Increasing incidental exercise with acupuncture

This type of exercise is mainly informal. They are simple little amounts of activity that the body performs while awake, for example, walking to the shop instead of driving a car, walking to the train station instead of catching the bus there, or walking up stairs instead of taking the elevator.

At the end of the day, all the small amounts of activity add up. Over a period of time, quite an amount of weight can be lost. This can be illustrated as follows: if you burn up an extra 100 calories a day, at the end of 35 days you would burn 3,500 calories which roughly equals to one pound of fat.

In order to burn body fat, it is important to be able to breathe while performing incidental exercise. This is achieved by working at a gentle continuous rate at low intensity without hurting. Duration is more important that intensity. If you exercise at high intensity and it hurts, then you’re working anaerobically (without oxygen). The source of fuel that the body uses while working anaerobically is not fat, but blood sugars. The body only burns fat when muscles are working aerobically (with oxygen).

The recommendation in acupuncture is this: in order to burn off body fat you need to exercise continually for at least 30 minutes with a heart rate of 60% of Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) which is calculated by deducting your Age from 220.

Exercise is performed informally, for example, at home. If formal exercise classes are preferred, it is important to ensure that the you select an activity that you enjoy and choose a class that is appropriate to your level of fitness.

Safe exercises should be performed. Formal classes offer motivation and leadership so that your are encouraged to participate.

Many types of exercises are available; for example, swim, walk, jog, aerobics class, weight training, kung fu, tai chi and chi kung. The exercises selected must be enjoyable. To prevent boredom, they can be varied. Acupuncture naturally recommends an exercise system based on Chinese medical principles in order to complement the therapeutic effect of treatment.

Spot reduction exercises are ineffective. Fat comes from a general energy store in the body therefore aerobic (with air) exercise that involves the whole body and lasts for a least 30 minutes are more effective than just an exercise to reduce a particular part of the body, such as the thighs.

At first, you should exercise gently. Regular participation is important and do not miss an exercise session for more than 48 hours. Commitment to regular exercise participation is important in maintaining long term weight loss.

Tai Chi, kung fu or chi kung are the type of activities that are closely related to acupuncture. They involve musculo-skeletal and therapeutic breathing exercises that not only offer the benefits of increased Basal Metabolic Rate but also build self discipline and internal emotional strength required to comply with dietary management, regular exercise and behaviour modification.

Increasing Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

The application of exercise for the treatment of obesity is based on the premise that exercise does not only generate caloric expenditure while exercising but also generate extra caloric expenditure by affecting the BMR, that is, the total energy expenditure of the body per unit of time when you are at mental and physical rest (but not sleeping) at comfortable temperature. One could say that the BMR is the metabolic cost of living.

This metabolic cost of living is about one calorie per minute for the average person. If you are to increase that by 10%, it means that an extra 144 calories can be expended per day. In 32 weeks, you would have burnt off half a kilo of fat just by increasing the metabolic rate by 10%.

This can be achieved by exercising for a brief period of time during that day in order to increase the metabolic rate by that level. For example, if walking a mile equates to expending 100 calories, you would not only expend that 100 calories, but would burn extra energy as a result of the elevation in the metabolic rate.

The brief period can be performed more consistently. The effect of that would automatically raise the BMR so that it remains at a higher level over a longer period of time.

Acupuncture considers that long term low-calorie diets have the undesirable effect of not only decreasing metabolic rate but can put you at risk of poor nutrient intakes, because some diets low in calories are often deficient in essential nutrients.

Benefits of exercise in weight loss

Besides weight loss, there are other benefits of exercise to the overweight and to the obese person. A number of conditions such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease are associated with obesity. Even if exercise had no effect on food intake and weight control, it would still be worthwhile for you because it would reduce a number of risk factors that lead to enhanced morbidity and mortality in overweight people.

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