By Brian T. Dessart, CSCS
With the winter months upon us, it’s important to remember that as the weather cools so does body metabolism. For many people, the fall and winter seasons are times of decreased exercise, increased eating habits and the addition of unwanted body weight.
During the spring and summer months exercise activity for many people is either voluntarily or involuntarily increased. Besides the normal benefits of exercise, such as a decrease in overall body fat, lower blood pressure, decreased heart rate and a drop in cholesterol levels, there is also a bodily change that help keeps weight manageable. Exercise will help to raise the body’s resting metabolic rate (RMR). The RMR is also known as a person’s ability to burn calories while sedentary, such as watching television or sleeping. Vice versa, a decrease in activity will contribute to the return of a lower, pre-exercise routine RMR.
During the cooler months, it’s important to keep a strong lock on a decent exercise routine and a diet low in fats, especially saturated fats, which have absolutely no nutritional value. Learn to read labels and get the saturated fat content on each serving to zero or as close to zero as possible. Less than 30-percent of the daily diet should be in fats, with less than 10-percent in saturated fats. Keep in mind: every gram of fat is equal to nine calories. If exercise decreases and unhealthy eating increases, which it does tend to do during the fall and winter, any shed summer pounds are virtually a lock for regaining.
With a high degree of heart disease and stroke running rapid throughout society, it is essential we all make an effort to help keep our health in check. Risk factors such as high blood pressure (consistently >135/85), high cholesterol (>200), older age, cigarette smoking and a chronic sedentary lifestyle greatly increase our risks of suffering from heart disease or stroke. The more risk factors combined will lead to a greater chance of suffering from one of these severe medical conditions. High blood pressure may be a direct result of hereditary but there is also a possibility it can be controlled with an alteration in diet and exercise, and the same can be said for high cholesterol, which has seen decreases of 15-percent with adequate lifestyle changes. Good blood pressure is no longer seen as 120/80. While this may still be considered normal, a good level should be viewed as 110/70-118/78.
Be cautious. There's nothing wrong with a splurge every now and then, especially during the holidays, but overall healthy consistency is key.
Brian T. Dessart is the Founder & President of StrengthUSA.com.
