Watch your weight!!
Phew!! Weight is one of those things somehow we are never happy with!
Increasingly it’s the excess weight which is becoming the focus of attention, and rightly so. We understand the effects of excess weight on our body – be it metabolic health, mental health, physical health and last but not the least for a lot of people cosmetic appearance. But what to do?
Here are a few things which I want everyone to understand about your weight:
1. It is not JUST ABOUT THE “WEIGHT”:
We want to look at in individual in entirety and with that – we want to look at the BODY COMPOSITION ANALYSIS, which tells us about the body fat and muscle mass. We want to have both these in the normal range for our height and weight – that is what is going to help us keep “metabolically healthy”. At whatever weight we are, if we are following a healthy diet and exercising on a regular basis, we are going to be much fitter compared to what we would be if we were not doing that! Okay now let’s look at an example – If an individual with diet and exercise, loses 4 kg fat but builds 4.4 kg muscle mass in a specific duration of time, he would notice that he has “gained” 0.4 kg “weight” after all that hard work!! Now that would appear very discouraging!! Even though the individual worked for a body modification worth 8.4 kg, his net “weight change” was 0.4 kg weight gain! These are the finer things with which we can distinguish between and assess better for ourselves.
2. Things change over time –
Every year, our body undergoes changes and neroli crate changes. If we are not being particular about our weight and not following a healthy diet and exercise regimen, we are likely to gain anywhere between 2-5 kg weight EVERY YEAR!! For women, significant changes happen at different times – during puberty/adolescence; pregnancy; around menopause. Women have a tendency of gaining anywhere between 4-12 kg weight around menopause if we are not doing something actively to watch that! Even being able to maintain your weight at the level where it is can be challenging around that time.
3. Contrary to what people think, as we lose weight:
Our capacity to burn those calories with exercise decreases. In simple words, at 60 kg weight, for similar amount (aka duration, intensity and type) of exercise, I would lose LESS calories compared to when I was at 75 kg weight! That is the reason why, as we are working on losing weight, our intensity of exercise has to increase gradually to keep up with it and diet modifications also have to keep pace with that.
4. The body weight set-point theory –
This is in itself a big factor/point which I will discuss later. This is one of the reasons why we keep regaining weight!
