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Exercise is a part of any winning weight loss regime - there is no easy way around that fact. What many people don't realize however is that they may be exercising harder than they need... |
Exercise is a part of any winning weight loss regime – there is no easy way around that fact. What many people don’t realize however is that they may be exercising harder than they need to be, or that they may be doing the wrong kinds of exercises to get their metabolisms really moving. Who wants to waste a second longer in the gym than absolutely necessary? Get the most bang for your buck from your exercising regime by focusing on the kinds of workouts that are going to get your metabolism revved up and ready to burn some fat. Not all workouts are created equal, so consider these ways to find the right exercise plan for maximum weight loss.
First of all, here is the news that will be sweet relief for many people – cardio is not your best friend when it comes to losing weight. Cardio workouts are important for your overall health, and they do help you keep your metabolism fired up, but they aren’t the best workout you can be doing if you want your metabolism to burn the maximum number of calories. If you really want to lose weight, look beyond cardio to strength training exercises. Strength training and weight bearing exercises are the ones to go with if you want to see the fat melting away.
The reason that strength training works so well for your metabolism is simple. When you do weight lifting exercises, your body builds up lean muscle and loses fat. The fat stored on your body does very little to keep your metabolism going as its sitting there. Replace it with lean muscle, however, and your body because a fat burning animal. The lean muscle you have keeps burning calories at a high rate, even when you’re sleeping, watching TV, surfing the net or otherwise just chilling out. This muscle keeps your metabolism revved long after it would return to normal in cardio exercises, and so it is the way to go for maximized fat burning.
If the ladies are thinking that they can’t turn to strength training because they’ll get big and bulky, think again. Men and women build muscle in different ways, and men have a much, much large capacity for “getting ripped” than women do. Of course, women can build muscular physiques like any muscle man, but they have to make a targeted and conscious effort to achieve that body type. For most women, this just won’t be an issue. You can make your muscles even longer and leaner by going for lighter weight and more repetitions as opposed to heavy weights with few repetitions.
If you’ve been spending hours a day on a treadmill with little result, you may have been doing the wrong workout all along. Give yourself a break from all of that long, boring cardio work and add some shorter strength training workouts to the mix. Even though the time you are dedicating to exercising will actually decrease, your weight loss is likely to increase significantly.