Using Sports to Lose Weight

Using sports to lose weight is one the best ways to accomplish your weight loss goals! You can achieve fast results while at the same time you train your mind, body, and spirit.

Aside from Sumo-wrestlers, I can’t think of any other athletes who are overweight or obese. Most sports may not require the athletes to be physically fit, however since training alone requires a lot of running, jumping, lifting, and any other physical exertion, players become fit as they train.

We get calories from the food we eat. These calories are vital in supplying the body with energy to perform its physiologic functions as well as for us to do our activities of daily living. However, if we take in too much calories and do less activities, these excess calories are deposited in the body as fat or “reserved energy” which we often see in the belly, underneath the arms, breast, thigh, and any other parts where adipose tissues are present.

When athletes are playing or training, their bodies send signals to their brains to use the body fat and convert it to energy, thus athletes lose weight faster. Another reason why athletes have leaner bodies is because of their faster metabolism. Since most sports require strength and agility, they gain more muscle mass and less body fat. Muscles burn calories faster than fat; this causes the athletes to have an increased BMR (the ability of the body to burn calories even when at rest to perform its physiologic functions such as respiration) or what other people call as “metabolism”. The more muscles a person have, the faster he burns calories, thus resulting in weight loss.

Since different sports require different levels of agility and strength requirement, this causes different amount of calories burned per hour. Other contributing factors are the weight, the body structure, and the age of the person.

The top burning sports are boxing (928 calories/hr) because it requires both the upper and lower body to work, handball (928 calories/hr) a team sport that requires both agility and strength, Cross country skiing (877 calories/hr) a winter extreme sport that is played with speed, balance, power, and mental alertness, rugby (816 calories/hr) that is played like a football where you needs a good amount of strength to block your opponents and speed to make a touchdown, and Soccer (755 calories/hr) a team sport which requires you to run back and forth the field which can also be considered as a good aerobic exercise.

Getting into a sport is very beneficial because it allows you to be physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially healthy. Also, with sports, you get to attain discipline, increased self-esteem, and have fun at the same time.

Article by: Alex Chris

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