Weight Management: Working With Your Body and Not Against It

By James Munse, DC, DACNB

Chantilly Chiropractic Center

. https://www.chantillychiropractic.com/

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Weight Management: Working With Your Body and Not Against It

The stressors and complexities of today’s society often make it difficult to sustain a healthy body weight. While maintaining a healthy weight has become increasing important, it has also simultaneously become increasingly complex, confusing, and challenging. A quick Google search will elicit numerous diets, exercise routines, and advise – many of which are contradictory. As such, this article will discuss a simple way to improve your body’s ability to burn fat.

Since this principle promotes normal physiological function, you can easily add its premise to most dietary and exercise regiments. The goal is to work with your body and allow it to burn calories in a natural and healthy state. This promotes sustained weight loss and avoids the reoccurrence of weight gain once a diet and/or workout routine has finished.

When is the best time for aerobic activity? Well, if you want to burn fat and boost your metabolism then the correct answer is in the morning. Engaging in early-morning cardiovascular activity increases the metabolic rate for the remainder of the day and also decreases appetite. Why is this important? An increased metabolic rate results in more calories burned (and therefore less calories that get converted into fat). As such, a high metabolic rate is good for weight loss.

The equation for weight loss is relatively simple; you can either decrease caloric intake and/or increase your metabolic rate. Ensuring that your aerobic routine occurs in the morning is an easy modification that can have a profound impact.

Early morning aerobic exercise – whether it’s running, biking, swimming, walking, etc. – also brings immense systemic and neurologic benefits that are beyond the scope of this article. It’s recommended that you consult with your chiropractor or general practitioner to determine which form(s) of aerobic exercise you should pursue.

A common pitfall to restrictive diets (decreasing your caloric intake) is that your body responds by lowering its metabolic rate. This is because your body is intelligent.

If you start eating less calories, then the body will slow its energy production to accommodate the lower caloric intake. Eventually, the rate of weight loss decreases and inevitably stops. A frequent symptom of this scenario is fatigue and exhaustion.

Making matters worse, a lower metabolic rate makes it easier (and faster) to gain weight upon returning to normal eating habits. Thus, the viscous cycle of weight fluctuation ensues. This is not to say that dietary changes are not beneficial. In fact, consuming a healthy and balanced diet is vital for effective weight management. The key point is that restrictive diets alone are not a sustainable, long-term answer for healthy weight loss.

Healthy eating in combination with metabolism boosting activities creates a situation where weight loss is likely to be obtained and maintained.