Come on, you already know you need to exercise regularly, right? Just in case you need a half dozen more reasons to get moving, consider these health benefits of exercise:
- Physical activity burns calories, so the more you just get up and move, the more calories you will burn. You even burn calories doing things like running the vacuum cleaner or going up and down steps.
- Exercise may help you succeed at breaking your weight loss plateau. Many people hit a stopping point where their diet and amount of exercise simply seems to stop working. Increasing your physical activity may give your weight loss another "push" and you'll begin losing again. Strength training is especially effective in doing so because building muscle will help you burn even more calories.
- Exercise increases your metabolic rate and the rate stays elevated for some time, even once you've stopped the activity. Perhaps this is why active people can "Eat anything and not gain weight." and why other folks "Gain weight just by looking at food."!
- Exercise -- particularly in the morning -- may help you sleep better. Just be sure not to exercise too close to your bedtime if you exercise at night, because it may keep you awake. If you need to exercise within a few hours of going to bed, make sure it's only a brisk walk. Experts say you should allow yourself about three hours between exercise and going to bed. Save the high-impact aerobics for the a.m., mid-day or early afternoon.
- Exercise is good for body and soul. Exercising improves mood and due to the chemicals it releases in the brain called endorphins, it gives you an overall feeling of well-being. This is the same chemical that being in love or eating chocolate induces!
- Exercise reduces the risk for several diseases including heart disease, adult-onset diabetes, high blood pressure or hypertension, breast cancer, osteoporosis and colon cancer. Exercise may also help prevent, or be effective in treating, some mental illnesses, such as depression.
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