You Don’t Need Exercise To Lose Weight

Exercise is not what you do to lose weight; it is what you do to get fit and stay fit. Your figure (slim or robust) can be nature’s gift to you, but no one can get fit unless they exercise regularly. Fitness is not a gift of nature.  It is a reward of nurture.

You don’t need exercise to lose weight

You may have heard this before, “you don’t need to exercise to lose weight!” The statement is true. You don’t need to exercise to lose weight because there are one thousand and one things you can do to lose weight and exercise is just one of them. But, there is a big difference between being fit and being thin. Physical fitness is not about being thin; it is about how well your body can move and function.

What is physical fitness?

In their book titled, Concepts of FITNESS AND WELLNESS, Corbin and Welk defined physical fitness as “a multidimensional state of being.” They went further to say, “Physical fitness is the body’s ability to function efficiently and effectively. It is a state of being that consists of at least five health-related and six skill-related components, each of which contributes to quality of life. Physical fitness associated with a person’s ability to work effectively, enjoy leisure time, be healthy, resist hypokinetic diseases and conditions, and meet emergency situations.”

An introduction to health-related components of physical fitness

Health-related component #1-Cardio-respiratory fitness

Cardio-respiratory fitness is the ability of the heart, blood vessels and respiratory system to supply nutrients and oxygen to the working muscles and the ability of the muscles to utilise fuel to allow sustained exercise.

Whether you are walking, running, cycling, dancing, doing kickboxing, or swimming, your heart and the associated blood vessels and the lungs are working in together to deliver nutrients and oxygen to the muscles that are responsible for movements.

How fast and far you can go, depend on the efficiency of your cardio-respiratory system.

Health-related component #2- Muscular strength

Muscular strength is the ability of the muscles to exert an external force or lift a heavy weight. If you have ever moved a piece of furniture by lifting, pushing or pulling, that is your muscles exerting a force on the furniture. Or if you have tried to do a push-up before, that is muscular strength in action.

Whether it is controlling your own body weight like in doing push-ups or exerting force against external resistance (moving things), some level of muscular strength is required.

Health-related component #3- Muscular endurance

Muscular endurance is the ability of the muscles to exert themselves repeatedly. Being able to do a single push-up or a pull-up is a show of muscular strength, how many reps you can do before you get tired is a show of muscular endurance.

Health-related component #4- Body Composition

This is the very component of health-related physical fitness everyone who is trying to lose weight wants to change or alter. Body composition is the relative percentage of muscle, fat, bone, and other tissues that comprise the body.

Health-related component #5- Flexibility

Flexibility is the ability to move joints through their normal full range. It is affected by muscle length, joint structure and other factors.

Fitness promotes health

It is important to know that each component of health-related physical fitness has a direct relationship to health and reduced risk of chronic diseases. Possessing a moderate amount of each of the five components listed above is essential for health promotion and disease prevention.

Your turn to share: Apart from weight loss, what other benefits do you look for when you exercise? I’d love to hear your thought.