Be Fit, Not Weight Obsessed!

Being in the field of medicine, I come across various people throughout the day. Once, it so happened that during my OPD rounds, I heard people commenting on our staff’s weight. They were comparing their body to an overweight doctor saying:

‘He is a doctor and look at his weight. He looks so unfit!’

‘My weight is absolutely perfect. Yet I am having so many problems. God is so unfair’

This was something which disturbed me. Not because he was commenting on my hospital staff, but because of the thinking which people these days are walking around with!

How do these words Overweight=Unfit and Ideal Weight=Fit go along?

Who has paired up these words? Do we have any pieces of evidence for the same?

Yes, I do agree that overweight people are ‘Likely’ to be unfit. But, we cannot label them without knowing them!

The conversation between the patients has forced me to write this article!

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What does FITNESS mean to the world?

Different people have different views about fitness.

Some people relate fitness to “fitting in their old clothes.”

Others relate to “The number of pushups one can do.”

Some people worry about stamina, some people prefer marathon running as fitness!

The world is confused and full of misconceptions!

These misconceptions are helping the healthcare industry to mint more money.

 How can you track your actual ‘FITNESS’ levels?

Note: – The tests given below can be done on the self-assessment basis. To get complete information about your fitness assessment, get in touch with a physiotherapist or a fitness expert.

• Waist-Hip Ratio.
• In a very layman term, if your waist is larger than your hip, you need to work on getting fitter! Larger the hip, more prone you are to cardiovascular diseases.

• BMI (Body mass index)

• The fat percentage is determined through BMI assessment.
• Here’s how you can calculate your BMI: –

Weight (In kg’s)/ Height in meter square.

• Normal BMI- 18.5 to 24.9 is considered to be healthy.

Do you fall in this range?

• Endurance
• Endurance, in layman terms, mean your aerobic/heart capacity.
• RHR or Resting heart rate is an excellent parameter to check your endurance.
• Also, normal RHR of a healthy adult is 60-100.

Here’s how you can calculate your RHR: –

• Find your pulse at your wrist (the radial artery) or at your carotid artery in your neck. Using your index and middle finger, count the number of beats you feel in 10 seconds. Multiply the number of beats you count in 10 seconds by six to find the number of beats per minute.
• Another way to check your endurance is through jogging of 2.4 km’s. Also, keep a check on the time you are taking to complete that.

• Men aged 25-60 years should complete the jog between 11-13 minutes and women aged 25-60 years should complete the jog between 13-17 minutes.

Did you complete the test within the targeted time limit?

• Strength
• There is no better way to check your strength other than doing push-ups!
• Men below 45 should be able to complete 20-34 push ups in one go.
• Women below 43 should be able to complete 12-20 push ups in one go.

Note: – Please check the form of push-up you do.

• Flexibility
• ‘Sit and reach’ test can tell you how to FIT you are.

Here’s how you can test your flexibility and determine your fitness: –

• Sit on the floor with your legs stretched out in front. Keeping knees straight and back straight, reach towards your feet. If you are unable to reach your feet, your flexibility is poor; or if you are going past your feet, measure the distance in centimeters. Further, if you can go 5 to 10 cms beyond your toes, then that is an average measure of flexibility. Remember, this is a quick and easy way to check at home. Your health professional will do it a lot more scientifically.

However, there are chances that you are not ‘fit’, just because you are gymming. Therefore, whatever we have talked about, maybe, you might be weak in one of the things!

Stop being obsessive about your weight!

Start getting obsessive with your fitness!

Any questions for me? Post them in the comments below. Also, will be happy to answer them!

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