When you make a search on google for reasons to exercise the number one in almost every search is to lose and maintain weight WRONG!

This is an outdated belief. The number one reason to exercise is for your HEALTH.

For too long it was believed that the more you exercised and the fewer calories you ate the thinner you would be. Recent research has shown that this is not the case.

Initially as you increase your exercise you will burn a few extra calories, but you will very soon plateau. This is because with excessive exercise your body puts itself into a fight or flight mode. You are asking more of it but giving it less fuel, so your brain says ‘oh, we are going into deprivation so therefore we need to put down stores (fat)’. You can see that exercise for weight loss, puts you on a hiding to failure. The harder you exercise, the worse it gets, especially for women over 40 who’s hormones are changing and metabolism slowing.

The effect of stressing the body and putting it into fight or flight with intense exercise triggers the release of cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone that is responsible for preparing us to run or fight by storing energy in the body as fat or sugar.

Sugar is a fast release form of energy and if we have an excess this can do one of two things…

1. Stress our pancreas – a key cause of diabetes.
2. Make us store fat – putting strain on the rest of our body and organs.

The best way to achieve weight loss is therefore not exercise but good nutrition. A great balance of good quality foods that interest and fill you and not leave you feeling deprived or hungry. (Subject for another day).

Movement is far more important for maintaining the functions of our body.

Heart and diaphragm pumps – gentle exercise that raises our heart rate will make sure that the heart pump is stretched and limbered up much like any other muscle in the body. Oxygen is by far the most important component that our body needs to survive and work properly. The heart will pump the oxygen around your body, but you need to have enough inside you to pump around first so breathing is key. This is where your diaphragm comes in. It acts like a billow expanding and contracting with a deep breath. If we persistently shallow breathe, we do not use it correctly and again this is another trigger to our body to put us in the freeze / fawn mode of the fight flight process. Breathe shallow so a predator can’t hear us! You know that if you don’t maintain the pump on your washing machine that it can fur up, get sticky muck accumulate and eventually it stops working. We need to keep our pumps going and going well.

Muscle strength – as important as bone strength for body support is muscle strength. If our muscles remain strong then this provides great support to our skeletal structure. Strengthening our muscles not only supports us physically but also helps us to improve our immune response and metabolism. If we don’t move it, we lose it! Not using muscles will mean that eventually they shrink (atrophy).

Where the pump mechanisms of heat and diaphragm are URGENT, muscular movement helps to pump lymphatic fluid which carries nutrients around our body to other organs. Exercise therefore creates a pump mechanism to maintain the health of the rest of our body.

Bone density – certain types of exercise especially when we are young help to ensure that we have great bone density. BUT even in old age resistance exercise has been shown to improve bone health.

Sleep – if we have exercised sufficiently during the day our brains are triggered to rest. When we are physically tired, we are more likely to get good quality sleep. Good sleep helps us to both physically and emotionally repair.

Vitamin D – often we are likely to exercise outside, and this will mean that we expose ourselves to the sun. Vitamin D is best absorbed through our skin. Walking is a great place to start but cutting the grass, tending the hedges and boarders of a garden or washing the car will get you moving.

Balancing hormones – movement will help you to balance those hormones. This links back to improved immune response and improved metabolism with increased muscle strength.

Feeling great – you will find that by (eating right and) exercising you will find you feel tip top and actually want to do more. Life will look rosier, and you may even find that looking in the mirror you see a more pleasing sight.

Burning calories – yes, we burn energy as we exercise but it needs to be the right type of exercise longer gentle exercise that is resistance or body weight based, is far better than running fast for miles on the roads or on a tread mill.
Increase your frequency first then endurance, then the difficulty, is a good rule to follow.

You see weight loss is right at the bottom of the list of importance when you consider a healthier, happier YOU.