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Men's Health Projects

Almost two-thirds of Americans are overweight, and survey statistics report that nearly 40 percent of Americans never get any exercise during their leisure time. Many experts agree that the combination of obesity and lack of cardiovascular health is America's biggest killer -- worse than smoking, drugs and alcohol misuse. Those statistics are a very good reason for men to undertake a project to improve their health and fitness levels. This is best achieved by incorporating a regimen of diet and exercise into your lifestyle.

  1. Assess Your Health and Set Goals

    • Assess your current fitness level and what health goals you have. A good first step is to work out your Body Mass Index. This is a calculation which shows whether or not you fit into a healthy category for your height and weight. If the BMI calculator classifies you as overweight or obese, one of your health project goals should be to reduce your weight. Even a modest weight loss of 5 to 10 lbs. can dramatically reduce your blood pressure and have other significant health benefits.

    Adjust Your Diet

    • Examine your diet and adjust it according to your fitness goals. Most Americans consume diets high in fat, sugar and sodium and eat more calories than they burn each day. You should use a Basal Metabolic Rate calculator to work out how many calories you need to consume each day, then adjust how many calories you eat on a daily basis to match that. If you need to lose weight, adjust your diet to consume 500 calories less per day than you burn. This leads to a modest, but sustainable weight loss of about 1 lb. a week.

    Start a Fitness Program

    • Incorporate fitness into your daily lifestyle. There are two important components to men's fitness: strength training and cardiovascular exercise. Strength training involves using resistance machines and free weights to tone and build muscles. Building muscles makes your body look better proportioned, and burns additional calories throughout the day. Cardiovascular exercise burns fat on your body and increases the efficiency of your heart and circulation system, leading to many overall health benefits. You should aim to do about 30 minutes of moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise per day, and strength-train for 30 minutes, three times a week.

    Quit Smoking, Moderate Drinking

    • Adjusting your diet and exercise schedule is the best way to dramatically and swiftly improve your health, but you should also take time to examine other aspects of your lifestyle. If you smoke cigarettes, you should quit or switch to an electronic alternative. You will notice dramatic improvement in your fitness goals if you quit smoking. You should also limit your alcohol consumption, and avoid binge drinking. This can benefit your weight loss goals and improve your liver function and overall health.

    Keep Up the Good Work

    • Even moderate adjustments to your lifestyle can have significant benefits, but they won't happen overnight. You will see benefits to adopting an exercise program within days, but it takes weeks or even months to truly reap the benefits of strength training and diet and exercise. The secret to a successful men's health project is not to consider it a short term project, but a permanent adjustment to your lifestyle that you intend to continue for the rest of your life.

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