HEA 137 - Weight Management: Utilizing Healthy Approaches to Diet and Physical Activity

1 credit hour - One hour of lecture weekly; one term.
Introduces students to the concepts of energy balance, healthful eating patterns and physical fitness for healthy living. The course examines many of the biological and environmental theories associated with weight management and reviews current research in this area. Emphasis is also placed on physical fitness compatible with the achievement and maintenance of a healthy body weight. Popular diet programs will be reviewed and evaluated with regard to weight management and overall health impact.

Crosslisted: Also offered as BIO 137 ; credit is not given for both HEA 137 and BIO 137 .

Location(s) Typically Offered: Online (OL)

Term(s) Typically Offered: Winter and summer

Course Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

Discuss the genetic and biological influences on body weight in humans
- describe three examples of genetic variations in humans that may impact body weight
- defend the premise that biology and genetics plays a role in weight management using a research based argument.
Identify the means of assessing weight, body fat and physical fitness
- Calculate BMI
- Discuss limitations of BMI as an indicator of health risk
- Measure waist circumference
- Assess a person’s health risk based on BMI and waist circumference
- Identify means of measuring percent body fat.
- Describe several means of assessing the various components of physical fitness
Identify strategies for overcoming many of the environmental triggers for excess body fat.
- Recognize the discrepancies between popular portion sizes and appropriate portion sizes for a variety of foods
- Analyze activities that lead to weight gain
- Identify opportunities to modify activities in order to reduce the likelihood of overeating
- Recognize the value of record keeping as a wight management tool
- Identify emotions that can trigger excess food consumption
- Identify other strategies besides overeating hat can be used to address emotions
- Recognize barriers to physical activity
- Describe means of overcoming barriers to physical activity
Construct a basic fitness program appropriate for an overweight or obese person
- Identify the basic components of a physical fitness regime
- Use the above assessment tools to individualize a fitness program for a client
- Identify challenges commonly faced by obese clients as they pursue a physical fitness program
- Incorporate knowledge about challenges faced by obese persons into the fitness plan for a client.
- Utilize appropriate tools to assess progress in a person following a fitness regime.
Develop a healthy diet plan for weight loss in accordance with an individual’s unique physical and emotional characteristics.
- Identify the components of a healthy diet
- Construct a healthy diet that can help achieve the goal of optimal weight management
Carefully critique popular literature related to physical fitness and weight loss.
- Recognize fallacies and biases related to physical fitness and weight management in the popular press
- Identify sound sources of information addressing body weight related issues
Analyze dietary intakes of popular weight loss programs in terms of appropriateness for healthful weight management and overall health.
- Describe the components of several popular weight loss diets
- Group weight loss diets based on common recommendations and calorie distributions
- Analyze popular diet regimes in terms of likelihood to lead to successful weight loss, overall impact on health and likelihood to result in permanent healthful weight management.
- Identify the behaviors that correlate best with long term success related to weight management.