Keep On Moving: The Best Exercise To Lose Weight
If you’re trying to lose weight, you will know that exercise can be something of a double-edged sword. Yes, sometimes it can lead to the weight dropping off and you becoming a fitter, healthier version of yourself. But more often than not, it can be the exact opposite. A chore that doesn’t seem to make any difference, something that causes injury and pain, a grind that causes you to end up putting more weight on. It doesn’t have to be like that! We’re here to share the best exercise to lose weight…
The Science Behind Exercise And Weight Loss
It may interest you to know that, although we have all been conditioned to believe that exercise is the most important tool when it comes to losing weight, this actually isn’t the case at all. In fact:
- Exercise Counts For Only A Small Amount Of Overall Calorie Burn
In fact, 60-80% of our daily calorie burn comes from our basal metabolic rate – the rate at which we burn calories through basic functioning when the body is at rest. Around 10-30% of calorie burn can be attributed to exercise.
- It’s Tricky To Create A Big Calorie Deficit Through Exercise
Again, this might surprise you, but even if you exercised for 60 minutes a day, every day, you wouldn’t have a huge calorie deficit. So if you try to lose weight through exercise alone, you are likely to be disappointed by the results.
- Exercise Can Undermine Weight Loss
It is very easy to fall into a trap when trying to lose weight – you have exercised so you deserve a cake or a sugary drink to top up your energy levels. The fact is, if these weren’t part of your normal diet before you started to exercise, then you are unlikely to lose weight – and in fact, you could even start putting weight on.
With these pitfalls in mind, we need to change how we think about exercise in terms of tipping the scales. It’s still vitally important for a healthy lifestyle – it leads to improved mood, stronger bones and reduced risk of chronic diseases, and it can help with weight loss, when you go about it the right way.
What Is The Best Exercise To Lose Weight?
While there are many exercises that can work to shed those pounds, it will be different for everyone. What works for a friend may very well not work for you – this is down to our genes and the way that our bodies work to burn energy. That being said, here are some of the most popular exercises for weight loss:
1. Walking
Although it is tempting to leap straight into jogging or running, it is actually much better for you to build up your walking base first, particularly if you are a beginner. Walking puts minimal stress on your joints, you can do it anywhere, and it helps to build up your strength. Because it is a gentle exercise, you are unlikely to get injured (as long as you don’t push yourself too hard), and because of this you can walk for much longer periods of time than you would if you were jogging or running. This means that you can actually burn more calories, even if you’re not getting that panting, out of breath feeling.
2. Swimming
Swimming is another low intensity exercise that is unlikely to cause injury. It provides a wonderful workout of most of the muscle groups in your body, helping you get stronger and fitter and improving your posture. You can build on swimming very slowly, and different strokes burn different amounts of calories, with butterfly burning the most.
3. Weight Training
Although some people are put off weight training when they are trying to lose weight because they are worried about ‘bulking up’, it is actually a superb way of burning calories. Of course, you burn calories during the exercise itself (about 112 calories per 30 minutes of weight training), but the promotion of muscle growth also means that your resting metabolic rate increases. This means that you burn calories at a higher rate when you are at rest, too, so the benefits continue long after your training session.
4. Yoga
Although yoga is not traditionally thought of as a weight loss exercise, it actually burns a reasonable amount of calories and has many other benefits, including improvements in mental and physical well-being. The mindfulness that comes with yoga can help you to control overeating and resist unhealthy foods.How Can You Tell Which Is The Best Exercise For You?
Exercising regularly is vital to staying healthy, and if you don’t currently exercise but want to start then it can be very difficult to determine which is best for you. What works will depend on your age, your fitness level, your metabolic rate, your diet and any previous injuries you might have had. This means that an exercise plan should be personalized, with your goals in mind.
You should also make sure that you don’t separate exercise from the other elements of your weight loss plan. They should work together, cohesively. This is why BluVida has developed a 12 Week Weight Loss Program, which is a completely individualized plan which takes into account all of your unique circumstances. We’ll tell you which is your best exercise to lose weight – but we don’t just focus on diet and exercise. The plan aims to help you become fitter and healthier for life, through our peerless M3PSONG approach. This stands for:
- Medication
- Movement
- Modalities
- Peptide Therapy
- Supplements
- Oxygenation
- Nutrition
- Genomics
The exercise element is covered by ‘movement’ but as you can see, there is so much more to our program.
To find out more and get started on a journey to a healthier you, simply fill in the form below for your FREE info pack.