HEALTH AND FITNESS

2009-09-06T00:05:00.001+08:00

Health Benefits of Physical Fitness

Regular activity has a number of proven, positive health effects, especially on heart health. Vigorous exercise strengthens the heart as a pump, making it a larger, more efficient muscle. Even moderate activity can boost HDL ('good') cholesterol, aid the circulatory system, and lower blood pressure and blood fats. All these effects translate into reduced risk for heart disease, heart attack, and stroke.

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Exercise can also offer other benefits, including strengthened muscles, increased flexibility, and stronger bones, which can help ward off the bone-thinning condition called osteoporosis.
Regular activity also promises mental-health benefits, like relieving stress and anxiety. It can help you sleep better and renew your energy. If exercise could be bottled, it would be a best-selling potion at the local pharmacy.
Activity is for Everyone
Virtually everyone can get health benefits from activity. But every few years, surveys confirm the well-known fact that most people aren't active enough. Unfortunately, we pay for it. The American Heart Association attributes about 250,000 deaths a year in the US - about 12 percent of total deaths - to lack of regular physical activity.
The reasons for inactivity aren't hard to figure out. Most of us have jobs where we sit most of the time, so chances are limited to be physically active at work. We also rely heavily on modern, labor-saving devices - cars, appliances, and power tools - to spare us manual effort.
But there's another reason why many people, especially the overweight, avoid activity. Check out the firm, supple bodies shown exercising on television or on magazine covers. They give the impression that exercise is sweaty, strenuous work best reserved for the young, super-fit, and athletic. But the latest research is proving that picture false: Benefits can be gained even from low-intensity activity, like gardening.

Activity and Weight Management
If you burn more calories than you consume, then you'll shed pounds. For every extra 3,500 calories you spend, you'll drop one pound. Do strenuous exercise, and you'll burn calories in a hurry. And you can burn the same number of calories with gentler activity: You just have to do it longer and/or more often.

If you're not familiar with the number of calories burned during exercise, you may be discouraged when you first learn about it. For instance, if you weigh 150 pounds and go on a brisk, 1-mile walk for 20 minutes, you'll expend about 100 calories, considerably short of the 3,500 calories needed to drop a pound.
But such efforts add up. If you expend an extra 300 calories a day through activity and reduce your dietary intake another 200 calories, then by the end of a week, you'll have a calorie deficit of 3,500, comparable to a one-pound weight loss. This is precisely the kind of gradual success that experts recommend for long-term weight management.
Exercise also has other body-slimming effects. It builds muscle and displaces fat. A given volume of muscle weighs more than the same bulk of fat. So your bathroom scale may not record dramatic changes, but your clothes will be looser, and you'll have a trimmer body shape.
Because exercise builds muscle, it may also help counter a problem caused by dieting. When you reduce calories, your body metabolism may slack off and burn calories more slowly. This makes further weight loss more difficult. But some research suggests regular activity helps correct this slowdown and makes it easier to keep shedding pounds.
How Activity Affects Calorie Needs
The more active you are, the more calories you'll burn, which can help with weight loss. And exercise also promotes fat loss and builds muscle. This, in turn, increases your body's metabolic rate, the rate at which you burn calories, even after you've finished exercising.
Weight loss by reducing your calorie intake without activity can have just the opposite effect: It can cause your body to break down muscle, which ultimately lowers your metabolic rate and makes losing weight even harder.
The problem of reducing your calorie intake without exercise is compounded when people go off their diets. Because they've lost muscle, they tend to regain their weight quickly and then some.
A better approach is to increase activity, which builds muscle, at the same time that you're cutting back on excess calories from food. Physical activity can also reduce stress and regulate your appetite, making it easier to curb the urge to overeat.
The amount of energy needed for any activity, whether it's raking leaves or playing a computer game, depends on three factors: your muscle mass, your body weight, and the activity itself. The larger the muscle mass and heavier the body part being moved, the more calories you use. The duration, frequency, and intensity of exercise also count.
This Action Area © 1999 RxRemedy, Inc. except where otherwise noted.

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2009-08-30T02:55:00.002+08:00

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FITNESS GUIDE

2009-08-30T02:52:00.002+08:00

about the book

Ever in search of a health and fitness book that is related to the Asian lifestyle? Asian foods? Fitness 24/7 by Kevin Zahri (Malaysia’s Fitness Celebrity) is the answer.
Fitness 24/7 is build around sound nutritional and fitness advice covering topics like weight gain/loss, building a personalized & balanced diet and full body part training.
Kevin straightforward and practical approach will guide you to take full control of your health and fitness practically and permanently without having to give up on your favorite Asian delicacies. Also included is a Asian food calorie guide that is referenced throughout the book and other special topics that relate directly to the Asian lifestyle. Whether you are a professional athlete or the average housewife, Fitness 24/7 is for everyone.

List of Chapters

Asian Ways
Getting Started
Why We Gain or Lose Weight
Creating A Diet for You
Start Training
Body Part Training

Designing A Training Programme
Exercise & You – Specials
Supplement and You
Food Calories Guide
Quick Guides

about the author

Kevin Zahri is the founder of Maxtrition.com.my, a US AFTA Certified Personal Trainer & Nutritionist and has been active in the local Health & Fitness industry for the last couple of years. He is best known as “Cikgu Fitness” in the recent season 4 of Malaysia’s number 1 reality show “Akademi Fantasia”. Over this period he has left his mark in health & fitness as TV Host, speaker, writer and also as health & fitness model. Visit his Website for more info:

Who Should Read This Book?

