Fat Facts and Weight Loss

If you are overweight the odds are that you are carrying too much body fat, too much body fat means that you are carrying more weight than your body is designed to carry.

When your body is carrying too much weight it puts strain on your heart and other internal organs which can lead to serious health problems sooner rather than later in life.

Some overweight people claim that they are happy with their bodies but when getting up from your chair and taking 3 steps leaves you breathless then your body is telling you that you need to do something about it now before it is too late.

Adipose tissue or fat as it is better known is a collection of individual cells set in a mesh of surrounding tissues, each individual fat cell is surrounded by a cell membrane that holds the fat in with each cell separated by a framework of other tissue called fibres.

Think of the small plastic bag used to make ice cubes you fill it with water and it swells up you see the individual compartments for each ice cube which are seperated by small plastic seals like the membranes of fat cells.If you fill the ice cube bag too much then some of the individual cells will burst, Fat cells differ though because they expand and more fat cells can be created from microscopic dots that lie dormant in the body that come to life when your body requires them.

Are Some People Born to be Fat?

Until recently it was thought that the number of fat cells in the human body was set at an individuals birth and stayed the same throughout that persons entire life but it is known that fat cells respond to the body's needs, the more your body needs fat cells the more fat cells your body will produce, the bonus is that if your body does not need those fat cells any longer it has evolved a way to kill them.

Not all Fats are Bad

Most people think of fat as a big lump of lard that makes the body arms and legs swell in proportion, but not all fats are bad for you, as well as providing insulation from the cold fat is also busy producing hormones and proteins that become chemical messengers.

Fat plays an important role in our immune system and helps to regulate some important processes in the body.

Controlling Fat

When you begin to understand what fat is and its puropose it becomes easier to see why it is so important to achieve and maintain a healthy amount of body fat. Around 75% of the weight gained by adults is fat, every pound of fat we gain contains around 3500 calories.

Losing excess fat will not happen overnight it takes time and you need to make some small substainable changes to your lifestyle.

Eating 500 less calories a day will allow you to lose a pound of fat in a week add in another 500 calories by increasing your exercise and you can double the amount of weight you lose. These changes may seem small, but every pound of fat lost makes a real difference to your health.

By adding a little exercise to your daily routine you can burn calories quite easily and this will help you lose some of that excess weight.

You can burn 100 calories in no time at all and with your 500 calories fewer in your diet you will be on track to getting to your ideal weight.

Some household chores if done with a little extra vigor can help you to burn calories very quickly.

1) Digging the garden

It's hard work and it is not an activity that you can keep up for long, but it burns the calories quickly and it only takes around 12 minutes for you to burn 100 calories.

2) Cleaning Windows

This is a fantastic calorie burning exercise not only are you standing but you are using a lot of upper body movement add a little extra force to make sure you get your windows sparkling clean and you will burn more calories. 14 miutes of window cleaning will burn 100 calories.

3) Sweeping Up

Unlike a lawn mower or a vacuum cleaner there is no engine in a brusH and you have to keep stopping to catch your breathsweeping up is energetic and uses up 100 calories in 15 mins.

4) Cutting the Grass

An electric mower , uses more calories up than than a Petrol mower but a non powered mower uses up a lot more energy, using a petrol more would burn up 100 calories in 20 minutes, and electric mower would burn off 100 calories in 16 minutes using a non powered mower is best though because you can burn 100 calories every 10 minutes.

5) Vacuuming

Vacuuming may seem boring and unexciting but think of all the benefit you will gain from it, make sure you do every room in the home, because after 20 minutes of vacuuming you will have lost 100 calories.

6) Ironing your Clothes

People hate ironing, because it leaves them feeling hot and sweaty, but if you are trying to lose weight this is a good thing because it means that you are burning those calories off.

25 minutes of ironing is all it takes to lose 100 calories just think that over a couple of hours you can lose 400 calories and have a nice big neat pile of clothes.

7) Dusting dusting involves a good amount of bending and stretching and being on your feet when dusting means that you are burning calories and your joints are getting a great workout,

Not only will you lose 100 calories in 30 minutes but you will have the bonus of having a spotless home and sparkling ornaments.

8) Cooking and Baking

Moving around in a warm kitchen reaching up to cupboards and bending down into lower cupboards, burns the calories right out of your body, you can lose 100 calories in 35 minutes.

Just dont eat everything you cook or bake or all your calorie burning will have been wasted.

9) Playing Board Games

Love Monopoly or trying to find out who dunnit  in cluedo or a relaxing game of chess, playing board games burns calories too at the rate of 100 an hour, the bonus is that you also get to spend some quality time with your family.

10) Watching TV

Ok not really a good example to set because you are not moving around or doing much of anything but it does burn calories losing 100 calories takes about 100 minutes but a little more can be burned if you get up and walk around during the commercial breaks or between programs.