More and more people seem to jump into the fitness bandwagon these days. This is a very encouraging trend as it shows that people are increasingly becoming aware of the bad effects of having a sedentary lifestyle, eating ready-to-eat foods instead of home-cooked meals, and carrying extra pounds. The first step to starting a fitness program is to ask the question of âhow much should I weigh.â
The recommended weight you should have is contingent on several factors, most notably, how old and tall you are, as well as your somatotype. Medical professionals utilize the Body Mass Index or BMI to figure out whether you are underweight or overweight. Computing for your BMI requires division of your weight in kilograms by the square of your height in meters. If the resultant value falls within 18.5 to 25, your weight is considered within normal limits. There are plenty of BMI calculators on the Internet, and you will likely come across diet and health websites while looking for the answer to your query on âhow much should I weigh.â
How much you weigh is dependent on your calorie intake and expenditure. Having said such, to meet your fitness objectives, you need to make some changes to how much you eat and exercise. Many say that in order to lose weight, you would have to reduce your daily intake by 500 to 1,000 calories. This will allow you to lose 1 to 2 lbs of weight each week. There are several websites that have tools which allow you to compute for your recommended daily calorie intake and majority if not all of them use the Harris-Benedict formula utilized by most dieticians.
Nutritionists and medical professionals strongly advise against extremely low calorie diets, or those that reduce daily energy intake by more than 1,000 calories because these can result to a myriad of health issues ranging from frequent bouts of headache to fatal cardiac arrhythmias. Aside from quantity, you would have to be mindful as to the quality of what you are eating. Hence, you should increase dietary fiber intake by eating more fruits, grains, and garden veggies; and fewer meals and snacks made from refined carbs. You also need to diversify your protein sources, to include dairy, legumes, and nuts. In addition, avoid foods that are cooked in or with saturated fats. In order to reduce the frequency and intensity of hunger pangs, take 6 small meals or snacks every 3 or 4 hours instead of 3 heavy ones that are six hours apart. It would also be to your advantage to keep a food diary to motivate you to stay on the program, and prevent you from eating more than your recommended daily calorie requirements.
Dieting can only do so much; hence, you would need to pair it with reasonable amounts of exercise. For best results, you should allot around 5 hours for moderately intensive aerobic exercises and do weight-training that engages all major muscle groups 2 days each week. Spending 20 minutes to do some brisk walking, and repeating this thrice a day, and five times per week, will already cover the 5 hour recommended aerobic workout. You may also do more strenuous exercises in lieu of moderate-intensity ones. Just remember that a minute of strenuous cardio exercise is the same as two minutes worth of moderate intensity cardio.