Every so often the media will cover a story about how someone, who was seemingly super-fit, very active and of perfectly proportional weight, has taken seriously ill or has even died as a result of their participation in strenuous exercise.
This occasionally leads to doubts and worries for people who are trying to increase their exercise levels as part of a diet.
What's the reality and how much of a risk is exercise for you when dieting?
Do please keep in mind when reading the following that this is a general discussion and should not be read as qualified medical advice.
Exercise
Most medical experts will agree that the healthy human body is designed for a life that includes frequent physical exercise. Evolution did not produce humankind as a sedentary animal.
The negative health effects of not taking sufficient exercise are now also generally accepted. The resulting problems in areas such as the cardio-vascular system are well-known and can become a serious and life-threatening problem.
From a dieting perspective, exercise is also important because it burns calories and reduces the amount of food energy that our bodies need to store as fat.
So, from a number of different perspectives, exercise is important bordering on essential.
The cumulative effects of this sedentary lifestyle
There are, however, some important caveats to take into account.
If you have led a relatively inactive lifestyle for a number of years, there is a fair chance that your body may already not be in the best physical condition. Even if you are not overweight as such, it would be prudent to take that into consideration before embarking upon anything other than relatively modest physical exercise.
That's because subjecting what may be an unfit body to a physically punishing and very demanding set of exercises can create potential medical problems.
There is another issue here.
Many people who have led a relatively inactive lifestyle for some time may have also experienced a consequential weight gain. If you are both unfit and overweight, then the potential medical risks of uncontrolled exercise may be even higher again.
So, if someone who is unfit and/or overweight faces risks when engaging in demanding exercise, does that mean that such exercise should be totally avoided?
Managed exercise is healthy
The answer to the above question must be an emphatic no.
The human body is an incredible organism and to some extent, it's perfectly capable of repairing some of the damage caused over the years by neglect in the areas of exercise and dieting. Most modern diet programs will build some component of exercise into their plans and it figures prominently in weight loss success stories.
However, simply launching into a regime of demanding exercise without any form of understanding of your own physical capabilities can be unwise and dangerous.
What is important is that you start exercise in line with professional advice. That advice will take into account things such as your age, weight, blood test markers and your overall medical condition. The result of that will be to allow recommendations to be made about exercise that is commensurate with your health and fitness levels - and that constitutes an acceptable degree of risk.
It is always advisable to obtain professional and medical advice on any exercise regime that is likely to be considered to be punishing or physically demanding in any way.
Don't be inhibited by false assumptions that your Doctor or dieting professional will be shocked by your condition or current weight. They will have seen it all before and they will be able to recommend an appropriate exercise regime that takes into account your individual circumstances.
Ratna Rashid is an author and business manager in Adventures in Weightloss team. Adventures in Weightloss is a medically designed, personalised weight loss program resulting in rapid and permanent weight loss. For more details visit website
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