The FITT principles are an exercise prescription to help participants understand how long and how hard they should exercise. FITT is acronym that stands for Frequency, Intensity, Time, and Type. … Frequency: Daily moderate exercise is ideal, but try to exercise a minimum of 3-5 days per week

Physical activity does play an important role in weight management, but the number of calories we actually burn through physical activity is probably far fewer than we think.To give you an example, someone, an average person walking every day of the week for an hour, briskly on level ground, probably still won’t even burn off the equivalent of a pound of fat. And that’s with seven hours of exercise.

So you can see that without healthy eating and nutrition, it’s very difficult to lose weight. Having said that, physical activity does help, and any type of aerobic exercise, like walking, snowshoeing, kayaking, fitness classes, all those types of things help, but without healthy eating it’s really difficult to lose and manage your weight.  Often seeing a local family physician or a physiotherapist in conjunction with a registered dietitian and athletic therapist is a great option to take control of this condition.

If you’re interested in losing or managing your weight, losing some fat, talk to your family doctor about getting started in a program. You can also talk to your local trainer, kinesiologist, dietitian and nutritionist to help you along your way to managing your weight. Presenter: Mr. Min Naruki-van Velzen, Athletic Therapist, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: Athletic Therapist

Phase IV cardiac rehab is really the maintenance phase of cardiac rehabilitation.Generally when you’ve finished a hospital-based phase II, III outpatient program, you’ll be offered programs out in the community. They may be at your local rec center, or perhaps at the local YMCA, or even private gym.

But here’s really a chance for you to return to a lot of the activities that you enjoyed perhaps prior to your heart event. If you enjoyed sports, or outdoor activity like kayaking and hiking, and all those kinds of things, here’s an opportunity for you to use those types of things to keep you healthy for life.

Also, there’s a chance for you to connect with a local trainer just to refresh your program, try something new, also to touch base with them over time to see what are some other things that you could do.

And you can also touch base with your local dietitian or nutritionist just to make sure that you’re staying on top of your diet and that you’re not slipping back into ways that perhaps would cause damage long term.

Talk to your healthcare professional team in your phase II, III hospital-based program about phase IV community programs that are available in your area. Alternatively, you can also talk to your family doctor or cardiologist about community-based phase IV programs close to you. Presenter: Mr. Min Naruki-van Velzen, Athletic Therapist, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: Local Cardiologist 

Physical activity is every form of physical motion you make throughout the day, so for example, walking to the bus stop on the way to work is physical activity.However, in the evening if you walk that same distance to help out with your weight, or perhaps control your blood pressure, that is purposeful physical activity for the purpose of being healthier, and we call that exercise.

So I think it’s important to keep in mind that, to be more physically active in general, and not necessarily to be focused on just the exercise. So if you can add in more activity by walking to work instead of commuting by car or bus, or by doing more active things around the house with your family, enjoying walks outside.

All those types of things will increase your physical activity without exercise, and this is particularly helpful for people who can’t stand exercise.

Quantifying exactly how physically active you are is important I think, to get an idea of exactly where you fit. Are you an active person, are you an inactive person? And the best way to quantify how active you are is to wear a pedometer.

Pedometers are fairly cheap devices that you can buy at your local pharmacy or sporting goods store, and essentially all they do is count the steps that you take throughout the day. And it’s important to wear the pedometer from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed.

What we’re targeting is about 10,000 steps per day for health. If you’re serious about losing weight, though, the step count does have to be higher – probably 12 and a half thousand steps or higher. And that is a lot of physical activity, but then again, losing weight is not an easy endeavour, either. So again, 10,000 steps for health, 12 and a half thousand steps or more for weight management.

If you’re interested in a weight management program, talk to your doctor about resources available to you in your community. Also, check out your local dietitian, nutritionist, kinesiologist, or personal trainer, to get a physical activity nutrition program that works for you on your road to managing weight.   Often seeing a local family physician or a pharmacist in conjunction with a registered dietitian, a local athletic therapist  is a great option to take control of dehydration. In conjunction with healthy eating, exercise. Presenter: Mr. Min Naruki-van Velzen, Athletic Therapist, Vancouver, BC

Now Health Network  Local Practitioners: Athletic Therapist