Weight Loss and Fitness – Is slimmer always fitter?

Seems to be a lot more written lately about if being slim means that you are in better physical condition.  I find this question lacking in common sense actually.  Why?  Because it relates to the idea of physical fitness.  Not to how you are doing physically.  Over the years as I had become bigger and my obesity started to really take it’s toll, I was often more active than many people my age.  Now looking at me you would not have guessed it because at almost 3/4 of my height inches around my waist.  I worked out each week.  Many of my friends did not.  I would often work harder in group situations than many of the people that where thinner and even younger.

You could say I had more endurance than some, but still I wasn’t physically fit.  I could not have run a mile to save my life.  Three miles before work like yesterday would have been out of the question.  First of all I could not have done 3 miles in one setting walking or running.  Giving it my best still would have wiped me out for the day.  So active is not always fit.  And slim is not always active.  How to measure fitness?

1.  Determine if you are talking medical fitness or endurance fitness.   Medical fitness can be tested and measured as well as endurance fitness.  Each one is a different set of tests.  Medical fitness is measured with things like blood tests, having check-ups, body fat percentages, and various other measurements of healthy body.  Put them all together and you have a measurable results that tells you if you are healthy or not.  Physical fitness has other tests.  Length of workouts, recovery, intensity, endurance, and the list goes on.  It too can be measured and tracked.  If physical fitness is not being worked on, it is dropping.

2.Decide what needs to change. If you are at your ideal weight (determined by you and someone you trust) than you may need to look at the other forms of testing.  Are there areas of either physical fitness or medical fitness that you need to look at?  Start working on them and perhaps you can combine the two for “optimal health”.  If you weight needs to change, stop fighting it and work on weight loss.  If you have no endurance then exercise and come up with a plan to change it.  If you have no ideas, than ask for help.  It is available here and many other place on the net.  Make a change.

3. Lastly stop making excuses for yourself. I hear it all the time.  On of my favorites is that BMI charts are old science and have no bearing in truth.  So frigging what!  Adjust it for your body type and muscle mass and figure out if you are in shape or get your body fat measured.  Stop using it as an excuse for not doing the work to reach a healthful state.  Same with exercise.  Here it is I am too out of shape or it takes too much time.  How will that change if you don’t change something?  As far as time goes you can pack life changing fitness into 20 mins a day or less.  So time is not the issue.  Commitment is!  Way out of shape?  Start slow and keep ramping it up till you get where you want to be.

You are not too big, too old, too young, too timid, too out of shape or too anything to not change something to make an improvement.  You may need some help to get started.  You may need a kick start on your weight loss or your physical program.  You may even need some one like our team to teach and encourage you.  But you can do it!  You can reach optimal health no matter where you are now.  And optimal health is the best that your body can do for the condition it is in, not in comparison to someone else and their abilities.

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