Weight Loss: Reasonable Exercise Control for Scientific Fat Burning Without Harm

Household chores

While regular physical activity can help with weight loss and fitness, doing housework can also contribute to weight loss and fitness.

Household chores are numerous and tedious, which is why some people dislike them. However, by incorporating weight loss and fitness into the process, one can fully enjoy doing housework and reap multiple benefits. For example, housework consumes a significant amount of energy. I have a relative, Zhu XX, a 53-year-old female worker at a Beijing asbestos factory. Ten years ago, she was severely overweight. She was 156 cm tall and weighed 75 kg, exceeding the standard weight by 21.4 kg, reaching a obesity rate of 40%. She sought medical treatment from various sources, but without success. While others worried about her, she was even more distressed. In 1982, her 10-year-old son fell seriously ill and was on the verge of death. Therefore, she retired from the factory due to illness and returned home to take on the responsibility of caring for her son and all the housework. Every day, she bathed her son, fed him medicine and food, washed clothes and bedding, and every three days she had to carry him to the hospital, a round trip of 30 li (approximately 15 kilometers). She was constantly busy, running back and forth between the house and the house, upstairs and downstairs, almost suffocating under the weight of the heavy housework. Due to the busy housework, lack of sleep, and heavy mental burden, she lost 25 kilograms in less than two years, 3.6 kilograms lighter than her ideal weight. She worked tirelessly in this environment for four years, her son recovered and started school, and she transformed from the factory's notorious "chubby sister" into a slender "lady." Eight years later, her weight has remained relatively stable (52-54 kilograms), and she is healthy and happy.

This example may not be typical enough, because she endured so much hardship. However, there is indeed a truth to the claim that housework can aid in weight loss. The key reason is that it converts stored body fat into energy, which is then used to fuel the muscles involved in housework. Therefore, experts point out that women who want to lose weight should consider exploring ways to burn energy in their daily lives instead of spending a lot of money at fitness centers. Consistently doing housework is one such method, and when combined with exercise, the weight loss effect will be more significant and lasting.

**Exercise Volume** Exercise volume, also called exercise load or physiological load, refers to the amount of exercise stimulation an organism experiences during physical education or training.

**Participating in sports requires mastering some sports knowledge and cultivating and developing some basic motor skills, such as the ability to exercise independently, the ability to guide others in exercising, the ability to regulate exercise volume, and the ability to assess changes in bodily functions.**

**◆I. Exercise Volume and its Measurement Methods** There are many methods for measuring exercise volume, such as observation, surveys, and physiological measurements. However, the simplest and most convenient method that you can perform anytime is heart rate measurement, one of the methods used by Sheng Jin (i.e., measuring the number of pulse beats per minute, as heart rate and pulse beats are synchronized). To measure, bend your right (left) elbow, place your forearm in front of your abdomen, palm slightly upward, and place the index, middle, and ring fingers of your left (right) hand together on the radial artery on the thumb side of your right (left) forearm (Figure 2-25). You can also measure the carotid artery. To measure, separate your right thumb and the other four fingers into a pincer shape and place them on the carotid arteries on either side of the Adam's apple in front of your neck. Measure for 10 seconds each time, then multiply by 6 to get your heart rate in one minute. It's best to measure twice and use the shortest result. When reading the time, the beat that coincides with the start time can be ignored, but the beat that coincides with the end time must be counted; conversely, if the start time is counted, the end time is not. II. Factors Involving Exercise Volume
Exercise volume includes two aspects: quantity and intensity. Quantity refers to the number of exercises completed (sets, repetitions, time, distance, etc.). Intensity refers to the amount of force used and the level of tension in the body when completing the exercise. Intensity includes the speed of movement, rest intervals, load weight, and required standards. In short, exercise volume involves five factors: quantity, intensity, density, time, and the characteristics of the exercise. Quantity, intensity, density, and time can be interdependent; a certain quantity corresponds to a certain intensity. However, intensity has a more significant stimulating effect on the organism.

To illustrate this, we can formulate the relationship between quantity, intensity, density, and time using the following formula:
Exercise Volume = Intensity × Density × Time

In this formula, intensity refers to the amount of force used in each exercise session; density refers to the number of exercises per week and the length of rest intervals between sessions; and time refers to both the total duration of each exercise session and the length of rest intervals between sessions.

Modern physical exercise methods and standard value research have proven that the optimal effect of physical exercise occurs when the organism is at its maximum oxygen uptake and maximum stroke volume. At this time, all tissues and organs of the organism receive the most abundant oxygen and sufficient nutrients, the metabolic level is highest, and the organism is in a state of full benefit. Therefore, the physiological load of an exercise heart rate between 120 and 180 beats per minute is called the subthreshold load, below 120 beats per minute is called the subthreshold load, and above 180 beats per minute is called the suprathreshold load.

From the perspective of exercise physiology and sports medicine, for normal individuals, engaging in subthreshold load exercises does not require mobilizing the potential of internal organs and is insufficient to cause changes in blood pressure, blood components, urinary protein, and electrocardiogram. It does not reach the threshold for improving health, enhancing physical fitness, and stimulating the body's supercompensation, thus the training effect is minimal. Conversely, engaging in overthreshold load exercises, due to the short cardiac cycle and insufficient ventricular filling time, reduces the stroke volume, failing to meet the body's oxygen supply requirements for high-intensity exercise. This can negatively impact training effectiveness, lead to fatigue, or even harm health. Excessive exercise volume, coupled with a lack of necessary rhythm, and consistently exceeding one's physiological capacity, can produce both acute and chronic reactions. An acute reaction occurs when strenuous exercise exceeds the heart muscle's capacity, causing acute myocardial weakness, resulting in a drop in blood pressure, a rapid and weak heart rate, and symptoms such as dizziness, vomiting, paleness, and extreme fatigue. Chronic reactions occur due to excessive exercise, leading to an imbalance between excitation and inhibition processes in the cerebral cortex, with a weakening of the inhibition process in most cases. This results in severe fatigue that persists for a long time, accompanied by headaches, poor appetite, insomnia, and apathy towards further exercise.

The amount of exercise is related to the body's energy substances. During physical activity, the body breaks down energy substances to generate heat, which is used by muscles for work. Simultaneously, new energy substances are constantly being synthesized. Generally speaking, the breakdown of energy substances predominates during exercise, while the synthesis of energy substances predominates after exercise to compensate for the energy consumed.

In healthy individuals, various energy substances in the body are gradually consumed during exercise, but gradually recover to their original levels after exercise, then exceed their original levels, and then gradually return to their original levels again. This phenomenon is called "supercompensation" (Figure 2-26). The supercompensation process is directly related to the amount of exercise. Numerous studies by scientists both at home and abroad have demonstrated that, within a certain range, the greater the amount of exercise, the more energy is consumed, and the more pronounced the supercompensation effect becomes.