KeeDiet & Exercise

Exercise forms an important part of your weight loss journey and is key to your long term weight management. How much or what exercise you take depends on your calorie intake, health, age and preference.

If following a VLCD (very low calorie diet) no planned exercise is recommended until you enter the third week and then gentle toning exercise only. The lower your calorie intake the more gentle your exercise should be.

Whilst increasing movement or toning exercise make sure you drink plenty of water to prevent dehydration and muscle cramps.

If you feel a little light exercise will help motivate you, try walking a little faster or more often, count steps, yoga, gentle swimming, stretching, taking stairs instead of the lift, start toning rather than aerobic.

If you are already exercising, adapt your routine and exercise plan to suit your energy levels. The general advice is to listen to your body it generally knows best, over exercising on very low calorie diets can be detrimental to your health and should be avoided!

Once your calorie intake is sufficient to exercise, consider your options and what you enjoy.

If you are not used to exercise or find it difficult, start gentle with small achievable targets. Don't push yourself too hard or overdo it at the beginning. Exercise should be gradually increased, gentle walking, cycling, swimming, dancing, climbing stairs are all great ways to introduce exercise into your life.

Once you feel able, gradually increase your exercise and aim for a minimum of 20-30 minutes’ physical activity every day for good health (the same health benefits can be received from breaking your daily exercise up into 10-minute exercise blocks)

If you are already exercising, adapt your routine to suit your energy levels (The lower your calorie intake the more gentle your exercise should be and make sure you drink plenty of water to prevent dehydration). As your weight drops, calories increase you'll probably become more active naturally.

Energy from food intake is obviously less while on most Kee Weight Loss Plans, so be realistic about what you will be able to achieve. If you are already exercising and consider yourself quite fit, take it easy for a couple of weeks and you may be able to regain somewhere near your current levels of exercise when you have settled into your plan, but it is likely you will need to moderate your exercise until you are in weight management phase.

Remember if you are using up all or the majority of your daily calories for an exercise workout, you will have insufficient energy for the remainder of your day or essential daily body functions. You will feel overtired, experience muscle weakness and headaches for example.

Your heart is a muscle and requires energy to work efficiently, if over-doing exercise whilst consuming insufficient energy/calories it can be negatively affected and in extreme circumstance could cause a heart attack. We therefore recommend caution, gentle exercise & toning only whilst following any weight loss plans with less than 1200 daily calories.

Many people believe they are active because they feel they are always rushing around but it is surprising to many that for the majority of their time they are sedentary. Studies have shown that obese people naturally tend towards sedentary behaviour and can be seated for an extra 2 ½ hours per day compared to slimmer people. Increasing your exercise, movement frequency and generally becoming more active is terrific - it burns kilocalories, reduces stress levels, improves your health, reduces visceral fats and helps you sleep better.

Increasing exercise may be required for a regular weight loss, increasing your exercise targets as you progress can be a great goal and motivation whilst tackling and dropping weight. A regular exercise pattern will reduce your risk of major diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes and improves your mood, which will help you stay motivated for continued weight loss.

You don't have to join a gym to do exercise, there are many low cost forms of exercise that are fun, free or have a small fee. Try different exercises before you commit, dancing, speed walking, cycling, netball, basketball, 5-Aside Football.

Positive small changes to your lifestyle can have a big impact on your health!