HEALTH & FITNESS

Burn, Baby, Burn
If you play tennis to help you to stay fit, you’re not alone. In a national survey recently conducted by the USTA and the Tennis Industry Association, more than 75% of players responded that they play tennis for the exercise.
Since so many of you are turning to tennis to help you keep the weight off, we decided to ask Jonell Wittern, the Fitness Chick at Results, Inc., to help us find out where tennis stacks up in the Battle of the Bulge.



So, you’re trying to slim down. The hard part is which fad diet will you follow this year? While anyone looking to begin a diet should first consult their health practitioner, the Fitness Chick has compiled a few simple suggestions as to how to incorporate tennis into your slimming regimen.
Health care professionals generally agree that the most effective way to lose weight is to do it gradually. Exaggerated weight loss in a short period of time can be dangerous, and can often lead to a subsequent regaining of the weight, dubbed “yo-yo” dieting.
So how much should you lose, and how should you lose it? The general rule, says Jonell, is about one-half to one pound per week which promotes long-term loss of body fat.

Calories Count!
When you are trying to lose weight, the sad truth is that calories do count: you have to burn more calories than you consume. All physical activity burns calories, even activities like standing, sitting and sleeping. The more vigorous an activity, however, the more calories you’ll burn. To lose one pound, you must burn 3,500 excess calories (500 calories per day) over the course of a week.
If you reduce your calorie intake by 300 calories a day and increase your activity to burn 200 extra calories per day, you can expect a steady weight loss of approximately one pound per week.
The heavier a person is, the more calories he or she will burn during a similar exercise. For example, if you weigh 125 pounds, you’ll burn almost 40% fewer calories than a 200-pound person would playing the same amount of tennis.

Just Burn It!
Whether or not you’re trying to lose weight or simply stay fit, tennis is a great way to have fun, socialize and burn calories. In the chart below, simply match up your weight with the kind of tennis you play to find out how many calories you’re burning each time you grab your racquet and step out onto the court. You can then compare your burn rate playing tennis to other activities.
Now stay tuned. In the next issue of Colorado Tennis, we’ll show you what to do with all those calories you burned out on the tennis court.