Whatever your weight loss or fitness goals may be, exercise
is a necessary ingredient to maintain any healthy weight and lifestyle. The
primary goal of exercise is the boost your metabolism, to burn extra calories,
and to burn fat. You need both types of exercise to maintain fitness, and to
lose weight.
Aerobic exercise such as running, cycling and swimming both burn calories, boosting metabolism, and build lean muscle. These are cardiovascular types of exercise that increase blood flow through your body, and help to keep your heart healthy. While these exercises burn fat, they are not a one-stop shopping trip for most people and need to be combined with weight bearing activities to build lean muscle in higher proportions, and burn fat more effectively.
When doing a cardiovascular activity such as cycling or swimming, to maximize fat burning, it is important to do the activity continuously for at least 15-20 minutes. In the first few minutes of exercise you body used stored energy, such as food you recently consumed to sustain the exercise. Only after an extended period of 15-20 minutes does the body switch to using stored energy to fuel your exercise routine, to using stored fat as fuel. Once you pass the 15- 20 minute mark (the exact time is slightly different for different bodies), your body will use stored body fat to fuel your workout—so the longer the workout, the more body fat burned!
Anaerobic exercise such as weight lifting is also an important component for fat burning.
Lifting weights builds lean muscle in a more concentrated and intense way than aerobic exercise does. This is important because your body uses more calories to fuel lean muscle mass, even when you are resting. So, a 150lb person with more lean muscle mass will burn more calories everyday without moving a muscle, than will a person of the same weight with less muscle mass.
Women are sometimes hesitant to lift weights because they fear they will look too “bulky” if they do. Men and women have different bodies and different exercise needs, and need to use different weight lifting exercises to burn fat and achieve the look they want.
Men tend to want larger muscles, and to achieve this should lift heavier weights with low repetitions. Women tend to want lean, defined muscles, and should lift light weights (3-5 lbs) with high repetitions. Women need not fear bulking up and looking masculine if they lift weights correctly. Lifting weights will also help strengthen your bones, which is particularly important as you get older.
There is no one secret to exercise that burns fat—there are many ways to achieve fat burning through exercise. The important thing is to move—to do some type of exercise nearly everyday. Mix up your exercise routine to keep it interesting, or try something like taking a dance class to make it fun. You are much more likely to stick to an exercise routine if you do something you like to do. And sustained, long term exercise is truly the best way to burn fat and maintain a healthy weight.
Aerobic exercise such as running, cycling and swimming both burn calories, boosting metabolism, and build lean muscle. These are cardiovascular types of exercise that increase blood flow through your body, and help to keep your heart healthy. While these exercises burn fat, they are not a one-stop shopping trip for most people and need to be combined with weight bearing activities to build lean muscle in higher proportions, and burn fat more effectively.
When doing a cardiovascular activity such as cycling or swimming, to maximize fat burning, it is important to do the activity continuously for at least 15-20 minutes. In the first few minutes of exercise you body used stored energy, such as food you recently consumed to sustain the exercise. Only after an extended period of 15-20 minutes does the body switch to using stored energy to fuel your exercise routine, to using stored fat as fuel. Once you pass the 15- 20 minute mark (the exact time is slightly different for different bodies), your body will use stored body fat to fuel your workout—so the longer the workout, the more body fat burned!
Anaerobic exercise such as weight lifting is also an important component for fat burning.
Lifting weights builds lean muscle in a more concentrated and intense way than aerobic exercise does. This is important because your body uses more calories to fuel lean muscle mass, even when you are resting. So, a 150lb person with more lean muscle mass will burn more calories everyday without moving a muscle, than will a person of the same weight with less muscle mass.
Women are sometimes hesitant to lift weights because they fear they will look too “bulky” if they do. Men and women have different bodies and different exercise needs, and need to use different weight lifting exercises to burn fat and achieve the look they want.
Men tend to want larger muscles, and to achieve this should lift heavier weights with low repetitions. Women tend to want lean, defined muscles, and should lift light weights (3-5 lbs) with high repetitions. Women need not fear bulking up and looking masculine if they lift weights correctly. Lifting weights will also help strengthen your bones, which is particularly important as you get older.
There is no one secret to exercise that burns fat—there are many ways to achieve fat burning through exercise. The important thing is to move—to do some type of exercise nearly everyday. Mix up your exercise routine to keep it interesting, or try something like taking a dance class to make it fun. You are much more likely to stick to an exercise routine if you do something you like to do. And sustained, long term exercise is truly the best way to burn fat and maintain a healthy weight.
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