Playing games does not help your weight loss efforts

By Winston Ng, Phenogy Health Advisors

Have you ever wondered why some fat people can be playing tennis, swimming and jogging often, yet they never lose weight?

Many overweight people began playing tennis, walking, running or swimming because they were told that these activities are aerobic and therefore, beneficial to weight loss.

So, is it really true that aerobic activities promote weight loss?

Technically it is true that aerobic programmes do help.

However, what constitutes an aerobic activity is real issue of contention.

In recent years, any weight loss program must include an aerobic activity component. Hence, many sports advocates attempt to remake their sport to appear to be an aerobic activity to ride on this wave of popularity.

The tennis, jogging, walking, running, swimming, golf industries all want a share of this aerobic market.

However, truth is that no sport can EVER be classified as an aerobic or non-aerobic activity.

Let’s review tennis and jogging as examples:

Tennis

This activity is far from being aerobic by virtue of fact that game mainly comprises of start-stop movement patterns. A player waits for ball and rushes to return. He then watches and braces himself for ball to be returned.

Adrenalin rushes when our body constantly rushes back and forth in this staccato fashion. This fast, responsive process is managed by our anaerobic (non-aerobic) sympathetic nervous system.

Tennis is definitely not an activity for aerobic development.

Jogging

In typical jog fashion, joggers focus on speed as a benchmark of improvement. This is perfectly fine if you are training up for a running competition. However, in a weight loss program, an increase in speed results in decreased aerobic performance.

Is there a speed threshold for aerobic activities?

No, there is no universal speed threshold for aerobic activities. Nevertheless, there are independent bio-markers that we can depend on to guide us into our most aerobic zone.

This is core of this article’s message. There is no such thing as an aerobic activity. There are only aerobic zones in an activity.

The conventional aerobic guidelines for most sports and activities, are in specific numeric benchmarks, like 10km/hour or 50 laps in 1 hour, without due consideration to individual differences.

Individual body differences range from physical size to blood aerobic conversion ability. Hence, an arbitrary level would force participants to achieve 10km/hour (or whatever other benchmark). Then, in this process, they will constantly be subjecting their bodies to anaerobic (non-aerobic) stressors.

Ultimately, when you embark on any jog, run or swim for weight loss, you have to ensure that you are doing it in most aerobic zone of activity. Maintain your activity in most aerobic zone by following these simple guidelines;

Yes.

The season now ends on April 20 and playoffs begin April 23.

If regular season ended on April 6 it would fit nicely with hoopla that surrounds NCAA’s men’s Final Four plus NBA’s playoffs could begin April 9.

This maneuver would reduce regular season from current 82 games to 74.

Would this provide for more meaningful late season games, and more inspired play?

Absolutely.

Approximately one-third of league is realistically out of playoff picture. They have lost a combined 500 games. Who wants to watch New Orleans and Atlanta square off?