards a healthier lifestyle is by making slight changes to how your food is cooked and prepared. You may even notice yourself checking labels at the grocery store or discovering new tastes and textures for food. If you feel good about yourself and know about these changes then you are more likely to keep making progress with your health and fitness program.
A physical way in which you can measure your progress towards a healthier appearance is by measuring the fat distribution through the waist circumference and waist-hip ration or WHR. Abdominal obesity is most commonly linked to risk factors such as diabetes and heart disease. This is why any slight reduction you notice in waist circumference or in the WHR is a good step towards having a healthier fat distribution in your body even if you aren’t actively losing weight.
Body fat can be a good measure of fitness:
Another way you can use to measure you physical progress is through body fat measuring with either hydrostatic weighing, electrical impedance or just by using skin fold calipers. The last method is obviously the cheapest and most accessible method. However, it is also a less accurate method, but it will give you at least a beginning point for you to measure decrease in your body fat.
No matter how you choose to measure your physical progress you should never rely on a scale for your indicator. Your overall weight loss in numbers and pounds doesn’t determine your healthy progress. Your weight is merely a combined total of both your lean body weight and body fat weight. Two individuals can have the save body weight while having completely different body compositions. One individual can be in more shape than a person with the exact same weight.
A scale has no way of measuring your body composition and the actual changes that are occurring. While a scale may show you’ve lost seven pounds it can’t tell you if half of the weight was muscle loss and water instead of fat. People also become discouraged when the scale shows they haven’t lost any weight but in fact they have lost pounds of fat and just replaced it with healthy, firm and fat-burning muscle. So consider other methods other than the scale to get a true measure of your health and fitness progress.
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8 Ways to General Health and Fitness
Gary Matthews asked:
It never fails but as soon as I wrote all my Weight Loss, Weight Gain, Fitness and Nutrition type of tips I had a few left over that couldn’t really be placed into these categories.
But as you will see they are right on the money for your general health and fitness and can be used in your everyday activities.
Lets take a peek:
What Is A Healthy Diet – A healthy diet satisfies two criteria: It contains enough fibre and a number of micronutrients including vitamins and minerals to maintain a healthy body. It is balanced in forms of fat, protein, and carbohydrates and micronutrients.
Don’t Train With The Flu – This is one of the biggest exercise blunders you can make A number of temperature raising viruses, including the flu can affect the muscles.
People often forget that the heart is also a muscle and can be weakened by the flu virus. Normally our hearts can cope with the strain of this, but exercising on top of an already weakened heart is potentially fatal. After a bout of the flu, you should wait at least 48 hours before exercising again.
Cool Down – When you do a strenuous workout the blood vessels in your muscles dilate to deliver more blood for the muscles to operate. The skin vessels also dilate to increase the heat loss from your body, which is why you get flushed after exercise.
If you don’t give your blood and skin vessels enough time to recover, and jump straight under hot water your skin vessels will dilate even further. Then your heart goes into overdrive trying to pump blood throughout the body.
Ultimately you might notice symptoms like faintness, dizziness or at worst, you could even collapse.
Don’t Eat Before Exercising – Always try to eat two or three hours before your exercise and not after that. If you do eat before exercise you can develop what is known as “dumping syndrome’ where the blood supply that normally goes to your muscles during exercise is diverted to your gut.
This means that you’re not getting enough blood to your muscles, which can cause you to become lethargic and faint.
Try to Give Up Smoking – the best and easiest way to give up smoking is to replace it with another habit. Unfortunately, quitting has been associated with weight gain if you replace your cigarette habit with a candy or snack food habit.
So replace the smoking with the habit of exercise!! Nothing tough or painful at first and build up to it. A five minute walk instead of a cigarette and aim to build it up slowly and easily.
Before, you will be fitter, you will be healthier and your body will be more you realize tight and toned.
