Last week I wrote about muscle loss amongst the elderly and those who are ill and bedridden — how to cope and manage, as well as some preventive measures.
Your body burns more calories following exercise than before exercise
Muscle weakness due to ageing starts at around 40 and progresses from there. So care should begin immediately for many of us.
Exercising, or the lack of it, is one factor. The other pitfall that we inevitably fall into is dieting, and losing muscle mass due to fads or crash diets.
What we have chosen for ourselves is one thing. What we unconsciously impose on someone else is quite another thing altogether i.e. those people who are in our care — especially the elderly and those who are physically and mentally challenged. These people are totally dependent on what we decide for them, and doing what’s right is never an easy task.
We have to choose wisely.
In wanting to achieve a certain weight — whether it is to lose or gain some — we may actually end up compromising our health and those in our care.
Just because we are on a strict diet or avoiding some types of food does not mean they should too. Various health practitioners and fitness instructors say that when you begin a diet programme, what you really need to watch out for is muscle mass loss.
Muscle mass is essentially the most metabolically active tissue in the body. It will be the very thing that will help you maintain your weight well into the future. The first thing to do is to balance what we eat (and what not to) with how much exercise we do.
To many of us, dieting is about weight loss. What we usually overlook or fail to ask about is: what are we losing? What makes up the weight? Water? Fat? Muscle mass?
With fad/crash diets, you inevitably starve yourself or take diet pills. Starvation wreaks havoc on your entire system and hormone levels.
You end up losing not only some fat and water but also muscle mass, which can actually expose you to injury. You may be able to fit into smaller sizes in clothes but you may look haggard.
Fad diets that encourage you to drastically cut down on your calorie intake without any exercise affects your skin tone and muscles. The result is usually a smaller but flabbier version of your previous self.
Having a diet that is lacking in protein is the single biggest dietary mistake we can make. When we deprive our body of proteins and calories, our bodies go into “starvation mode”and will begin to use the protein we consume for energy. This means less protein is left for muscle repair. It puts our body into protein depletion that can contribute to loss of muscle mass.
The other thing to be concerned about is our fat — more so visceral fat. This is the fat that surrounds our organs and leads to thicker waistline, increasing the risk of heart disease and diabetes. Subcutaneous fat, on the other hand, is that fat under the skin and is less associated with disease.
Basically, the more muscle mass you have and build, the more food you can eat and not gain weight.
Did you know that your body burns more calories following exercise than before exercise? This ranges from 15 minutes to as long as 48 hours after. The higher the intensity of the training session, the longer and more calories you burn.
Imagine working out three days a week and the continuous burning of calories! That is the secret. Working out builds strong muscles, heart and lungs. This sounds like a dream deal to me, but whether it is for yourself or those in your care requires effort, discipline and commitment.
There are no short cuts. It has to be coupled with a sensible eating plan.
Unfortunately, choosing what to eat can be difficult. As a general rule, the less processed it is, the better it will be nutritionally. So avoid all the refined white carbohydrates like white rice, sugar, bread etc. Learn more about the low glycemic index food, the different types of oils and sources of protein. Fruits and vegetables are essential to the total picture.
Where muscle is concerned, protein is basically the one nutrient that supplies your body with the amino acids it needs to rebuild muscle tissues.
Protein-rich food is not limited to just meats and eggs. Beans like soy and lentil are rich in protein, as are tofu, tempe, cheese and anchovies.
Before you decide on these diets, especially those with pills that promise to suppress your appetite and/or increase your metabolic rate, think again. Diets often lead to anger, depression, deprivation and and complaints. They leave us wondering, “Is it really worth it?”
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