Strength Training Will Give You Much Better Weight Loss Results Than Long Slow Boring Exercise

If you are a person that has been misguided into believing that spending hours on a treadmill in the hope of losing weight and that you will achieve a lean healthy body then what follows may get you thinking. More is definitely not better and if you spend hours per week exercising in this manner and are not getting the results you think you should for the time you are putting in then a change of program is in order.

Many studies have proven that doing too much cardio type exercise in the absence of strength training can actually be detrimental to long term fat loss, in fact if you do this you will have a very hard job keeping off increasing body fat.

Too much steady-state long duration cardio exercise increases your cortisol (stress hormone) levels, which is catabolic, meaning it destroys muscle tissue. If you burn off precious muscle tissue you will end up burning fewer calories 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Can you see how you this would not be helpful in losing body fat long term?

Cardio activities such as jogging, cycling etc are recreational activities and if your goal is weight loss then you need to take your exercise program up a notch. These activities should never be used as a substitute for strength training since they do not permanently increase your metabolism and do not have the ability to re-shape your body.

This situation has come about because we suddenly have all of these so called fitness experts full of misleading advice about how people should exercise. They have no experience or qualifications whatsoever yet feel compelled to put their two cents worth of useless information all over the internet and media in general.

The best way to exercise for fat loss is to perform a proper exercise program that contains at least 60% strength training exercise. If you exercise at the correct intensity level eg with the right amount of resistance for the correct amount of time you will get many cardiovascular benefits as well as increased strength levels.

This has the ability to increase your metabolism and change the hormonal levels of the body making fat loss a much easier goal to achieve. Regardless of the amount of weight you would like to lose the thing you need to focus on is increasing your metabolic rate (the rate your body burns fuel). This will give you the ability to burn off any excess body fat every minute of the day even when you are asleep or on the couch watching television.

It is best to get a fitness professional to properly design your exercise program so you really do get the results you want. You can spend hours doing the wrong type of exercise and end up with very little to show for the time spent. The way you exercise has the ability to unleash hormonal forces within your body, either beneficial or detrimental.

Don't be one of the people who exercise for months or even years while experiencing little or no positive changes in your physique.

Stick with your properly structured exercise program for 12 months or longer (like lifelong) and you will be assured of sustaining long term fat loss. This means you can say goodbye to long slow boring cardio workouts focusing on burning calories and say hello to the body you will be happy to live with for the rest of your days.