You will feel better in the morning, your breath will be worth being near again and fingernails, hair and skin will take on a much younger fresher look!! Of the people who die from lung cancer, 95% of them smoke.
Protein Power – Carbohydrates supply the sort of calories easily burned during cardiovascular exercise, but protein plays an important part in building muscle mass – or rather in not storing food as fat. “This is largely because the bulk of protein that is eaten will be used to build muscle”.
Further the average male will lose 500gms of muscle – not fat – every year once he stops regular exercise. While older men and women are usually touted as the beneficiaries of strength training so to are the young.
Planned Exercise – I suggest you start with 100 minutes per week of mildly puffing exercise be it 2×50 mins, 3×35 mins, 4×25 mins, 5×20 mins all of which produce the same results.
Mix up your aerobic activities in the gym; use the treadmill, bike, climber or any other training gear available to you.
Keep A Training Log – Keep a training log for all your fitness requirements, keeping account of the reps you are using, how many sets, what weights you are using and also the date, time and where the workout took place is imperative for gauging your day to day progress.
Also recording all cardio- vascular activities is just as important.
In conclusion, these general health and fitness might have been left to last but the are still right up there as far as your health and fitness is concerned.
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It never fails but as soon as I wrote all my Weight Loss, Weight Gain, Fitness and Nutrition type of tips I had a few left over that couldn’t really be placed into these categories.
But as you will see they are right on the money for your general health and fitness and can be used in your everyday activities.
Lets take a peek:
What Is A Healthy Diet – A healthy diet satisfies two criteria: It contains enough fibre and a number of micronutrients including vitamins and minerals to maintain a healthy body. It is balanced in forms of fat, protein, and carbohydrates and micronutrients.
Don’t Train With The Flu – This is one of the biggest exercise blunders you can make A number of temperature raising viruses, including the flu can affect the muscles.
People often forget that the heart is also a muscle and can be weakened by the flu virus. Normally our hearts can cope with the strain of this, but exercising on top of an already weakened heart is potentially fatal. After a bout of the flu, you should wait at least 48 hours before exercising again.
Cool Down – When you do a strenuous workout the blood vessels in your muscles dilate to deliver more blood for the muscles to operate. The skin vessels also dilate to increase the heat loss from your body, which is why you get flushed after exercise.
If you don’t give your blood and skin vessels enough time to recover, and jump straight under hot water your skin vessels will dilate even further. Then your heart goes into overdrive trying to pump blood throughout the body.
Ultimately you might notice symptoms like faintness, dizziness or at worst, you could even collapse.
Don’t Eat Before Exercising – Always try to eat two or three hours before your exercise and not after that. If you do eat before exercise you can develop what is known as “dumping syndrome’ where the blood supply that normally goes to your muscles during exercise is diverted to your gut.
This means that you’re not getting enough blood to your muscles, which can cause you to become lethargic and faint.
Try to Give Up Smoking – the best and easiest way to give up smoking is to replace it with another habit. Unfortunately, quitting has been associated with weight gain if you replace your cigarette habit with a candy or snack food habit.
So replace the smoking with the habit of exercise!! Nothing tough or painful at first and build up to it. A five minute walk instead of a cigarette and aim to build it up slowly and easily.
Before, you will be fitter, you will be healthier and your body will be more you realize tight and toned.
You will feel better in the morning, your breath will be worth being near again and fingernails, hair and skin will take on a much younger fresher look!! Of the people who die from lung cancer, 95% of them smoke.
Protein Power – Carbohydrates supply the sort of calories easily burned during cardiovascular exercise, but protein plays an important part in building muscle mass – or rather in not storing food as fat. “This is largely because the bulk of protein that is eaten will be used to build muscle”.
Further the average male will lose 500gms of muscle – not fat – every year once he stops regular exercise. While older men and women are usually touted as the beneficiaries of strength training so to are the young.
