What Is The Best Exercise To Do For Weight Loss ?

What Is The Best Exercise To Do For Weight Loss ?

I must admit, this article is something I have to get off my chest on a regular basis, it floods my inbox and makes little puffs of steam come out my ears.

Do you want to know the best exercise for losing your muffin top?

Do you want to know the best exercise for a flat tummy?

Do you want to know the best exercise for targeting wobbly thighs?

blah blah blah

So with 2015 under way and many people embarking on new fitness and weight loss regimes, I thought I would try and straighten things out a bit. Whilst it is true that certain exercises will tone particular muscle groups, the way these articles are promoted makes it sound like if you do these 10 Ab/thigh/butt or whatever exercises, you will get a lovely flat tummy, or six pack, or toned thighs, but the truth of the matter is, abdominal exercises are probably amongst the least calorie burning activities out there and you can do all the abdominal exercises you like, but if your muscles are still buried under a layer of fat, you won't see them any time soon. The same goes for wobbly thigh exercises, back fat exercises and even those flabby arm exercises.

So, you want to know the best exercise activities for weight loss, the truth is... anything! With the right diet and any kind of exercise you will lose fat... from your belly, your hips, your thighs and anywhere else you may have fat stored (there is another major aspect to successfully losing weight around the belly, hips, thigh area but this is not covered in this article) Just get moving, be more active in general, but if you were hoping for a more specific answer then it would be a balanced weekly workout plan that incorporates both cardio and strength training. For those who are confused what this involves, your cardio is your walking/running/cycling/swimming type exercises and your strength training is using weights/dumbbells/kettlebells and bodyweight training activities. This combination will make for maximum fat attack and those toned muscles will soon start to shine through!

Without the strength training you will be missing out on the best muscle developing activity which in turn creates a bigger burn of fat every minute of every day for you. Every 1lb of muscle you have on your body burns 7-10 calories per day to maintain itself, every 1lb of fat you have on your body burns 2-3 calories per day, so you can see how if your body composition is more muscle than fat, you will be burning more calories per day simply existing, which from a weight loss point of view is fabulous! Not only that, but by building up the muscle composition of your body, your body shape will change quicker and look better much sooner than if you just lose fat without exercising.

The cardio exercises are the fat burners, which is why everyone dives into them when they want to lose weight, but there are quite a few things to take into consideration with cardio that most people simply don't know about. How much fat you will or won't burn depends a great deal on what you eat, when you eat, how much of it you eat, how long you do cardio for and how often plus what sort of cardio it is. The upshot of that is, cardio is not always as effective at burning calories as people believe it to be.

If you combine the two you get the best result from both activities, plus it keeps things interesting and gives your body (muscles) the variation they need to keep on building. It is also hugely beneficial to switch your exercise activities every month, change your strength training routine, swap steady cardio for interval training, add in some High Intensity Interval Training or try out a different activity altogether. When we stick with the same exercise routine week in week out, the muscles get used to it, and the effect starts to become less significant.

Do bear in mind though, if you are a serial scale visitor, when you are building muscle at the same time as losing fat, the scales won't always move as much as you want, leaving you feeling like you aren't getting anywhere, so be sure to take body measurements as a point of reference alongside your scales.

But having said all of that, any exercise is better than no exercise, so if exercising is not something you have done much of in the past, start small, with something you enjoy and aim to build things up as you go along. Make a note on your calendar, or decide that on the 1st of each month you are going to review your exercise plan and vary/increase the activities to keep it interesting, motivating and most importantly having the biggest impact on your body and your weight loss.

If you are not sure what sort of exercise plan to have for weight loss, enlist the help of someone who can help you. Statistics prove that having a structured plan increases the likelihood of you sticking to it by 80%