Maintain muscle mass this Roadhamas 2023

Chart-1, MALDIVES. More adult Maldivians in their thirties and forties are getting fat and obese. This is more so among women. Global Obesity Observatory 26 March 2023.

ROADHAMAS

Roadhamas or Ramadan is now an active month. In fact, many people continue to exercise during the fasting month. Serious gym goers are interested in maintaining muscle mass. New gym goers hope to loose fat weight. We wonder what happens to those who do not exercise at all!

We therefore dedicate Roadhamas to study the fitness habits of four different groups of people. We wish to understand how their body weight change during the fasting month. Do people put on more weight during the fasting month? It is well known that more and more people are getting overweight and obese due to lack of physical activity and poor nutrition.

Chart-1, above indicate that a large percentage of the thirty and forty year age groups are getting overweight. If you have a BMI score of between 25 and 30, you will have been counted in the percentage represented by the grey shade. Calculate your BMI at this link.

BACKGROUND
It will be helpful to get a background on how and why we gain fat weight. I hope to give you a good idea if you read on.

There are many studies showing that we are gaining fat weight at a faster rate than before. We have easy access to unhealthy foods. Fast foods are made tasty with fats and sugars. Not having time for home prepared meals open up to poor over the counter nutrition choices. Fast food, coupled with lack of exercise have produced an overweight urban community in Male’ City. Demand for healthy food and exercise can only grow!

Reducing fat mass and developing muscle mass has become a necessity to maintain good health. Urbanization and overpopulation have left Male’ city with barely space to move. Below is a brief review of what we know from local research.

OBESITY

The WHO says 70% of deaths worldwide are due to noncommunicable disease. The figure for Maldives is much higher at 84%. That is, 8 out of 10 deaths from noncommunicable diseases, caused primarily by obesity and lack of exercise.

Being obese means growing excessively fat! Excess fat puts you at a higher risk of developing NCDs or noncommunicable diseases. Heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer & respiratory diseases are such diseases.

A BMI of 25 and over is considered overweight. A BMI of 30 is considered obese. Similarly, a BMI score of 18.5 or lower is considered underweight. Being overweight or underweight is not good for physical health.

Chart-2, 2011 WHO STEPS survey on risk factors for noncommunicable diseases in Male’ City.

Our health authorities have conducted two important studies on the prevalence of risk factors for noncommunicable disease among the Male’ City population. One in 2004 and the other in 2011.

Chart-2 is from the WHO STEPS survey on risk factors for noncommunicable diseases conducted on a sample of 1,780 Male’ City residents aged 15-64 years in 2011. While 23.5% of men were overweight, a higher proportion of women were found to be overweight at 27.7%. More women were obese, 14.5% against men at 8.6%. Comparison with the initial 2004 study revealed that noncommunicable disease is on the rise. The government’s response is evident in the recently announced policy on physical activity.

More recent research from 2016-2017 is presented by the Global Obesity Observatory. The trends observed from the earlier studies are reaffirmed as you can see from the Chart-3 below.

Chart-3. Maldives obesity risk

THE GYM

There is every reason to believe that more and more people will be motivated to opt for the gym to loose weight. Our job will be to introduce members to a doable and enjoyable combination of aerobic and weight training programs to increase metabolism. Improving heart health (cardio) and increasing muscle mass (weight training), with better nutrition can kickstart your metabolism and thereby your weight loss journey. Maintaining gym visits is the modern permanent weight loss strategy.

LOW ACTIVITY LEVELS

High levels of physical activity was found in 46.1% of men and only 21.5% of women in Male’ City. Men were more physically active than women. Low levels of physical activity, meaning 20 minutes or less were found in 39.1% of men and 52.4% of women. This leads us to believe that more people are likely to grow fatter during Roadhamas and beyond.

The National Policy, Physical Activity for Healthier Living 2022, put out by the Ministry of Health mirror the WHO recommendation of 150 to 300 minutes of moderate physical activity per week. This amounts to 50 minutes every other day or 50 minutes daily for adults, 18-64 years. We would recommend this be adjusted to maintenances levels at three gym visits a week during Roadhamas. Two weight training and one cardio workout could be the minimum within these guidelines.

