Many of my patients say they have no time to exercise because they travel often for business.  Here are some tips I recommend for keeping fit during your layover.  Think of the layover as an opportunity to get in a good workout.  Exercise will also reduce your risk of blood clots in the leg called DVT’s and can reduce stress when your flight is delayed.

• Walk, walk, walk!  Most airports have long hallways that are great for distance walking.  If you have a pedometer, you can see how far you are walking.  Increase the pace so that you are barely able to speak a full sentence.
• Find a gym.  Many airports have gyms now or have arrangements with gyms a short taxi ride away.
• Bicep curls with your handbag.  Hold your purse, backpack, or duffle bag with you hand while seated in a chair. Pull the bag toward you as if you had a dumbbell in your hand.  If you need to add more weight, buy a large bottle of water and place it in the bag.  If you are a regular weightlifter, you can even try using your large luggage, but that can be quite heavy.
• Lunges.  These can be done while waiting at your gate.
• Calf stretches.  Waiting in lines for security can be turned into a simple workout.  Lift up your heels and “point” your toes like a ballerina and hold that for 2 seconds.
• “Chicken Stretch” for your upper back and shoulders.  This is absolutely essential for traveling especially sitting in cramped seats on the airplane.

The body is in many ways similar to a bank when it comes to calories.  When you eat something, your body extracts the calories from food much like making a cash deposit in your bank.  You will either burn them off doing physical activities or store them in the form of fat.  Calories never “disappear” on their own without being used in some way.

You need to be mindful of your caloric intake.  Just like many banks have apps where you can see your debits and credits, there are apps that can track your calories.  I recommend the myfitnesspal.com app.  It is available for many different smart phones and tablets.  When you set up the app, it calculates your estimated calorie needs.  Then comes the fun part.  You enter each food into the app as you are eating them.  The myfitnesspal app has a huge selection of food and you can even choose the items by brand name.  For example, I ate a Chobani Fat Free Greek Yogurt with Blueberries this morning, and the app posted the exact calories (130) into my food diary and subtracted them from my daily calories.   This eliminates the extra step of reading the nutrition labels each time you eat something.  As you check the app throughout the day, you can see how many calories you have left in the day before you “accumulate debt” and start storing extra calories.  The goal is to end up with “0” or if you have a weight loss goal “negative” for the day.  I have been using this app and I find it extremely helpful to find out lower calorie alternatives to the food I’m eating.  For example, if you wanted to splurge and eat a full size bag of m&m’s, you would first realize it is a lot of calories, but myfitnesspal will also show you foods that are similar and you can pick a lower calorie alternative.  For example, a snack size bag of m&m’s would be half the calories.  This allows you to learn new healthier options so that in the future you can make wiser food choices.

Another aspect of this app that helpful is the ability to add in exercise.  It give a rough estimate of how many calories you burned.  For example, if you ran on the treadmill, you can enter the time and the distance and it will take those calories burned and add to your daily allotment of calories.  You learn pretty quickly that its difficult to burn off calories even though you’ve been huffing and puffing for half an hour on the treadmill!  Was that slice of chocolate cake last night worth it?  These are realizations that come about with tracking your calories.  Try the app for at least two weeks and you will learn more about what you are eating and get motivated to exercise.  If you are looking to lose weight, this is one effective way to get started.

Try this.  The next time you are at a gym, walk around the gym with one 5 pound weight in each hand for about 5 minutes at a pace you normally would walk.  Next, put the weights down and walk for another 5 minutes.  Feel a difference?  I’m sure you will realize it’s much easier to walk without the weights!  But also your breathing is more labored when you are carrying more weight.  The muscles in your back, arms and legs may start to feel sore.  Now magnify that feeling for 24 hours/7 days a week!  That is what you it would feel like if you put on an extra 10 pounds.  Being overweight or obese can make you feel tired, and that can hurt your motivation for exercise, and cause more weight gain.  It is a vicious cycle, which is very difficult to break.

Now let’s say you are 10 pounds overweight.  If you lost that weight, you will be carrying that much less weight around in your day to day activities.  If you suffer from knee pains, that is 10 pounds less weight your knees will have to bear.  Think of how much more energetic you will feel!  We often don’t realize the impact of our weight on our energy level because we usually gain weight gradually.  One pound here and there, our body grows accustomed to the changes, but it is still affected by the excess weight in the long run.

The next time you step on the scale, calculate your BMI (Body Mass Index).  If you are overweight (BMI>25) or obese (BMI>30), think about how losing just a little bit of weight will make you feel.  Could you use more energy in your day?  Could your joint pains and body aches be improved?  Are you feeling more tired than you used to?  Losing weight may be the solution!

During the annual physical exam, I typically ask my patients to categorize themselves as:  Underweight, Normal Weight, Overweight, or Obese.  Then I calculate their Body Mass Index (BMI) with an online calculator.  Usually, I get a look of shock or dismay when I tell people that they are overweight when they think they are normal weight.  Next, I recalculate their BMI with their guess as to what they think their weight should be.  Often, this is also above the normal weight for height.  Eventually, we come to a weight that when entered into the calculator is normal.  Then I usually hear another sigh, and a pause, followed by the statement “If I weighed that much, I would look sick and unhealthy!”

The BMI has not changed over the years, however our perception of what is “normal weight” has changed because many of us as a whole have gotten larger.  Imagine you are average height and you take a picture next to an NBA basketball team.  You would certainly feel short.  In this same way, if you are around people who are obese or overweight, you may not perceive yourself to be any different, or may even think of yourself as being thin.  The next time you are “people-watching” look at each family.  Obese parents will often have obese children.  Another good example is the sizes of clothes.  Over time, clothing manufacturers have had to increase the size of clothes to the point where a “Medium” today would be what was considered “Large” or “Extra Large” a few decades ago.  So when you think you have been a “Medium” for the past 20 years, you have actually been fooled.  Anyone who has travelled outside of the US and tried to buy clothes in Europe or South America will understand this.  In women’s clothing, they have had to make dresses in size “00” just to make sizes change with the times.  In New York City, there are subway car seats where very few people can fit in them comfortably today.  This is because the subway seats were designed in the 70’s when most people were smaller than they are today.

Portions of food are another way to see the change in caloric intake over time.  I recently purchased an antique dinner plate.  It was 9 inches in diameter.  These days, the average dinner plate start at 13 inches or more.  Portion sizes of all foods have increased and we are eating way too many calories.  It is not surprising that our waistlines are increasing as a result!

The BMI is as standard for good health.  Being in the overweight or obese categories increase risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and even depression!  Know your BMI and your goal weight.  Work on it!