Three Very Important Weight Control Facts for Baby Boomers
Fact 1: Changing Lifestyle Patterns
As baby boomers move into their later 40's, 50's, and now 60's, we are running into new challenges for controlling our weight. Our kids are now teenagers out more on their own, college students away at school, or maybe they are married and starting their own families. In any of these cases, this usually means that both our activity and eating patterns are changing. As new, or soon to be "empty nesters", we are starting to find it more challenging to prepare meals because it is often just the two of us rather than the family. Because of this, we eat out more, or just throw something simple together rather than spending a lot of time putting a whole meal together. These new eating practices can cause us to eat less healthy and create problems for our weight control.
Fact 2: Changes in Body Chemistry Studies indicate that after the age of 30 we lose about 10% of our muscle mass per decade. And, to make things worse, our metabolism (the speed at which our bodies breakdown the foods we eat) begins to slow down. These two things coupled together makes it much more challenging for us to maintain a healthy weight and good muscle tone. Remember that muscle weighs more than fat, so as we age and lose some of our muscle we can stay at the same weight and start gaining more fat around our middle, legs, and bottoms. All of a sudden our clothes are getting tighter and we don't know why because the scale says we're still the same weight as we have been for years.
Fact 3: Changing Activity Levels Often, without our kids around for us to chase after, we start becoming less active. We sit around and watch more television. Maybe that old sport or dancing injury keeps us from doing certain things. Our job requires us to travel more and eat more airport and restaurant food, while sitting in hotel rooms doing paper work. Often the demands of our jobs keep us from doing the activities that can help us stay healthy and fit.
All of these things piling up can seem to be insurmountable challenges to a healthy life style and the ability to control and maintain our weight. If we don't make a conscious choice to do things differently, we can quickly become the overweight, middle aged man or woman that we said we would never let our self be.
So, what can we do to keep this from happening to us? Arm yourself with a little knowledge and some determination, and you can overcome these problems before they grab hold, or reverse them if they have already snuck up on you.
It has been proved over and over again that as little as 30 minutes of exercise per day can help a person maintain or regain lost muscle. If you do 2 or 3 days of strength training per week and do aerobic exercises on the remaining days, you will make a great deal of progress toward developing and maintaining a healthy, fit body. Strength training (working with weights) will help develop and strengthen your muscles. Aerobic exercise (walking, running, biking, swimming, etc.) will help increase your body's ability to process oxygen and strengthen your heart (the most important muscle in the body). There is also evidence that aerobic exercise builds collateral blood supply in the arteries around the heart, which can help to reduce the chances for or severity of a heart attack.
The other major thing we need to be watching and addressing, is our food intake. More specifically, the balance of caloric intake versus expenditure. The simple scientific fact is that 3,500 calories equals 1 pound of weight gain or loss. If we take in 3,500 calories more than we use, we will gain a pound. If we use up 3,500 more calories than we take in, we will lose 1 pound. Therefore, if you want to lose 2 pounds per week, you need to eat 7,000 less calories for the week, do 7,000 calories of extra exercise for that week, or do a combination of both. Of course, as with anything, there are a few additional things you need to keep in mind for this to work while maintaining optimum health.
I was recently talking with a doctor about losing weight. He said that he simply tells his patience to not eat more than 1,000 calories per day. With that statement, I lost a great deal of respect for this doctor. Among the many things wrong with this statement, there are two that I specifically want to mention. One - Do you think eating 1,000 calories a day of cakes and candies will help you lose weight in a healthy way? Obviously not. You would lose weight, but you would quickly get sick from lack of proper nutrition. This brings up a controversial point. Many health professionals (including me) believe that it is a good idea to take a good quality multi vitamin supplement every day. At the least, it is a reasonably inexpensive nutritional insurance policy. Other professionals say that if you eat a properly balanced diet you will get all the vitamins and minerals you need from the foods you eat. That's a great concept, but for most of us our food choices won't meet the test, so a multi vitamin can help make up for the deficit.