Planned Exercise – I suggest you start with 100 minutes per week of mildly puffing exercise be it 2×50 mins, 3×35 mins, 4×25 mins, 5×20 mins all of which produce the same results.
Mix up your aerobic activities in the gym; use the treadmill, bike, climber or any other training gear available to you.
Keep A Training Log – Keep a training log for all your fitness requirements, keeping account of the reps you are using, how many sets, what weights you are using and also the date, time and where the workout took place is imperative for gauging your day to day progress.
Also recording all cardio- vascular activities is just as important.
In conclusion, these general health and fitness might have been left to last but the are still right up there as far as your health and fitness is concerned.
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Essentials to Health and Fitness
Rob A Watson asked:
Benefits of a life of health and fitness
Living a life of health and fitness may seem a huge sacrifice but the rewards are truly immeasurable. Not only will you be able to enjoy your life a little bit longer, you can also live it while looking good and looking young. You don’t believe us? Here is a rundown of the benefits that healthy living can give. Read on and you may be tempted to leave the dark unhealthy side.
1. Active body Eating the right kinds of food and keeping your body in shape will result to having more energy and that will spill over to your work and your “play” time. You will be more active and will have more chance to shine in your line of work. People who are active also come across as more capable and more independent. They are also perceived as more approachable, confident and charming.
2. Younger looking People who live healthy are younger looking than those who smoke and drink in excess. This is because chemicals in alcoholic drinks and cigarettes dry up the skin and create a more older appearance. Chemicals in the body also reduce the nutrients that go into the body, thus depriving the body of vitamins and minerals that keep the skin and other organs healthy and functioning. Being young looking of course gives you a whole set of benefits, from a remarkable love life to success with career and in your social life. After all, whether we admit it or not, appearance do count in a lot of ways and being young looking and attractive can take you in places. As shallow as it seems, you will have more friends and more romantic involvements. Everybody loves beautiful people.
3. Clear thinking It is not true that chemicals in alcoholic drinks and cigarettes and drugs can amp up creativity levels. These are actually just short-lived and as studies have shown, only in the mind. People who eat and live healthy are more able to think clearly. They are more able to focus on the jobs at hand and therefore are able to accomplish much with their work than other people. They are also more dependable when given instructions and their memories are often clear and good.
4. No illness People who live a healthy lifestyle are well, healthy. They are not prone to sickness that can slow down a person’s achievement levels. Thus, these people accomplish much of what they set out to do. They are not hampered by problems with their health or appointments with doctors that they have to go to. These people rarely take a leave of absence and when they do, they will often take a vacation and just relax. They don’t take a leave because they are sick.
5. Emotionally-secure Although there really is no direct relationship, people who live a life of health and fitness are happier. They are able to enjoy their life more and are not distracted by odd habits and health problems. They also have less worries and are able to cope better with stressors. This is perhaps because they do not need to rely on chemicals for coping with the hardships that they encounter. Early on, they have developed natural coping strategies that can help them get through the daily grind.
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Benefits of a life of health and fitness
Living a life of health and fitness may seem a huge sacrifice but the rewards are truly immeasurable. Not only will you be able to enjoy your life a little bit longer, you can also live it while looking good and looking young. You don’t believe us? Here is a rundown of the benefits that healthy living can give. Read on and you may be tempted to leave the dark unhealthy side.
1. Active body Eating the right kinds of food and keeping your body in shape will result to having more energy and that will spill over to your work and your “play” time. You will be more active and will have more chance to shine in your line of work. People who are active also come across as more capable and more independent. They are also perceived as more approachable, confident and charming.
2. Younger looking People who live healthy are younger looking than those who smoke and drink in excess. This is because chemicals in alcoholic drinks and cigarettes dry up the skin and create a more older appearance. Chemicals in the body also reduce the nutrients that go into the body, thus depriving the body of vitamins and minerals that keep the skin and other organs healthy and functioning. Being young looking of course gives you a whole set of benefits, from a remarkable love life to success with career and in your social life. After all, whether we admit it or not, appearance do count in a lot of ways and being young looking and attractive can take you in places. As shallow as it seems, you will have more friends and more romantic involvements. Everybody loves beautiful people.
