Safe exercises when you are overweight
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Loading... - Fadhila Emmanuel
- 03 Apr 2023
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Starting a new workout routine when you are overweight can be hard, especially if you have not been active for a while. Focusing on the benefits of exercise can help motivate you to get started and keep going.
Exercising is important for everyone because it strengthens muscles, keeps the joints and muscles flexible and your organs healthy. Treatment and management of obesity is a multi-sectoral effort that requires a lifestyle change in diet and exercise.
Obesity happens over time by consuming more calories than the body burns. With time, the calories are converted into fat which is deposited around the major body organs and muscular tissues such as the heart, kidneys, liver and blood vessels. Fat deposits burden the organs and can cause health challenges such as stroke, fatty liver disease and others.
According to Dr Godfrey Basoita, a physiotherapist at Mulago National Referral Hospital, it is important that before you start exercising, get an assessment from a qualified health practitioner to identify the cause of your obesity.
“If your challenge is over eating or the foods that increase one’s unhealthy weight, you need to couple exercise with changes in your diet to a balanced diet with foods that are low in sugar and less oily. Also, you may have to drastically reduce the quantity and amounts of food you eat,” he says.
If the cause for your obesity is because of your family genes, there may not be much that you can do but if you are living a sedentary lifestyle, you will have to incorporate exercises.
Exercise is a recommended tool to reduce weight but it is important that you seek the help of a physiotherapist who will prescribe safe exercises that will not hurt your joints and muscles.
Dr Basoita says, “The exercises should help burn calories, reduce weight and the fat deposits from the muscles and organs. Because of their weight, overweight people should start slowly and ease into exercising.”
He recommends trying out low-impact, weightless sports such as swimming or riding a horizontal exercise bike in order to avoid knee pain. Read More…
