Being active makes you healthy and strong. It is not just for people who have a weight problem but for everyone who likes to stay fit.





There are so many things you can do to remain active - such as walk the dog, or jog every day or play some king of sport with friends. But if you want to have muscles and look lean, then this will not be enough - you need to work out regularly in a gym.

There are three main reasons why most people decide to commence working out:

* you may be overweight and the only way to get rid those excess pounds will be to reduce your calorie intake and at the same time work out consistently in the gym;

* or you may be underweight and unhappy with their body shape, and the only way to put those extra pounds on, in the right places, is to ensure you have more calories in your diet and to work out;

* the third, which applies to either of the above, is that working out is fun, and it keeps you healthy.

To maximize the benefits of your workout regime, you should include both cardiovascular exercise and weight training exercises. This combination, if done regularly, helps burn calories and increases the muscle to fat ratio and will increase your metabolic rate - an essential step in either losing weight or gaining weight.

However, before entering into any exercise plan, particularly if you have done little regular exercise until now, you should first consult your doctor who will assess your readiness. Most gyms will then put you through a series of tests when you commence in order to assess the levels at which you should start any particular set of exercises. They will also recommend the rate at which you should build up the workout time and the intensity of your exercise regime. Your endurance levels will not be built up in a few days - it is a gradual process.

To maximize the beneficial effects of your workout, you should also ensure that you should establish and maintain a reasonable diet.

It is advisable to consult with a dietitian or a health professional to really help plan a good diet program. They will start by evaluating your lifestyle and your general health before developing an individualized nutrition program for you. This will usually consist of an eating plan and an appropriate general exercise program. The details of the latter will then be determined by your fitness instructor at your gym.

The two major issues they will discuss in your eating plan are your intake of carbohydrates and your intake of fats.

The carbohydrates are needed for energy but if your carbohydrate intake exceeds the amount burned up by your energy output, then your weight will increase. Conversely, if you burn up more carbs than you eat, you will lose weight.

With fats, it is unfortunate that most of the fats in our food come from animal fats, which tend to contain higher proportions of saturated and trans fats - both of which are bad for our cardiovascular health as well as our weight problems. It is much healthier to source fats which come from foods with high proportions of mono and poly unsaturated fats.

To summarize, the major benefits of regular exercise are:

* it is the easiest way to improve, and then maintain your health, keeping you free from a variety of diseases and illnesses;

* research has shown that the feelings of being healthier as a result of exercise make you feel happier, increase your self-esteem and make you far less likely to suffer from depression or anxiety;

* most importantly, an active lifestyle makes a person far more likely to live longer than a person who does not keep active.