Keep Moving with Regular Physical Activity

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Keep Moving with Regular Physical Activity
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Where Does Physical Activity Fit In?

• Include physical activity into your plan for
  successful and safe weight loss.
• To lose weight, you need
• an energy imbalance
• Physical activity is one way to increase the
  amount of energy out by burning more
• calories.
• The following strategies will help
• move you in the right direction to
• burn more calories

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What Types of Activities Should I Include?
Canadas Physical Activity Guide recommends 3
types of activities
Endurance or Aerobic Activities Strength
Activities Flexibility Activities
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• Endurance/Aerobic activities are the most
  important for weight loss.
• These activities make your heart beat faster and
  increase your rate of breathing.
• To benefit from these activities, you must be
  active for at least 10 minutes at a time.
• Endurance activities use more energy than other
  activities.
• This energy is stored in the body as calories.

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• More on endurance/aerobic activities for
  healthy weight loss
• When you need the energy, you burn calories.
• When you burn more calories than you eat, you
  lose weight.
• These aerobic activities can include walking,
  swimming, bicycling, skating and many
  recreational activities (e.g. aerobic fitness
  classes, dancing).

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• Strength activities make muscles work harder
  to overcome a load or resistance.
• The load or resistance could be
• your own body weight (e.g. situps, pushups,
  walking up stairs)
• added load (e.g. bags of groceries, bags of
  leaves, weight training equipment like
  dumbbells).
• Strength activities make your muscles and bones
  stronger which makes it easier for your body to
  be active.

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• Flexibility activities make joints bend and
  stretch.
• These activities make your
• joints more flexible and
• reduce your risk of injury.
• Examples include stretching,
• yoga, or gardening.

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How much activity do I need each day?

• To reduce risk of certain diseases (e.g.
  diabetes, heart disease) and for good health, you
  need 30 minutes of endurance or aerobic
  activities a day.
• For weight loss, the amount of time increases to
  60 minutes a day.

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Working towards 60 minutes a day

• 60 minutes is a goal.
• The longer you are active, the more energy you
  will need that will burn more calories.
• This helps create a greater energy imbalance that
  leads to weight loss.
• Start by setting daily goals to work toward
• add more time as you feel you are able
• activity does not have to be all at once it can
  be added up in blocks of at least 10 minutes
  e.g. one 30-minute swim before work and two
  15-minute walks during work breaksit all counts!

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How often do I need to be active?

• The goal should be 60 minutes a day, every day!
• Remember, this goal may take some time before it
  is reached.
• Start with as many days a week as you can and
  work towards being active every day.

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How hard do I need to work?

• During endurance or aerobic activities, your
  muscles need more oxygen to burn calories for
  energy.
• To provide your muscles with the right amount
  of oxygen, you must be working at the right
  intensity or level of effort.

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Talking and Singing!

• This may take some experimenting to get it right.
• you need to be able to hold a conversation while
  you are activethis is called the talk test
• if you can sing, you are not working hard enough
• if you cant speak at all, you are working too
  hard
• If you are working too hard, you may not be able
  to be active for as long as you need to be to
  reach your daily goal.
• If you cant talk, then you are probably not
  breathing properly and taking in the right amount
  of oxygen.
• This can affect your ability to burn calories.

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Fitting physical activity into your day.
There are two options

• Lifestyle activities finding ways to make
  everyday activities more active
• walking at your break
• parking further from work, the store, etc.
• taking the stairs instead of the elevator
• walking or riding your bicycle to the store or
  to work
• doing household chores - gardening, yard work,
  cleaning
• enjoying leisure activities like bird watching,
  dancing or playing with the kids

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Fitting physical activity into your day.
There are two options

• Structured activities
• setting aside a specific amount of time for a
  specific activity such as
• aerobics class
• dance class
• tennis lessons
• power walking
• working out at the gym

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Balancing all 3 kinds of activities
Although endurance or aerobic activities are
the most important, it is also important to add
strength and flexibility activities to your plan.
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Finding support
When you are beginning to add activity to your
life, it is a good idea to look for support to
help motivate you toward your goal

• ask friends, family or co-workers who are already
  active
• sign up for a class at a recreation centre (e.g.
  aquatic fitness class, dance class)
• join a league or group in an activity that you
  enjoy (e.g. bowling, golf)
• hire a certified personal trainer
• at a fitness or health club

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Whats the next step?

• You now have basic information you need to build
  physical activity into your weight loss plan.
• It is important to set goals to help you keep on
  track and motivated.
• The next presentation will
• provide you with the
• information you need
• to set goals to help get you to
• where you want to go!

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Self-learning Quiz
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Self-learning Quiz
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Strength activities are the most important for
weight loss. (true or false)
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For weight loss, how much activity time should
you try to accumulate each day (a. 30 minutes,
b. 45 minutes or c. 60 minutes)
3
List two options for fitting physical activity
into your weight loss plan.
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Self-learning Quiz
1
Strength activities are the most important for
weight loss. (true or false)
False. Endurance or aerobic activities are the
most important because they require the greatest
amount of energy and burn the greatest number
of calories.
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Self-learning Quiz
2
For weight loss, how much activity time should
you try to accumulate each day (a. 30 minutes,
b. 45 minutes or c. 60 minutes)
c. 60 minutes. For good health, 30 minutes is
recommended, but this number increases to 60
minutes for weight loss. The longer you are
active, the more energy you need. The more
energy you need, the more calories you will
burn and this will create a greater energy
imbalance and help you lose weight.
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Self-learning Quiz
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List two options for fitting physical activity
into your weight loss plan.
1. You can find ways to make your lifestyle
more active. For example, walking to the store,
going dancing with friends, or taking the stairs
instead of the elevator. 2. Also, you can find a
structured activity that you enjoy - working
out at the gym, an aquatic fitness class, a
dance class or power walking.
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Watch the Next Slide Presentation
To find out how to develop a plan of action for
losing weight the healthy weigh, watch
presentation 4 Setting Goals and Keeping Track
.
For more information on Losing Weightthe
healthy weigh, contact the Windsor-Essex County
Health Unit 258-2146 x 3100. Ask for the latest
brochure and newsletter from Working Toward
Wellness Workplace Health Promotion Program.