08 May 09 FAT LOSS: ACTIVITY AND FAT LEVELS

Obviously, all of this is good news for the fat, unfit person wanting to decrease body fatness. Long duration, low intensity regular exercise, such as walking, is obviously less painful and more rewarding than that type of exercise which most fat people regard as masochism. It is also more able to be built into a person’s daily life and become part of a total lifestyle program which is vital for long term fat loss maintenance. The low intensity-long duration approach therefore would be welcomed by the unfit. However, it does signal a change in the traditional approach to dealing with overfatness through commercial health and fitness centres. Many of these centre around providing an institutionalised service of 30-40 minutes daily, 3-4 days a week, based on the standard PITT model for improvements in fitness. Little attention is given to other aspects of spontaneous physical activity, or indeed, activity patterns outside the gymnasium setting.

The low intensity approach suggests that where tat loss is the goal, the required change is to the individual’s lifestyle pattern of activity, including both ‘planned’ and ‘incidental’ activity. The role of the instructor in this framework should be one of empowering the individual to be able to incorporate this type of physical activity into their lifestyle. The mode of instruction required therefore is reflective, i.e. providing advice to fit the client’s perceived needs, rather than directive, i.e. providing instruction to fit a pre-set formula to the client.

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