44 per cent of men, 38 per cent women physically inactive

Hyderabad: A health survey by the HealthifyMe app, found that  38 per cent of women and 44 per cent of men in India are physically inactive. Doctors say that many people think that walking or hitting the gym for 30 minutes is enough to burn the calories and they can spend the rest of the day lying down or watching television. 

The fact is that a minimum of 40 minutes of walking five days in a week is essential. Those who spend most of the time indoors have a tendency to put on weight compared to those who spend most of their time outdoors.

Dr K.J. Reddy, senior consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Apollo Hospitals, says that in addition to our day to day activities we should go for a walk or run. 

“Minimum activity is 40 minutes walking five days a week in addition to day to day activity. Day to day activities such as watching TV or cutting vegetables can be done standing up instead of sitting,” he said.

Basal metabolic rate is the amount of energy per unit time that a person needs to keep the body functioning at rest. Some of those body functioning processes are breathing, blood circulation, thinking, bathing, heartbeat and others. 

Some people without much activity expend a lot of calories. It all depends on basal metabolic rate and the amount of food intake. As a thumb rule, for an ideal/average weight person, if we take 500 calories for a day we have to spend the same amount in the same time. A person with the ideal weight should spend same amount of energy intake. An underweight person can expend less energy compared to the amount of intake. Nowadays, most food products state the amount of caloric value and we can calculate and  plan our activities according to the same, Dr Reddy said. 

People complain that though they don’t eat much their weight is the same. That’s because probably they have reduced the amount of daily activities. Without spending our energy we cannot expect to reduce our body weight, the doctor added.

Orthopaedic surgeon Dr P. Sharath Kumar says in cities the level of physical activity has come down. “In all professions the amount of time you spend sitting has increased. Even if people want to go for a walk, they don’t do it due to lack of facilities or fear of pollution. Overall, this increases chronic diseases such as overweight, obesity, blood pressure, cardiac problems, bone weakness and others related to lack of fitness. It is extremely important for individuals to change their lifestyle.”