3. Clear thinking It is not true that chemicals in alcoholic drinks and cigarettes and drugs can amp up creativity levels. These are actually just short-lived and as studies have shown, only in the mind. People who eat and live healthy are more able to think clearly. They are more able to focus on the jobs at hand and therefore are able to accomplish much with their work than other people. They are also more dependable when given instructions and their memories are often clear and good.
4. No illness People who live a healthy lifestyle are well, healthy. They are not prone to sickness that can slow down a person’s achievement levels. Thus, these people accomplish much of what they set out to do. They are not hampered by problems with their health or appointments with doctors that they have to go to. These people rarely take a leave of absence and when they do, they will often take a vacation and just relax. They don’t take a leave because they are sick.
5. Emotionally-secure Although there really is no direct relationship, people who live a life of health and fitness are happier. They are able to enjoy their life more and are not distracted by odd habits and health problems. They also have less worries and are able to cope better with stressors. This is perhaps because they do not need to rely on chemicals for coping with the hardships that they encounter. Early on, they have developed natural coping strategies that can help them get through the daily grind.
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Healthy Living, Fitness and Nutrition – The Role of Diet in Health and Fitness
Verena Veneeva asked:
Improving the quality of life through health and nutrition involve following a diet pattern and adequate levels of nutrition to prevent diseases and maintain physical fitness. Issues of malnutrition would be related to deficiencies of vitamins or nutrients and intake of supplements form an important part of disease prevention strategy and helps in improving energy levels (Papers4you.com, 2006). The use of supplements in disease conditions such as high cholesterol levels has been studied to understand the positive and negative impact of dietary supplements on the health of individuals. For instance, vitamin A deficiency can be a major public health concern and many countries implement strategies to prevent such deficiency cases (Whiting et al, 2006). Vitamin C or ascorbic acid can be detrimental when deficient or in excess and recommended doses of Vitamin C have been given by various countries. Public health authorities across the world encourage individuals to change their health status by adopting new behaviors such as giving up smoking or changing dietary patterns. Apart from vitamins and minerals, fatty acids play an important role in modulation and prevention of diseases. However, maintaining a strict dietary pattern and fitness regimen could be explained with the help of social control and cultural values. Fitness levels are determined with measures on speed, strength and flexibility of athletes or even ordinary individuals and energy costs are directly related to nutrition, diet, exercise and physiology (Papers4you.com, 2006). In this context the relevance of the gym culture may be studied as the gym going motivation may be similar to the motivation to follow a strict diet pattern and this in turn have an impact on general health and fitness levels (Bull, et al 2006). This is because any kind of rigorous physical exercise brings about thermo regulation that facilitates heat loss and regulates internal body temperature.
One of the important issues in nutrition and health studies would be prevalence of diseases and diet patterns and lifestyle have a direct impact on the health status of individuals. Smoking for instance has been related to lung cancer and heart disease by analyzing data on mortality rates, smoking habits, lung cancer and coronary heart disease and the health benefits of quitting smoking have also been established in several studies (Saijo, 2006).
An important topic of nutrition studies is life expectancy and health and disease in the elderly. The problem of malnutrition is increased during old age as the elderly may have inadequate diet and poor mobility that prevent them from following a recommended diet pattern. In certain cases, poor nutrition can lead to chronic conditions and poor physical mobility and the elderly would thus need specific interventions and effective treatment patterns. General studies on gender variations in life expectancy and illnesses have shown that women tend to live longer than men but also tend to report illnesses more than men (WHO, 2000).
