Improvements in life expectancy are strongly linked to daily exercise. A comprehensive review of studies in the Journal of Aging Research showed that people who exercise regularly—even for as little as three hours a week—lived up to 6.9 years longer than those who didn't.
Habit-building is key to success. The easiest way to build a habit is to commit to daily workouts even if it's just for 20 minutes. If you do, you may skip a day but are more likely to get back on track immediately.
If you exercise three days a week and miss one workout, you may go four to five days without exercising and eventually give up.
For life expectancy, it is more important to exercise consistently year after year than have fits and starts of intense exercise followed by periods of no exercise.
Remember that daily exercise doesn't have to mean going to the gym every day. Home exercises such as yoga, stretching, free weights, swimming, or brisk walking can be incredibly beneficial, particularly if you are older.
This is good advice for seniors too. I often see people who only exercise on weekends and thing they are doing all the exercise they need, but these are the people that will most likely to give up. Exercise is also important for weight loss. I have to do something in the morning to wake up my body. At night your body is in a hybernation mode and burns very few calories. You want to change that mode as early as possible to take advantage of every hour. In the evening when you are seating and resting your body is going back into that hybernation mode. Most of us burn about 100 per hour, during a workout session of about I hour an experienced athlete can burn about 300 calories. Most people new at exercise will only 150 to 250 calories in a one hour workout period.
When your new at workouts you should keep a log of your calorie intake. Most of us only guess or don't know how many calories we consume. On an average, North Americans will consume about 3500 calories a day. That study was done a few years ago, but is still accurate. Men, if they are active, will need about 2000 calories a day, if they are very active like someone who plays sports every day might need more like 2500 calories a day. On average a woman needs about 1750 calories and maybe 500 more fore woman who are very athletic. These calorie requirements vary with your body weight. But to loss weight you need to consume about 500 calories below that 2000 number or 1500 calories for men, 1250 calories for women. If after several weeks and you still can't lose anything, than you have to look at the food your eating.
I can eat 3 times a day and stay below 1500 calories. Or I can't eat 3 meals a day in a restaurant and if I stick to 1500 calories, I'll starve before I lose weight. You can check my numbers on a food calculator. I can eat a baked chicken breast, cooked carrots, broccili, and peas, a portion of brown rice and a raw apple for dessert and stay under 500 calories. I'll explain, The chicken is baked and vegetables are steamed, and the rice is boiled. I only use spices, no gravy or sauce and I only drink water. You can heap on the vegetables, not much calories in vegetables, the calories are in the toppings.
Chicken breasts can be your best bet for protein, one breast is about 28 grams of protein Two breast a day is all the protein you need in one day. I have a protein shake in the morning and get about 30 grams in that shake, and than one chicken breast and I have all my protein for the day. I try for more plant-based protein if I can. If you don't get 50 to 60 grams of protein as you lose weight you will also lose muscle mass.
Remeber that it take exercise and diet if you want to lose weight and keep it off.
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If you want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books.
There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans.
Look for my first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.
My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page.
Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.