Are you fit or fat?

How would you compare whether you are fit or fat?

How would you compare whether you are fit or fat?

- Fit people sink in water... fat people float
- Fit people, while exercising burn fat...fat people burn sugar
- Fit people can eat more...fat people diet and fast, lowering their metabolism
- Exercise decreases hunger in fit people...exercise triggers hunger in fat people
- When fit people exercise it's aerobic... when fat people exercise it's anaerobic
- Fit people can be overweight without being over fat. Fat people can be over fat without being overweight.

Sometimes in the quest for 'ideal' shape and body type we forget that ultimately the value of weight loss is health, not just 'what we look like.' To refocus our attention on the health advantages of weight loss, we need to recognize that health benefits are not achieved when we reach our target and ideal body weight. They begin immediately after we began to be responsible for what we eat and when we begin to lose weight.

People shouldn't get hung up on their weight per se. They should pay less attention to the scale and, instead, focus on eating healthfully and exercising regularly -- and you will eventually achieve a healthy weight you can maintain. Remember, we can't all be skinny but we all can be healthy.

In the context of fitness, lets also talk about Body mass index (BMI). (To calculate your BMI, divide your height in meters by your weight in kilograms). Is it the best measure of optimal weight? Athletes, for example, could have unusually high BMI's, because they are muscle bound, yet still be in great shape from a health standpoint.

BMI does not take into consideration the body composition. Perhaps a better measure of whether one is overweight would be body fat per cent. Body-fat assessment is much more specific to your actual fat content and thus provides a more accurate picture.

Measures of Health

Weight, body fat, body mass index -- what do all these numbers mean? And what do they really tell you about your health? These are the ranges for BMI values for adults:

Underweight: Less than 18.5
Recommended: 18.6 to 24.9
Overweight: 25.0 to 29.9
Obese: 30 or greater

How Much Fat is OK? The American Council on Exercise provides the following ranges for body-fat percentage:

Women Men

Essential fat 10-12% 2-4%
Athletes 14-20% 6-13%
Fitness 21-24% 14-17%
Acceptable 25-31% 18-25%
Obese 32% plus 26% plus

A lot of people try to get thin at any cost. It is important that people are at peace with food. Healthy eating and healthy exercise contribute to healthy weight. Be realistic. Love yourself from the inside out. You can be a great person in spite of your weight. But it's important to have a healthy weight for health reasons. The key to good health is the proportion of fat to lean body mass. This is called your body composition

Can you be fit and fat?

Fitness is a function of heart and lung endurance, body composition (per cent body fat), muscular strength, and flexibility. A person can be fit according to some of these measures and less fit according to other measures.

Extensive research confirms that obesity is strongly correlated with excess morbidity and mortality. My bottom line is to focus on behaviour you can control -- what you eat and how active you are. And, most of all enjoy life!

(The author is a certified personal fitness trainer)

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