Bibliography
Bull, Sheana; Eakin, Elizabeth; Reeves, Marina; Kimberly, Riley (2006), Multi-level support for physical activity and healthy eating, Journal of Advanced Nursing, Volume 54, Number 5, pp. 585-593(9)
Papers For You (2006) “C/N/14. How does the disciplinary regime of dieting (and/ or exercising) work to produce ‘docile bodies’? “, Papers4you.com
Saijo, Nagahiro (2006) Recent trends in the treatment of advanced lung cancer Cancer Science, Volume 97, Number 6, pp. 448-452(5)
Whiting, Susan J.; Barabash, Wade A. (2006) Dietary Reference Intakes for the micronutrients: considerations for physical activity Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, Volume 31, Number 1, 1 February, pp. 80-85(6)
WHO factsheet – Women, Ageing and Health (2000) www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs252/en/
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Improving the quality of life through health and nutrition involve following a diet pattern and adequate levels of nutrition to prevent diseases and maintain physical fitness. Issues of malnutrition would be related to deficiencies of vitamins or nutrients and intake of supplements form an important part of disease prevention strategy and helps in improving energy levels (Papers4you.com, 2006). The use of supplements in disease conditions such as high cholesterol levels has been studied to understand the positive and negative impact of dietary supplements on the health of individuals. For instance, vitamin A deficiency can be a major public health concern and many countries implement strategies to prevent such deficiency cases (Whiting et al, 2006). Vitamin C or ascorbic acid can be detrimental when deficient or in excess and recommended doses of Vitamin C have been given by various countries. Public health authorities across the world encourage individuals to change their health status by adopting new behaviors such as giving up smoking or changing dietary patterns. Apart from vitamins and minerals, fatty acids play an important role in modulation and prevention of diseases. However, maintaining a strict dietary pattern and fitness regimen could be explained with the help of social control and cultural values. Fitness levels are determined with measures on speed, strength and flexibility of athletes or even ordinary individuals and energy costs are directly related to nutrition, diet, exercise and physiology (Papers4you.com, 2006). In this context the relevance of the gym culture may be studied as the gym going motivation may be similar to the motivation to follow a strict diet pattern and this in turn have an impact on general health and fitness levels (Bull, et al 2006). This is because any kind of rigorous physical exercise brings about thermo regulation that facilitates heat loss and regulates internal body temperature.
One of the important issues in nutrition and health studies would be prevalence of diseases and diet patterns and lifestyle have a direct impact on the health status of individuals. Smoking for instance has been related to lung cancer and heart disease by analyzing data on mortality rates, smoking habits, lung cancer and coronary heart disease and the health benefits of quitting smoking have also been established in several studies (Saijo, 2006).
An important topic of nutrition studies is life expectancy and health and disease in the elderly. The problem of malnutrition is increased during old age as the elderly may have inadequate diet and poor mobility that prevent them from following a recommended diet pattern. In certain cases, poor nutrition can lead to chronic conditions and poor physical mobility and the elderly would thus need specific interventions and effective treatment patterns. General studies on gender variations in life expectancy and illnesses have shown that women tend to live longer than men but also tend to report illnesses more than men (WHO, 2000).
Bibliography
Bull, Sheana; Eakin, Elizabeth; Reeves, Marina; Kimberly, Riley (2006), Multi-level support for physical activity and healthy eating, Journal of Advanced Nursing, Volume 54, Number 5, pp. 585-593(9)
Papers For You (2006) “C/N/14. How does the disciplinary regime of dieting (and/ or exercising) work to produce ‘docile bodies’? “, Papers4you.com
Saijo, Nagahiro (2006) Recent trends in the treatment of advanced lung cancer Cancer Science, Volume 97, Number 6, pp. 448-452(5)
Whiting, Susan J.; Barabash, Wade A. (2006) Dietary Reference Intakes for the micronutrients: considerations for physical activity Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, Volume 31, Number 1, 1 February, pp. 80-85(6)
WHO factsheet – Women, Ageing and Health (2000) www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs252/en/