by DrCiuffo | Oct 30, 2022 | Blog, Obesity, Weight
3 Important Aspects of Maintaining A Healthy Weight The importance of maintaining a healthy weight for a heart patient can’t be overstated. The heart is the hardest-working muscle in the body. Weight directly affects the amount of work the heart has to do. Losing even just a few pounds can have a strong positive impact on your overall health. Healthy Weight Several factors determine a healthy weight. Maintaining a healthy weight is critical to avoiding heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and respiratory problems. In general, obesity is considered having too much body fat, which places extra pressure on your arteries, bones, and nerves, making it difficult for your body to function properly. Fitness is the most important key to maintaining a healthy body weight. Walking and other regular exercises are great places to start working toward maintaining a healthy body weight. Body Mass Index Your Body Mass Index, often called a BMI, is one measurement of your body fat compared to the overall mass of your body. If your BMI is over 30, you are considered obese. A higher BMI puts you at risk for the conditions associated with obesity. You should talk to your doctor about your overall health and the best ways to work toward achieving and maintaining your ideal weight. Lifestyle, diet, and exercise will all factor into the conversation. Obesity risks Obesity not only puts an extra strain on your joints and other parts of your body; it’s hard on your heart. The harder your heart has to work to push your blood around your body, the more strain it is under. In addition to... by DrCiuffo | May 12, 2019 | Blog, Anatomy, Dr. Giovanni B Ciuffo, Heart Health, Weight
Exercise isn’t just for achieving big muscles. Exercise impacts heart health in a very important and fundamental way. To keep your heart healthy, you can strengthen the heart muscle by doing exercises. Relatedly, exercises for your heart will help lower your blood pressure. Heart exercise is something that needs to become as regular, and as unconscious, as breathing. Best Exercises of the Heart Heart exercises can be tailored to individual situations and many factors are taken into consideration before picking the best one. These factors include medical history, lifestyle, abilities, and preferences. If you are in poor shape, the exercise program will take that into account. It may be that your first exercise routine is walking if that is your current limit. After time, it can proceed to jogging and maybe even running. Even more strenuous activities, like jumping rope or weightlifting, can be added. The optimal time to perform an exercise is 30 minutes per session at least five days a week. Exercise Impacts on Heart To complement the best exercise for your heart, stretching and warming up are good activities to adopt. They prepare your muscles for exercise and reduce injury and muscle strain. Generally, the best exercises for the heart are aerobic exercises. The larger muscle groups are used so your heart rate will be quickly elevated. Because of this, you need to consult with a physician about your target (or safe maximum) heart rate. One way to informally gauge whether or not your exercise routine is too strenuous is if you are able to hold a conversation while exercising. If not, you might want to...
