The Struggle Of Weight Management

Almost everyone carry in his/her mind a physique that is almost a perfect opposite of their existing body. Slim, fit, healthy, stretchy and muscular in some cases. They have dreams but no plans. Pursuing dream without a plan is like running an aircraft with gasoline. The person knows he/she has to provide the jet with jet fuel. However, he/she will neither search for alternates nor will he/she come up with a plan.

If you google weight management, you will get billions upon billions of results. It means that there are solutions available that are just one google search away, but no one will act on them. It is because most of them are philosophical and use strategies that are perfect for athletes but equal to climbing Mount Everest for people like us. I will try to make the solution as simple as possible, but still it will have no effect on you unless it is worked upon.

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Body Mass Index:

Let me introduce you to the term "Body Mass Index". It is one of the biggest health influencing factors out there. The goal is to be healthy and apparently, health is carrying suitable mass with you. You are made of flesh and bones along with other minor constituents like hair, nails etc.

Question arises, what is the suitable weight for you? 50 kg? 70 kg? 100 kg? You can not tell that. BMI or Body Mass Index comes to your rescue in solving such a question. BMI takes into account natural variations in body shape, giving a healthy weight range for a particular height. As well as measuring your BMI, healthcare professionals may take other factors into account when assessing if you're a healthy weight. BMI can be defines as,

"The body mass index (BMI) is a measure that uses your height and weight to work out if your weight is healthy."

 The definition of BMI clearly states that your weight should be according to your height. Muscles are more dense than fat and thus, is you have some huge muscles on you, an extra weight is a sign of health for you. The goal is to get rid of extra fat from your body rather than focusing on getting skinny.

lets get to know more about BMI and how is it calculated.

There are various ways to calculate your BMI. The easiest way requires,

• weight in kilograms
• height in metres squared
  

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Divide your weight in kilograms by your height in meters squared. You will have a mathematical figure. Calculate your BMI and compare the figure with the following table.
If your BMI is:

• below 18.5 – you're in the underweight range
• between 18.5 and 24.9 – you're in the healthy weight range
• between 25 and 29.9 – you're in the overweight range
• between 30 and 39.9 – you're in the obese range

I hope you know enough about BMI. Lets get to weight management.

Weight Alterations:

Your weight is effected by every single bolus you engulf. Your weight is influenced by every single sip you take from your soda. Pay heeds towards what I am about to explain to you now.

Your body needs energy to work. This energy comes from what we eat and drink. Evolution has gifted our body to store surplus food for later use. The extra food you consume is stored in your body in the form of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Fats store the most energy of all and thus, fats are body's energy reserves. Increase of such contents in your body increases your weight and ultimately your BMI. Decrease in such factors reduces your BMI. The unit of energy in terms of food is Calorie.

  One calorie equals to the amount of heat energy required to increase the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1° Celsius.

On average, the daily calories requirement is 2000 calories to help you work and survive through the day. Surplus intake of calories is stored in the body while less than 2000 calories leads to body using its energy reserves i.e. fats. I hope you got the direction I am leading you in.

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Carbohydrates like glucose are burnt first and instantly once required by body. Surplus proteins come after carbohydrates and then come fats. Fats are hard to burn because they carry a lot of energy. Because of fats, an average body can survive up to 4 weeks without food. In order to fluctuate your weight, you have to make a difference between calorie intake and calorie burnt.

Weight is gained when the intake of calories is higher than the calories burnt. Whereas, weight is lost when the calories burnt are higher than the calories taken. Higher the difference, faster will be the process. You can either fluctuate your calorie intake or you can change the amount of calories burnt. In order to loose weight, you have to decrease the amount of calories you take in or you have to increase the amount of calories you burn i.e. exercises. Similarly, for gaining weight, you have to increase the amount of calories intake or you have to decrease the amount of calories burnt ie. lesser physical activities.

Another important thing to consider besides weight is health. The condition of your wellness and fitness depends upon your ability to burn calories. Higher the calories burnt, higher the physical activities undergone. This means that even if you are trying to gain weight, increase the intake of you calories and your calories burning rate also. Higher the calories burnt, the healthier you are and higher the difference between intake and burning, the more you gain.

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I hope my efforts have been worth it and the above discussion helps you in achieving your health targets. Weight management is highly effected by water. You can check The Drink- Benefits And Necessities Of water.

What if I told you the easiest and most fun exercise? Would you do it? Would you use it to achieve your weight targets? Check our The Rope- Benefits and Importance Of Skipping.

We also help people in taking their first step towards what the have always wanted to do but were too shy or afraid. You can check our Journey Of A Thousand Miles- The First Step. Keep reading.

If you have any questions regarding the above discussion or if you want to suggest anything regarding health and fitness, we welcome you open heartedly in the comments section.

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Thanks.