NUTRITION

The status of nutrition among Male’ City population was also measured in the 2011 WHO STEPS survey. It was found that the required five servings of fruits and/or vegetables was taken by a very small percentage of people. Only 7.4% of men and 5.5% of women ate the required amount of fruits and vegetables. The majority of people, or over 90% were not eating the required amount of fruits and vegetables (micronutrients).

In fact nutritionists at the IGMH put out advice for increasing fruits and vegetables when breaking fast this year. This is a timely reminder to eat more fruits and vegetable in Roadhamas.

The Global Nutrition Report states that Maldives obesity prevalence is higher than the regional average.

LOOSE OR GAIN WEIGHT IN ROADHAMAS. Taking all the above facts into consideration, we wish to find out if people loose or gain weight during Roadhamas. To get an understanding of what really happens, we have decided to study four different groups of people and their exercise habits during the fasting month.

GYM HABITS OF FOUR GROUPS

Group-1. Continue gym. Serious gym goers actually maintain their hard gained fitness & muscle mass by continuing gym. Most of these members simply slow down to a maintenance intensity during Roadhamas.

Group-2. Start gym. Many members resume or even start gym for the first time during Roadhamas. Some of these members find this month a good time to start their weight loss journey.

Group-3. Takes a break. Some take a break during this month for many reasons. Some simply takes a break as part of the tradition of slowing down and taking it easy during the fasting month.

Group-4. No exercise. We are interested in what happens to the non-exerciser during Roadhamas. Does this person loose or gain weight?

For most serious gym goers, Roadhamas is a maintenance month. That is, a month to ensure the fitness and muscle mass you gained is not lost or wasted away.

Roadhamas starts on 23 March and runs through till 20 April with Fitr Eid predicted to fall on Fri 21 April. Ha-Roadha extend up to end of the following week on Thu 27 April. This is five solid weeks of fasting and exercise.

THE ROADHAMAS GYM SCHEDULE

Pre-breakfast; Gym schedules also have changed throughout the years. Now we have a group of clients who finds a pre-breakfast light workout the way to go. They visit the gym between 3 and 6pm.

Post-breakfast: Some choose to break their fast with a light meal and get into their workout before meal proper. These gym enthusiasts visit the gym straight after breakfast.

Post-Tharaavees: Those who find a heavy breakfast more appealing, need a couple of hours for digestion so they can hit the gym late night. For this reason the gym hours are extended up to midnight during this month.

You could loose muscle mass during an extended break in exercise, especially if you do not maintain good nutritional practices.

LOSS OF MUSCLE MASS,

You could loose muscle mass if you take a complete break during Roadhamas. This is more likely, if you do not watch out for the involuntary intake of more sweet and fatty foods, while not exercising during Roadhamas.

We readjust and shorten our eating hours during Roadhamas from daytime to night time. That is, shortening our eating window from 15 hours, to 9 hours during Roadhamas.

The need to metabolize the traditionally increased sugar intake become more difficult without physical activity. The likelihood of gaining weight without exercise is therefore high.

ANNUAL FITNESS CYCLE & FASTING. Gym routines for non athletes are best thought out with Roadhamas, Bodu Eid and school holiday factored in. Monsoons or the the rainy season also impact the gym habit. Gym workouts can mirror the training cycles used by athletes. Exercise may therefore be periodized in microcycles, macrocycles and mesocycles.

American College of Sports Medecine

For example new gym goers will usually start off with a one or more week macrocycle designed to ease your body into exercise.

You could then progress to a macrocycle of twelve to sixteen weeks of muscular endurance before you contemplate a different program The idea of fitness weight training is to change your exercise program with successive micro and macrocycles to maintain or increase muscle mass and aerobic capacity.

A mesocycle constitute a sports season for the athlete. Similarly a mesocycle can be the annual fitness timeline for the regular gym goer. In this case Roadhamas can be programmed as a shortened macrocycle of five weeks.