It’s a new year, and we’re all thinking about achieving our fitness goals: losing weight, improving stamina and becoming healthier overall. The best fitness programs take a long-term approach, bringing in lifestyle changes involving both nutrition and exercise. Weight loss is an essential aspect of fitness but remember: it’s not just about fitting into a bathing suit for a few months. Instead, let’s take a comprehensive approach to health and wellness and remember that every individual is unique. Your body and your needs are different from everyone else. It’s crucial to find an exercise routine that you can incorporate into your busy lifestyle and that will keep you motivated. Here’s a look at some of the most popular and effective fitness trends for the new year.
- NEAT Fitness and Wearable Technology – Another big trend that takes a very different approach is Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (or NEAT) combined with wearable fitness technology like personal fitness trackers. NEAT is a fancy way of describing a simple concept: getting the biggest fitness benefit out of daily activities. Whether it’s yard work, cleaning the house, or job-related physical activity, NEAT involves tracking it all. This approach helps you find ways to get more out of routine activities you’re already doing and add in new habits or variations that help you burn calories. The popularity of fitness trackers like Fitbit that keep track of steps and other activities has made NEAT an easy and even fun way to get more active. Because NEAT focuses on easy-to-manage activity, it’s a good way to lose weight over the long term. It also requires less hard-core motivation than some other programs.
- High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) – One of the biggest fitness trends in recent years, High-Intensity Interval Training offers short workouts with big benefits. A HIIT workout usually involves a warm-up period followed by several short repetitions of high-intensity exercise alternated with medium-intensity recovery times. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, the high-intensity periods bring participants up to 80 to 95 percent of their maximum heart rate, so it’s intense. Workouts can range from five to 30 minutes, so it’s perfect for folks who want an effective workout but don’t have a lot of time.
According to ACSM, HIIT has been shown to reduce body weight and abdominal fat and improve insulin sensitivity, a key factor in regulating metabolism. HIIT workouts are often done on a stationary bike but can be done using a range of exercise modes, including running, rowing, and swimming. Workouts can be modified for patients with diabetes and obesity, but ACSM recommends establishing a base fitness level before starting a HIIT program. This means developing a solid foundation of aerobic exercise before starting high-intensity workouts and making sure HIIT is done with proper form. These very intense workouts are ideal for some but are usually not the best first step for folks moving into exercise from a sedentary lifestyle. - Cardio Fitness – The cardio v. strength training debate has been going on for years. There are advantages to both, and for many people, a combination of the two is an ideal approach to weight loss and overall fitness. Cardio is another term for aerobic exercise, which gets your heart rate up and boosts heart and lung function. It covers so many activities like treadmills, indoor cycling, rowing, and swimming. Even walking can make a big difference in weight loss and health. A 2012 Duke University study showed that cardio works best for weight loss in overweight adults since it involves burning calories through aerobic activities.
- Strength Training – Strength Training uses anaerobic exercise to build strength, improve muscle mass and improve bone density. It usually involves a circuit of resistance exercises using weights. And while strength training may not have the direct relation to weight loss that cardio has shown, it can help you achieve a slimmer look and a stronger, leaner body. There’s also evidence that a combination of cardio and strength training may be best for overall health, especially for older adults. Building muscle mass helps burn calories all day, an added advantage over cardio.
- In-Home and Small Group Training – Small group private fitness training is another great trend. It offers the motivation of a group class while still delivering the personalized approach of personal training. Professional trainers work with a group of 3 to 10 people, often in a home setting and often combining cardio and strength training. This reduces the cost of training for clients and creates a sense of connection and encouragement that motivates clients to move forward with fitness goals.
Weight Management Solutions
While finding the right fitness program is vital, exercise alone usually won’t cut it. Diet still has the biggest impact on weight loss: eating better and eating less are key to meeting wellness goals. A comprehensive approach combining nutrition and fitness is ideal, especially when motivation and accountability are part of the plan. That’s where Comprehensive Primary Care’s Weight Management program comes in. The program takes a long-term approach to weight management that’s designed just for you, supporting changes in diet and finding an exercise program that works for you.
Comprehensive Primary Care Weight Management
The best part of a medically designed weight management program is that it’s tailored to your specific medical needs and metabolism. At Comprehensive Primary Care, our program is getting noticed around the region for offering a strategy crafted just for you, along with the accountability and motivation needed to make it work long-term. We start you out with an initial consultation with a medical provider and a dietician, including testing to determine what your body needs and what your body can handle. We start with an EKG, metabolic rate testing and a complete physical to get an overview of your health profile and identify strengths and challenges. We start with weekly visits for two months and then transition to every other week where you’ll meet with a provider to go over nutrition and fitness goals and benchmarks providing the support and accountability you need to move forward.
One of the most important elements is that CPC’s Weight Management program is often covered by insurance. Fitness is an integral part of health, and more and more, insurers are willing to cover weight management programs to reduce medical costs down the road. Weight management is often covered for patients with diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), sleep apnea, heart disease, and other conditions. The first step is talking with your primary care provider about your fitness and weight loss goals for overall health.
At Comprehensive Primary Care, we believe that every individual is unique and every fitness and weight management program should be too. The best plans take a long-term and personalized approach with support every step of the way, and our team is ready to work with you.