The Elimination Weight Loss Diet - Exercise and Weight Loss (Chapter 10)

Chapter 10 – Exercise and Weight Loss

Many diets rely on strenuous exercise to bring about rapid weight loss. They encourage you to join a gym and work out regularly or to take up running or bicycling. They usually make exaggerated claims about how quickly you will lose weight. The "Elimination Weight Loss Diet" encourages moderate exercise but cautions against using exercise as your primary means of losing weight. The first section of this hub will explain the reasons why. Keep in mind that this diet is targeted for people who are chronically overweight and have tried other diets and failed.

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Reasons why you should not use exercise as the primary means of weight loss.

1. When you stop exercising, you will quickly gain back all of the weight that you lost. If you doubt this, look at former weight lifters and football linemen. Once they stop being active, they generally balloon up and many of them die young. The reason is that when they were active, they consumed large amounts of calories but they also burned them off. After they quit, they continued to eat as if they were still working out.

2. Strenuous exercise is not good for your health if you are significantly overweight. Most overweight people are often inactive too. They may have high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.

3. Strenuous exercise could result in a heart attack or a stroke. What if you are elderly or have health problems, such as arthritis or pinched nerves or bad joints? In that situation, you cannot do strenuous exercise so you have to utilize reduction in caloric intake and at best only moderate exercise.

4. Joining a gym or buying exercise equipment can be expensive. Many people who are overweight are also not financially well off. How often have you seen someone take out a health club membership and then not go or buy an exercise bicycle and it just gathers dust.

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How moderate exercise can be used to improve your overall health as well as increase the rate at which you lose weight.

1. Moderate exercise for two hours a day can easily increase your weight loss up to half a pound per week. Simple activities like walking, swimming, playing golf even playing table tennis can burn an additional 200 or more calories per hour. Even cutting the lawn or house cleaning is equally effective. If you can add two hours of such activities each day instead of sitting and watching television, that will add up to over 1400 calories a week or nearly half a pound.

2. If you include some simple exercises, you can tone up your body. As you lose large amounts of weight, your skin becomes loose and your flesh begins to sag. While exercise does nothing for your skin directly, it can tighten up the underlying muscles, which will reduce your waist size and improve your appearance.

3, Exercise can also reduce your blood pressure and your blood sugar levels. When I lost 125 pounds over about three years, I did simple exercises like sit ups and leg lifts several times a week. I also did some arm exercises with lightweight dumbbells and I walked more. My blood pressure and pulse rate came down considerably and it seemed easier to control my blood sugar levels with medication.

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In summary, while moderate exercise is beneficial and can improve your overall health, using exercise instead of modifying your eating habits will ultimately result in your gaining back all of the weight that you lost.

Chapter 11 will cover the subject of eating fast food and eating out in general.

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