Structural Element

Weight Management Program: Exercise

Exercise is one of the three main components necessary for a successful weight management program.

BENEFITS OF EXERCISE

  • Burns calories!
  • Helps control your appetite.
  • Increases your basal metabolic rate. This means that it speeds up your metabolism.
  • Helps you burn calories for several hours after you have finished exercising.
  • Helps preserve and increase your body's muscle mass. The more muscle mass you have the more calories you burn.
  • Improves mood and decreases stress; it makes you FEEL GOOD.
  • Reduces the risk of developing several diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
  • There is a definite correlation between long-term weight management success and exercise. It is the most important factor in predicting who will lose weight and who will keep the weight off!

Learn more about a complete weight management program for children and teens.

ALARMING FACTS

  • Nearly half of all children between the ages of 12 and 21 do not exercise vigorously on a regular basis.
  • More than 50% of children do not participate in physical education in school.
  • Participation in nearly all types of physical activity declines strikingly as age and school grades increase.
Understand that exercise needs to become an essential, necessary and important part of your every day life, just like eating, drinking or sleeping are. Somewhere in your busy 24-hour day you need to find 30 to 40 minutes to perform some type of physical activity.

If you diet and don't exercise when you lose weight you will lose not only fat but also body muscle.

  • Daily attendance in school physical education programs declined from 42% in 1990 to less than 25% in 1999.
TYPES OF EXERCISE
  1. Aerobic exercise is the most beneficial type of exercise for weight loss because it helps accelerate your cardiovascular system, making your heart rate go faster and causing you to sweat. Examples of aerobic exercise include walking, running, biking, swimming, basketball and soccer. It is important that you schedule at least 20 to 30 minutes of aerobic exercise 3 to 5 times a week.
  2. Strengthening and flexibility exercise increases your muscle mass, helping you burn more calories even when you are not exercising. It helps improve your muscle tone and body control. Examples of strengthening and flexibility exercise include lifting weights, resistance training, calisthenics and climbing. Lifting weights and resistance training should be age-appropriate. PLEASE CONSULT YOUR PEDIATRICIAN BEFORE STARTING ANY KIND OF WEIGHT TRAINING OR RESISTANCE EXERCISES.
STEPS TO SUCCESS - "Exercise: The Only Formula that Works"
  • Consider getting an exercise partner or buddy. This way each of you can encourage the other to be persistent in this goal.
  • Make your exercise goals public! When we say our intentions to other people we feel more obligated to follow through.
  • Make a list of your typical excuses and put it in a visible place. Don't allow yourself to use any of those excuses!
  • Make exercising fun! Be creative! (i.e. take a salsa class, go biking to the movies on Saturday afternoons, etc.).
  • If you feel too self-conscious to join a sports team, don't fret! An initial good alternative is to focus on individual exercises (i.e. swimming, jumping rope, walking, etc.) or just exercising with someone from your family.
  • Never look back! When you miss one day, don't dwell on it and just continue with your plan. None of us are perfect. Do the best you can!