Your Health Stay fit and fabulous
Dr Tan May Ling Health Enrichment Centre Tan Tock Seng Hospital
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Know the facts about exercise and food to help you stay on top of your health.
Let us unravel some of the myths about exercise and food so that you are on the right track in your quest for better fitness and health.
Stay Fit and Fabulous Women who do muscle-strengthening exercises like lifting weights will end up with bulky muscles.
Women do not have the level of hormones (testosterone), unlike the men, which are necessary to create bulky muscles. Strength training for women improves general strength, bone health and helps to tone and ?rm the body.
I can lose weight by using vibrating machines.
In order to lose weight effectively, it is recommended that you do 150 to 300 minutes of aerobics exercise per week. Spot reduction exercise using vibrating machines only strengthens the underlying muscle, but has no effect on weight loss.
No Pain, No Gain.
Exercising to the point of pain increases the risk of injury. While you may have some degree of soreness a day or two after working out, experiencing pain is actually your body's way of telling you that there is something wrong.
Skipping meals or taking meal replacements can help me lose weight.
When we skip meals, our bodies think that we are in starvation mode and we often end up over-eating at the next meal. It is better to eat smaller, more frequent healthy meals and snacks to keep your blood sugar well balanced. Check out the Health Promotion Board’ s website for simple ways to keep a healthy weight.
Give up dessert.
You can still keep ?t and healthy without passing up on desserts. There are healthier choices of desserts like oatmeal cookies and yogurt in
place of ice cream or cakes. For that matter, it will not kill you to have the occasional “sinful” dessert if you so wish to. Let it be a treat. If not, depriving yourself completely of desserts may result in you eating more.
“Cholesterol-free” means “fat-free”.
“Cholesterol-free” refers to foods that contain no cholesterol. Cholesterol is made by the body from the fats in animal-based foods such as meat, dairy and eggs. However, food which does not contain cholesterol may contain other types of fat.
According to the latest National Health Survey 2010 1, one in 10 Singaporeans is overweight. Not only that, the number of overweight Singaporeans has jumped by more than 50 per cent in six years. 1
Source: The Health Promotion Board, 2010
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