Fitness 24/7 targets the general audience, including you.

Target Audience

General/readers
Gym members
Professional athletes
Gym instructors
You!

Whether you are a working professional, gym buff or have never exercised before, Fitness 24/7 is for everyone that is looking for a practical and easy to understand book. Especially for those wanting a book that relates to the Asian lifestyle, trends and diet.

Why Fitness 24/7?
- Based on the Asian Lifestyle
- Comprehensive
- Easy-to-follow Fitness Plan
- Full Body Training Guide
- Nutritional and fitness advice
- Asian food calorie guide
24/7 Quick Facts
- 176 Full Color Pages
- RM59.90 (US20.00)
- Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
- Pub Date: Dec 200
What People Say?
Fitness 24/7 is THE book written especially for the Asian market. It is not just a book about exercise regiments. It is a provocative challenge to individuals to challenge themselves to rethink the way they live their lives and to instill in them the mindset of 'Impossible is Nothing'. It should be a required reading by those who are seeking to gain a healthier lifestyle and a balance in life.
Darren Choy,
MD, Adidas Malaysia
An enjoyable and user-friendly read for anybody who wants to start living fit and healthy lifestyle but doesn’t know how.
Bernard Au Yong,
MD, Fitness Concept
Kevin Zahri’s approach to a healthy lifestyle is oh so easy to follow and practical. This is the reason why many have been successful in managing their health and fitness naturally
Mr Khairil Annas,
Special Officer to the Deputy Prime Minister, Malaysia
Finally an awareness book on fitness and wellness from a guy who walks the walks ,who is Malaysian,and who wrote this book for Malaysians.Now the public shouldn't be making anymore excuses!
Terry Gallyot, Mr. Asia 99'

2009-08-30T02:34:00.002+08:00

Health & Fitness: The Psychology Of Diet And Exercise

August 27, 2009 - 11:49 am
By Rebekah Fedrowitz

You want to lose weight, eat better and be a healthier person, yet you cannot seem to find the motivation or time to reach your goals. Every time you start a diet and exercise program, you find yourself right back to your old habits within a couple weeks. When you see thinner, healthier or more toned people, you assume they have “good genes” and you can never be like them.

Sound like you? Whether you are 20-something and 50 pounds overweight or 50-something with new wrinkles and sags, your dilemma may very well be the same…your attitude and mental standpoint.

People go through various stages in their journey to a healthier lifestyle. It starts with the realization that something about your lifestyle needs to change and then moves into contemplating what steps need to be taken to make that change happen. The hardest part comes next; you have to act on those plans, risking that you may fail, that the program may not work and all your efforts were for nothing. Many people take alternate routes here with quick-fix creams and pills, fad diets and sometimes even drastic measures such as surgery. Unfortunately, those detours only last but so long and soon you’re right back on the road you used to be on, only now things seem so much worse.

In order to make lasting changes for life-long health, the first step in any diet and exercise program is mental preparation. Not only do you have to desire to be healthier, you also have to believe you can do it. It goes far beyond your momentary goal of fitting into your skinny jeans, this is a life-long commitment. For many people, they become scared and intimidated by the idea that they have to give up something or that it will be too hard for them to stick with. If the program is really right for you, it will be an adjustment at first, but it will not be hard.

Creating an attitude that breeds success can be more important than the diet and exercise program itself. While that may seem contradictory, it is true because the person with the right attitude is more likely to make generally healthy decisions than the person who has the perfect program but is constantly cheating or making exceptions to the rules because they do not have the right attitude. The right attitude says, “I do not feel deprived because I am feeding my body the ingredients to a lasting, enjoyable future, full of health and wellbeing.” The wrong attitude says, “It is not fair that everyone else can eat this while I am starving so I can be the same size as they are.” Seeing beyond the temporary satisfaction to the ongoing impact on your body changes your motivation and rationale.

Be successful at achieving your goals….change your attitude. The first thing you need to realize is that YOU are in charge of you. Despite everything going on in your life and all the people whose lives are intermingled with yours, you are the only person who can determine your future health and wellbeing. The foods you eat today impact more than just your weight and how your clothes are fitting. By consuming balanced, whole, natural foods, you provide your body with the nutrients, vitamins and minerals that it needs to function at its best. Incorrect diet sometimes does not affect people until many years later when it is too late to correct the diseases and imbalances that are present. When you exercise, you are not only toning areas that may visually need some improvement, you are also ensuring that you can perform day-to-day tasks easily as the years go on.

Once you realize that you have control of you body and your decisions, you then need to believe in yourself. Make sure your goals are realistic and then go for them. No matter what roadblocks come your way, continually trust that you can achieve those goals. All those success stories you read in magazines and hear from your friends can and WILL be you. Ralph Marston said, “Your goals, minus your doubts, equal your reality.” If you do not believe you can accomplish it, then you cannot. It is that simple. Make up your mind and do not let anyone or anything stand in your way.