WELL BEING
What is your Fitness IQ?
DR. SHEELA NAMBIAR, M.D.
Do you know enough about fitness jargon and exercise protocol so that you don’t wind up hurting yourself. Try this quiz.



Want to get fit? Lose weight? Stay healthy? Well, how much do you know about fitness to keep you from injuring yourself or sabotaging your attempts at weight loss? Are you at the mercy of trainers, other fitness enthusiasts or alleged fitness experts?

It’s understandable that when you set out on your odyssey of health and self discovery, you may be at sea when confronted with fitness jargon, exercise protocols or savvy theories. Somewhere along the journey however, if you are serious about your fitness and more specifically your wellness, you will need to empower yourself with enough knowledge about the workings of your body in order to protect your own wellbeing.

Below are 12 simple questions you need to ask yourself to test your knowledge. Evaluate yourself against the correct answers to identify your Fitness IQ.

1. I need to stretch my muscles before every workout. True/ False

2. The best way to lose weight, and keep it off, is to go on a low calorie diet. True/ False.

3. To lose weight, I need to stop eating carbohydrates. True/ False

4. The best way to get a flat stomach is to do hundreds of abdominal exercises. True /False

5. The best time to exercise is:

a) In the morning

b) In the evening

c) Before lunch

d) Anytime

6. To get the benefit of a cardio workout you have to exercise continuously for:

a) 20 minutes

b) 30 minutes

c) 40 minutes

d) Any of the above

7. When you exercise and then stop, you tend to gain more weight because of the exercise- True/ False

8. I don’t need to exercise if I am of normal weight. True/ False

9. To lose one pound of fat I need to burn:

a) 500 calories

b) 1000 calories

c) 2000 calories

d) 3500 calories

10. Weight training will also help me burn fat. True/ False

11. Yoga and Pilates will help lengthen the muscles. True/ False

12. Massage, Sauna, Steam will help me lose fat. True/ false.


Answers:

1. False. You have to warm up the muscle first before attempting to stretch it. Stretching cold muscles can lead to injury

2. False. Going on an extremely low calorie diet leads to lowering of the Basal Metabolic Rate and is counter productive in the long haul. So although you may lose a lot of weight initially (besides losing your hair, your sense of humor, and ruining your skin), you will tend to gain it all back again (and more) once you get back to eating even near normally which you will eventually have to do. The best way to lose weight AND keep it off is to exercise and eat sensibly.

3. False. Eliminating one food group completely from your diet can lead to nutritional deficiencies. A balanced diet, (consuming about 500 calories less than your requirement/ day if you want to lose weight), inclusive of all the food groups is ideal to lose weight and stay healthy at the same time.

4. False. Doing hundreds of sit-ups does not result in a six pack unless the fat over the abdominal wall and inside the abdominal cavity is burnt by doing aerobic exercise. There is no such thing as ‘spot reduction’. You have to lose overall body fat percentage in order to see that flat stomach.

5. (d) Anytime is a good time to exercise provided you can exercise at that time. It is completely pointless to resolve to exercise early in the morning if you are unable to wake up early and need those extra forty winks. You are better off exercising pre-lunch or after work depending on your body clock. The only pre requisite is, don’t exercise on a full stomach. Wait at least 2-3 hours after a full meal and an hour after a snack.

6. (d) You can get the benefits of a cardio even if done in 20 minute intervals if you are unable to set aside one long stretch of time. The key is the total number of calories burnt and the intensity of the workout.

7. False. When you stop exercising, you stop burning those extra calories. In addition, you may also tend to get careless about your diet. The combination is what causes the weight gain not the exercise itself.

8. False. EVERYONE needs to exercise, irrespective of size, shape, color, creed or age. The human body was designed for locomotion and in the current highly industrialized and mechanical culture our requirement for mobility is greatly limited leading to various degenerative diseases. To counter this problem, one needs to set aside a period of time in the day to “exercise” in order to just ‘stay healthy’.


9. (d) To lose one pound of fat you need to burn 3500 calories. Although not an exact science, the balance of calorie expenditure and consumption ascertain weight loss and weight gain. If you burn 250 calories more than your basal metabolic rate everyday for one week, you will lose one pound of fat. It is advisable to restrict yourself to the loss of one to two pounds/week in order to be able to sustain that weight loss.

10. True. Weight training builds muscle. Increased muscle mass increases the Basal Metabolic Rate (or your body’s calorie requirement at rest), which leads to an increased calorie burn and therefore weight loss.

11. False. Yoga and Pilates will stretch the muscles, tendons and ligaments and make them more flexible. Muscles cannot be lengthened. Yoga and Pilates by design are modalities that improve flexibility and are excellent adjuncts to a well rounded fitness programme.

12. False. The only tried and tested way to lose fat is by eating less and burning more calories with exercise. It’s true that immediately following a sauna/steam your weight on the scale and even your statistics seem decreased. This is due to water loss from the body that is quickly replaced within the next 24 hours. Massage, steam and saunas are feel-good add-ons in a health club. Indulge if you must, but the real route to permanent weight loss is diligent exercise and sensible eating.

The writer is a Practising Obgyn, Fitness and Lifestyle Consultant, NAFC (USA) and Director, TFL Fitness Studio, Chennai. E-mail: drsheela@tflinc.net