Fast Track to Healthy Weight Loss: Exercise

You've heard it all before... weight loss exercise is an important part of any diet plan. And you know that exercise not only helps us shed pounds but it also improves our health and mental state at the same time.

But do you know how it works to accomplish all that? And do you know the best way to incorporate weight loss and exercise into your life? That's what this article is about.

Metabolism and Weight Loss

Exercise not only burns calories. It also raises your metabolism. That's your body's ability to burn calories. So exercise can cause calories to be burned at a higher rate, even after the workout is over. You can imagine the beneficial effect this has on your overall weight loss!

Exercise is also the best way to change your body composition. Why is that important? Your body is composed of different types of tissue: muscle and fat are the two we're mostly concerned with. Muscles require energy and burn calories even when you're sleeping or resting. But not fat. Fat cells store calories. So it just makes sense that having more muscle than fat will allow you to eat more food (yes you read that right!), be stronger, and look more fit.

And the only way to get a greater muscle / fat ratio is through sensible weight loss exercise. As you lose weight you want to try your best to maintain muscle mass by eating enough calories and protein, and by exercising routinely.

Here's how the weight loss exercise equation looks:

Add more muscle > your metabolism will run faster > you'll burn more calories > and lose weight faster > and find it easier to keep the weight off.

3 Types of Weight Loss Exercise:

1. ANAEROBIC EXERCISE: This is exercise that calls for short spurts of energy, like sprinting or weight training. It burns carbs and encourages muscles to grow. That speeds up the metabolism and makes for a tight, firm physique. One of the fastest forms of weight loss exercise is weight training.
2. AEROBIC EXERCISE: Activities like walking, jogging or dancing raise the heart rate and keep it raised for some time. This uses up stored fat and can boost your metabolism for hours after you've stopped exercising. Great for weight loss, aerobic exercise should become a daily part of your routine.
3. INTERVAL TRAINING: This is a form of weight loss exercise that raises then lowers your heart rate in intervals. It can improve both anaerobic and aerobic capacity at once. It's been shown to reduce fat, increase muscle, and speed up the metabolism. Try using this technique in whatever exercise you are doing -- If you walk, alternate between very brisk speed walking and a slower, easy paced walk, or jog then walk. Or alternate between sprints and jogging. On a bike, alternate between fast and slow pedaling.

The Exercise Plan for Exercise-Haters

Hate to exercise? Take heart. You can achieve excellent results with even a small investment of time and energy. Use the following guidelines for a fat-burning workout that works.

Weight Loss Exercise Guidelines To Burn Fat:

1. Be Consistent. Long periods without exercise will let your body go back to where it was. Muscles will shrink, metabolism will slow back down, and fat will pile back on.
2. Exercise Everyday. For the ultimate in weight loss, exercise frequently so your body burns more fat. Your physiology changes as you do more workouts in a way that provides more energy.
3. Lift Weights. Weight lifting is considered by many to be the only permanent solution to weight loss. Exercise with weights for 30 minutes just twice a week, and the results can be lasting: better metabolism, more calories burned and turned into muscle instead of fat. And a toned, lean appearance.
4. Aerobic Activity. Get your heart working harder by starting gradually and building up to a higher fitness level. Walk, swim, cycling, dancing, aerobic classes... it all burns calories and fat while improving your heart and lung capacity.
5. Harder and Faster, or Longer and Slower. You can choose from two weight loss exercise regimes. Do several vigorous workouts that are fairly short (15 - 20 minutes each). Or a slower aerobic activity done longer, like a 60 minute walk or bike ride. Choose the workout type that fits your lifestyle and energy level best.
6. Timing is Everything... Almost. Working out in the morning before eating lets you burn a greater amount of fat. If you exercise after eating, you get a dual effect: calories being burned as a result of digestion, and calories burned from exercise. This can lead to greater weight loss results than doing the two separately.

Summary

These fitness tips will help you blend weight loss / exercise into your daily routine without requiring any drastic lifestyle changes and without depriving you of the foods you love.