The dimensions of defining health and fitness have largely been viewed in terms of maintaining a skinny figure. Recently, this situation has given rise to many confusions and disputes with the growing preoccupation for maintaining a skinny figure irrespective of one’s age. Whether this obsession is the only means of leading a healthy life is a fact worthy of studying.
Losing weight to stay healthy has been the prime motive of those who want to maintain a skinny figure because being overweight has always been considered to be unhealthy. The process of maintaining a skinny figure mainly includes exercising and dieting. Yet the hollow practices of this new trend question to what extent it has the potential for a healthy life because the majority who follow these practices belong to an upper level of the society and while they exercise on a daily basis, they continue to greedily swallow at home. Besides, many suffer from body aches due to continuous exercising in gyms. These contrasting practices are what make it impossible to be physically fit though a person can be outwardly thin and slim. Similarly, a person may have a high level of fitness regardless of his or her weight. Experimentations have been conducted based on the comparisons between the mortality risk of a group of obese participants and that of a group of thin participants. Surprisingly challenging though, studies have found out that fat people have a longer healthy life similar to those who maintain a slim figure. These findings thus refute the established view of skinny figure as the key to a healthy life and highlight the need to be physically fit.
Reasons as to why this particular practice of maintaining a skinny figure has become a growing obsession need to be explored. Many people, even though they have no physical unfitness, find it difficult to endure the social negligence, rejection and pressure resulting from being fat which lead to the frustration of mind. Driven by this impulse, many start to diet and exercise. Yet, they are ignorant of the fact that it is important to have a proper meal before they start exercising because the rate of energy consumption is high at such times. They ultimately fall into the category of being physically inactive and thus being metabolically unfit. Therefore, what the contemporary society required is undoubtedly an attitudinal change towards a healthy lifestyle because, confronted with the phenomenon of globalization, imitating others is unavoidable; all that indicate the pretentious self of the emerging culture. While many attempt to imitate others’ health practices to stay healthy, they forget completely about their psychological and mental satisfaction. The key is to take on the right track and right attitude while maintaining a healthy routine that comprises of physical activities along with a balanced meal of nutritious vegetables and fruits. You can find several exercises that might help you in reducing weight. One perhaps may consider that weight loss can only be achieved through proper exercise- in fact if you control your diet and make sure you take only adequate nutrition, you might be able to achieve your target weight earlier. This is because the exercise burns fat, but once you stop working out, you will gain weight again. What’s the point? The only solution is proper diet.
In conclusion, it is important to note the point of view of the World Health Organization Constitution according to which health and fitness is not simply being rid of diseases but the well-being of social, physical as well as mental state of an individual.