Importance of exercise

Physical activity is a basic element for weight control, both to achieve the initial loss and to maintain the weight loss achieved. But it must be a complementary element to changes in the eating pattern. Although physical exercise is very effective, without an accompanying healthy diet, it does not produce substantial changes in body weight in the long term. To treat and avoid overweight and obesity with exercise alone, it would take a very intense and long-lasting practice that would be very difficult to comply with in most cases.

Lack of physical exercise is associated with an increased risk of diabetes mellitus, osteoporosis, depression, overweight and obesity, and cardiovascular diseases. According to the National Health Survey of Spain, 30% of Spanish children between 1-15 years old watch television for more than 2 hours each day, which corresponds to the lack of physical exercise and the increase in obesity among Spanish children .

Regarding obesity, physical activity produces energy expenditure, that is, it burns calories, opposing the intake of calories from food. But physical exercise has other beneficial effects on obesity:

• It reduces the loss of muscle produced by the energy restriction of the diet.
• It avoids the reduction of resting metabolism (and, therefore, of energy expenditure) that occurs when an energy restriction is carried out in the diet.
• Activates metabolism, the body spends more at rest, allowing weight to stabilize. Exercise avoids being always under the control of a diet and eating a varied and balanced diet.
• Improves the feeling of well-being and self-esteem. It reduces anxiety and protects the body against stress, allowing control of the compulsion for food or pecking.
• Lower your heart rate and blood pressure figures.
• Decreases the ability of the blood to form clots (thrombi).
• It reduces total cholesterol, "bad" cholesterol (LDL cholesterol) and triglycerides.
• Increases the number of good cholesterol (HDL cholesterol).
• In obese patients with diabetes it improves sugar controls.

It is important to note that these effects of exercise are independent of genetic aspects as well as the age or sex of the individual. In addition, physical exercise reduces the patient's stress and anxiety and improves their psychological sense of well-being, all of which will help to quit smoking, facilitate recovery from depressive states, and help maintain the lifestyle changes that have been started.

These effects are achieved when physical exercise is pleasant for the person, of moderate intensity, daily and is maintained over time.

In general, a physical activity that promotes a daily energy expenditure of at least 300 kcal / day should be recommended (walking 1 hour, running 30 minutes, swimming 30 minutes, cycling 30 minutes, dancing 30 minutes,).

Logically, physical activity should be individualized according to the capacities and circumstances of each individual, proposing affordable goals that do not affect the patient's self-esteem and gradually increasing the intensity. Some authors suggest that severely obese patients may present metabolic limitations to the practice of physical exercise which, together with complications such as osteoarthritis or venous insufficiency, may explain why this group of patients present a lower tolerance to physical exercise. The great challenge is to achieve adherence to physical activity programs since the dropout rate is above 50%. For this, it is important to evaluate the degree of habitual physical activity, know the availability of the subject and offer specific proposals appropriate to each one.

Preferably, you should choose activities that are compatible with the person's daily chores and that they can enjoy. But while the goal is at least half an hour of physical activity, on most days of the week, even more moderate practice is associated with health benefits.

The activities to be recommended include the intensification of daily physical activities such as walking, using the stairs, or engaging in gardening, walking the dog, etc. Another strategy consists of modifying activities in the workplace that imply sedentary lifestyle and that can be transformed into exercise, such as:

• Going to work on foot or walking a part of the daily journey that is usually made by public or private transport.
• Reduce car use. Park the car at a distance from the desired place
• Walk up the stairs (do not use an elevator or escalator).
• And, finally, it is about acquiring activities to do in your free time each day: riding a bicycle, doing an exercise bike or treadmill at home, dancing, swimming, playing golf, petanque, table tennis, etc.

It is important, to carry out all this, reduce the time spent watching television or playing video games.