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A good health and fitness program needs to focus on factors
that prevent us from becoming
unhealthy. One factor that
has definitely a correlation
with unhealthiness is obesity.
The health consequences for
being overweight or obese
are vast and may include high
blood pressure, diabetes,
heart disease, stroke, gallbladder
disease, sleep apnea and some
cancers to name a few. Losing
weight and becoming healthy
for obese and overweight people
is imperative and well designed
fitness software can support
this. One way it can be helpful
is to calculate a person’s
calorie balance and correlate
these numbers to their body
measurements and vital signs.
It is very encouraging and
motivating to see yourself
lose weight and in the same
instance your blood pressure
and cholesterol levels go
down. Weight loss all boils
down to your calorie balance.
If your intake is higher then
you spend, you gain weight.
In part 1, we talked about
the calorie intake side of
the calorie balance equation.
Part 2 describes the requirements
for the calories spent module.
Let’s start out with the assumption
that the calories spent will
significantly vary between
people and can not be generalized
between high, medium and low
activity level. We need a
more precise method than that.
If we look just plainly at
the factors that influence
our energy spending, we can
conclude the following: Larger
people will spend more energy
than small people. It makes
sense that when you move more
weight it costs more energy.
Younger people will spend
more than older people. Males
will spend more than females.
Tall thin people will spend
more energy than short stocky
with the same weight. The
tall thin person has more
body surface and loses more
heat. Lean muscled people
spend more energy than the
average or overweight person
with the same weight. Muscles
use more energy than fat cells.
Active people will spend more
energy than sedative people.
During a day we execute many
activities all with a different
length of time and intensity
level. Between activities
there can be huge differences
in intensity level. For instance
fishing is way less intense
than rowing a boat. Also within
the same activity different
intensity levels exist. For
instance 30 minutes running
will cost more energy then
30 minutes jogging or walking.
Executing an activity with
a high intensity level will
spend more energy per unit
of time. When calculating
the calorie balance, the fitness
software should take all the
above factors into its formula
and adjust the variables automatically.
For instance if somebody loses
weight, this should be immediately
reflected in the outcome.
Let’s say I weigh in on Monday
and the system calculates
2500 calories spent and two
weeks later I weigh again
and provided my daily activities
were exactly the same but
I lost two pounds, the system
should automatically calculate
the new calories burned taking
the 2 pounds lost into account.
You should have the ability
to create multiple activity
plans in the system, individualized
per person. Most people repeat
their daily activities on
a weekly basis, if today is
Tuesday, next Tuesday my activities
will be pretty much the same.
From Monday till Friday the
activities may be similar,
but they can differ significantly
from weekend to weekend. In
order to calculate the calories
spent during the day precisely,
you will need to record all
activities, the length of
time for each activity and
the intensity level it was
executed. Doing so could mean
a lot of time behind the computer
entering all this data. To
circumvent this problem, the
software should allow you
to create a plan that is repeated
on a weekly basis with default
values. Now you need to only
to copy this plan and update
the differences from what
actually occurred. The actual
activities with their time
length are noted on an activity
worksheet that can be printed
on a daily basis. This way
your data can be recorded
within 30 seconds. Next we
need to be able to compare
our calories spent with our
calorie intake. This can be
done in the form of a chart
that displays the calorie
balance per person over time.
See the following example:
calorie analysis. This chart
makes abundantly clear what
your calorie balance is and
consequently shows the reason
why you lose weight or not
lose weight. In the next article
I will talk about body measurement
and vital sign readings and
how they correlate to your
work outs, supplement intake
etcetera. © Erik Pijcke is
founder and CEO of Pycke Inc.
He is the architect and developer
of Hythial Pro, an all-inclusive
personal health and fitness
software program. Part of
this software program contains
a comprehensive calorie counter
module. You can download this
program at http://www.hythial.com
Hythial Pro - Health Diet
Fitness Software + Free Online
Recipe and Food Calorie Counter
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