Exercise burns calories, which plays an role in weight loss and maintaining a healthy weight. Above and beyond weight loss, exercise has many important benefits, including improving physical and mental health, reducing the risk of many chronic illnesses, and increasing fitness.
The best weight loss exercise is the cardio activity you enjoy. Types of cardio include jogging, sprinting, power walking, cycling, hiking, swimming, spinning and aerobics classes.
Whatever your weight loss exercise of choice, change your routine regularly to prevent weight loss plateaus. Things you can change include the type of activity, workout, intensity, and duration.
The body senses stress and adapts as quickly as possible, your body starts to adapt to your exercise routine. When begins to adapt, you stop seeing as many results. You burn less calories and tax your muscles less efficiently.
However, once the training parameters change, your body has re-adapt, thereby accelerating your progress. If possible change your exercise routine every three to four weeks.
The Best Weight Loss Exercise
Here’s a run down of the some of the best weight loss exercises. Click here to calculate how many calories you will burn based on your body weight and exercise duration.
- Running. One of the best weight loss exercise. Running is one of the most efficient methods of burning calories. For every mile you run, you burn approx. 100 calories.
It has the highest calorie burn and, as the English say, is as cheap as chips (fries). All you need is a pair of quality running shoes. Plus, if you stick with it, you’ll get hooked, making weight loss and weight maintenance easy. Check out a beginners running plan and how to run to get started. - Spinning or cycling. This targets thighs and calf muscles. The effectiveness for weight loss depends on speed and resistance/ incline.
- Swimming. An excellent full-body weight loss exercise. Water supports the body. Thus, less stress is placed on joints – low-impact. Brilliant for those with injuries.
- Jumping rope is a seriously simple, but effective weight loss exercise. Ten minutes of jumping rope burns the rough equivalent of running an eight-minute mile. This weight loss exercise also improves cardiovascular endurance, coordination and agility.
- Rowing. Cardio and resistance training in one fierce calorie-burning workout lasting between 20 and 40 minutes. Best used for interval training. Just make sure most of your power driving the stroke comes from large muscle of the thighs – not the upper body (a common mistake).
- Elliptical Trainer. If you can’t run this is an awesome piece of machinery. The elliptical trainer combines the cardio of running with resistance and it is low impact. Another positive is that burning the equivalent amount of calories as running feels easier on the elliptical. Great weight loss exercise. Compare the elliptical trainer with the treadmill.
- Cross-country skiing (machine or outdoors) is a fantastic endurance sport, calling on every major muscle group. Again it is a combination of resistance and cardio exercise. If you’ve got snow I suggest you ski.
- Step Aerobics targets legs, hips and glutes. It is an intense calorie-burning exercise. Calories burned during this weight loss exercise depends on speed and step height.
- Racquetball/ Squash. The high-intensity makes racquetball a great weight loss exercise.
- Rock climbing is a weight loss exercise that combines cardiovascular exercise with resistance training. This weight loss exercise burns A LOT of calories, esp. on the way up.
Focus on the exercise you are doing and make sure you’re exercising with proper form. Ad you grow more fit, slowly and steadily increase the level of difficulty.
Having a fat bulging body is a problem for every women. I have the tried the workouts mentioned in the article and it did help for sure. I feel more active now more confident than before.
Thanks alot for the information. Great work.
Another thing you have to consider is that muscle weighs more than fat so if you are gaining muscle and losing fat you may not notice a considerable drop in weight or even may gain in weight.
I notice James and DJ posted quite awhile ago, but in case you’re still having problems, here are some considerations. I am a personal trainer as well as Hilda.
First: weight training – what type of training are you doing? free weights or machines? are you training your whole body, or just doing a little of this and that. If you have never had a trainer, I suggest you get one, at least for a couple sessions. Doing weight training incorrectly is worst than not doing it at all. Also, you should be concentrating on building lean muscle mass, which means moderate weight at a moderate tempo for 12-25 reps, a couple times, for each muscle group. The weight should be enough so that your last rep is the last one you can manage with good form.
Second: Scale weight – did you know muscle weighs almost twice as much by volume than fat. So measure your body fat, not the scale.
Last: you mentioned your waist is getting bigger. Watch your carbs – focus more on protein, avoid bad carbs. However, you do need carbs for energy, so don’t cut them out entirely. If you do, you may burn muscle, which is a fat burner.
It’s a complex problem. I am 68 years old, and discovered free weight training in my fifties. In two years, I added thirty pounds of muscle (my body fat went from 25 to 12 percent). I am now around eighteen percent, work out 1-2 hours per day using free weights, cycling, step aerobics (I am a group exercise instructor as well). Whenever I feel a little overweight, I go to a vegan diet. I do very little dairy. I don’t eat red meat anymore.
Free weights, done correctly, will give you the qucikest result. There are some machines you should avoid, but I will not dwell on the reasons here. That’s the leg press, leg extension, preacher curl (biceps).
Hope that helps.
Something is wrong with that picture…..,When the current program is no longer working..you should consider changing it; just like we do in medicine(I am and RN.)however..I have a nutrional consultant certification from the glomal college of natural medicine..I am also a Personal Trainer; Change the calories..,Change the amt of protien or fat or even carbs..some days..,Change the exercise routine often…,Are you hydrated…do you believe in vitamins…to name a few
Im with you, I had a heart attack in 2009. I have gained 30 pounds since. I workout everyday. I run and lift weights. I have even gone on a 2000 calorie diet. I LOSE NO WEIGHT! I am convinced it is the medications. The Dr. says no way. But I work too hard not to lose anything.
I am a white male,75 years old and have been going to the gym three times a week. I have had three heart attacks in late 2005 and early 2006. I am on the treadmill for 28 minutes and do as much speed as I can accommadate and do weight lifting exercises and ab exercises. I began at 175lbs a year ago, kept the same regimen each day, and stayed at the same weight, however within the last several weeks I have noticed that I seem to be gaining a little weight. I weigh myself everyday, and today I am at 195.6 lbs. I continue to keep myself on a decent diet, try to eat the right foods, but I cannot understand why I am getting heavier around the lower waist. I was a 32 inch waist when I started my program, but now am up to a 36 inch waist. I keep my carbs and sugar as low as I can, and I don’t seem to be able to solve the problem of the weight gain. Any help and comments you can give me will be appreciated very much and I will follow your instructions
Its probably because you are gaining muscle