IS EXERCISE IMPORTANT?
The answer to the above question is a resounding YES! Exercise is crucial, not just for body composition change, but for overall health and disease prevention. While exercise alone isn’t always an effective weight loss intervention, it is effective in building stronger muscles, bones, heart, and lungs. Exercise can improve sleep, reduce stress, and reduce inflammation markers and oxidative stress.
Now, we can get into what type of exercise is good, better, or best, but we aren’t doing that today. Exercise is going to be different for everyone, depending on your age and health goals. But one thing is for certain, we need muscles to move, be active, and maintain a healthy body into old age. So, what are you waiting for?
DON’T PUT IT OFF
I often counsel my clients to start with nutrition habit change and we will work on exercise later. I understand someone could get very overwhelmed with trying to change their diet and start a new exercise regimen all at once. Consider this point if you are reading this: If you have exercised your whole life, then it will probably be easier for you to pick back up. If you have lived a very sedentary life, it is going to be more difficult. But just because something is hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. It’s even more of a reason to do it and do it now. Start today. Don’t put it off. The more you put it off the harder it will be.
METABOLIC HEALTH BENEFIT
Did you know physical activity helps combat insulin resistance because it removes glucose from the blood without insulin’s help? If you are insulin resistant or a type 2 diabetic, this is even more of a reason to get up and move! Our muscles are the main eaters of glucose, so when we exercise, they can have it all! This means your fat cells starve for a moment while your muscle cells grow! Muscles also use fat and ketones for energy, quite well actually.
The moral of the story is exercise makes us more insulin sensitive, regardless of weight loss. Studies show it improves metabolic health. This means your body functions better, your cells do their jobs better, and you feel better! A 3-month study showed that participants who walked at a moderate pace daily for 3 months lost an average of 2% visceral fat. That’s just from walking! By the way, visceral fat is the dangerous fat around your organs that cause disease.
So what are you waiting for? Get up and Go! You will thank me later.
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