Two - Except for the smallest of women, a 1,000 calorie a day diet would put most people's bodies into starvation mode. Our bodies are conditioned to shut down our metabolism when we go into starvation mode, which means that your body will start conserving calories anyway it can. And when you ingest some additional calories, your body will store them away for future use (usually as fat).
When you are developing a sound, healthy diet that will help you control your weight, one of the things that should be taken into consideration is your BMR (basal metabolic rate). This is the number of calories that you specifically need to operate efficiently on a daily basis. There are specific formulas used to help determine this number. Once you have your BMR it is relatively easy to determine how many calories will help you gain or lose weight in a healthy, controlled way.
According to my nutrition professor in graduate school, very few doctors receive formal training in proper nutrition. Because of this, I would suggest that if you want good advice on proper dieting, you should find a registered dietitian or someone else who has had formal training in this area.
Related Tags: health, weight loss, fat loss, baby boomers, aerobic exercise, senior weight loss
*******************
Online fitness coach Tom Manfredi is the creator of the site fitness-after-50.com. He has a master's degree in exercise physiology and over 20 years of practical exercise experience as a long distance runner, triathlete, and martial arts instructor.
This site is designed with the mature adult in mind. Learn more by going to fitness-after-50.com
Recent articles in this category:
- Understanding Body Types And How They Affect Your Weight Loss Efforts
When you are trying to lose weight, the typical advice of changing your diet and getting more exerci - Is Liposuction The Answer?
While it is one thing to consider liposuction, it is totally different to actually beginning the pro - A Discussion On Liposuction
Cosmetic surgery immediately throws up a number of images. Be it trout pouts, oversized breasts or a - Do Calorie Shifting Diets Work?
Calorie shifting diets are interesting in that you are not on a strict diet every day. You get to ea - Biggest Loser Australia- Stay Within Bmi That Says You Are Healthy Not Obese
Obesity has increased to manifolds and has become a serious weight problem. A lot many people die th - Mike Geary Review - The Man Who Designed The Truth About Six Pack Abs
If you are searching for a weight loss program that gives off the best results, you must look for a - Isabel De Los Rios Review - Can Her Diet Solution Program Be The Answer To Your Problems?
The world offers many temptations in the areas of living a strong life and it has become a problem f - Fat Loss 4 Idiots Review - Is It Really That Easy?
A lot of people want an easy weight loss plan that's effective and uncomplicated. And who wouldn't? - Joel Marion Review - Why You Won't Quit The Xtreme Fat Loss Diet
Giving up or quitting is an entertained notion when you're losing weight. It's very common for peopl - Weight Loss Tips - Discover Your Unique Body Type (and Shape) To Start Targeting The Problem Areas
There are three different body types.1) EndomorphsThese are people who tend to have bigger bones tha
Most viewed articles in this category:
- Reduce Weight With Didrex
What is it that comes to your mind when you think of losing weight? Is it that grueling exercise or - Facts Regarding Hoodia
South African Bushmen for thousands of years uses this flowering plant that looks like a cactus plan - Things you Should Know Before you Buy Adipex Online
Nowadays, online shopping is growing at a rate not observed earlier. The ease in which one can buy a - Sharp You're Axe With Phentermine Before Conquering Obesity
'If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I would spend first four hours in sharpening my axe' this i - Are There Really Effective Weight Loss Supplements?
The overweight are always looking for ways to help improve the success of their weight loss efforts. - How to Get Rid of Belly Fat
How to get rid of belly fat is a question that many people wonder to themselves quite often, many pe - Phendimetrazine: Answer to your Weight Loss Concern
Coping with obesity is not an easy task. Obesity makes you the butt of jokes, entices physical agony - Weight Loss Hypnosis - The Truth About Why It Works
The word hypnosis never fails to conjure up images of something mysterious, shady or even downright - Losing Weight Through Acupuncture
These days, there are many kinds of diets and methods for weight loss. Some may be healthy for you - Liposuction / Liposculpture
Life is a gift given to us by the Creator that we should cherish. And being one of God's creation, w