On your way to losing weight, eating healthy alone may not be enough. It could depend on how much weight you are trying to lose and how well you are able to stick with eating healthy. Sometimes it’s helpful to add exercising to your routine in order to shed those extra pounds and lose weight.
- Create a schedule and stick to it.
It’s important that you establish a routine that you can follow on weekly basis. Figure out which days you can exercise to lose weight and what times you exercise during those days. There is no need to exercise every day. Start out with just a couple of times a week. Maybe you can put in 30 minutes after work on Tuesday and 30 minutes after work on Thursday. Maybe you can exercise every day. This all depends on how busy your schedule is, how much you are willing to devote to exercising to lose weight and how much weight you want to lose. In my case, I like to exercise almost every other day. I play baseball on Mondays and go the gym after work on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Well, I don’t usually work on Saturdays, but I don’t mind including weekends into my plan. Find what is right for you, but make sure to create a routine. If you just exercise to lose weight whenever you want with out having a set schedule, you will notice that the one day between exercises will turn into several days and you will begin to put exercising off. - Cardio Weight Loss
In my mind there are two types of cardio exercises you can do to lose weight.
Steady-State
Steady-State cardio is the exercise that most people know and practice to lose weight. This is where you run or bike or do any other exercise to lose weight at a steady pace for a certain amount of time. You can get on a treadmill for 30 minutes and jog at a specific speed and lose 200 calories. If you exercise and go faster for the same amount of time or if you jog longer at the same pace, you will lose more calories. This is it, this is where it ends. You exercised, you lost 200 calories and you went home to watch TV. While you are sitting there watching tv, no more calories are burning, no more weight is being lost.Interval Training
Interval training is the next generation of weight loss and fitness. Interval training is just what it sounds like. You do a physical activity at high pace, rest, and repeat. With interval training you spend less time exercising than with steady-state cardio, you increase your metabolism for a longer period of time and you lose more weight exercising. This is why interval training is the next generation of exercising to lose weight and to get in shape.
An example of interval training exercise would be:
I. walk for 3 minutes to warm up
II. sprint at 80-90% (almost as fast as you can go) for 1 minute
III. walk for 1 minute to rest
IV. repeat steps II and III a total of 6 times.
You can vary the length of time you sprint and rest and also the number of times you repeat the exercise. But always try to keep your actual sprinting to high intensity. The above exercise would have only taken you 15 minutes to do and is better than jogging for 30.
The main reason that interval training is better for losing weight is that it increases metabolism significantly and keeps it up during the time you are not exercising. Which means you are burning calories and losing weight while watching TV after you come home from the gym! Yet another positive side effect of interval training is that you will actually be in a better physical shape then someone who does only steady-state training to lose weight. Ever see how skinny to the bone marathon runners are and compare them to how physically in shape sprinters are? If you really want to lose weight exercising, interval training is the best way to go. - Sports To Lose Weight
One of the most fun ways that you could lose weight exercising and burn calories is by playing sports or doing other fun physical activities.
The list below is calories burned per 1 hour.
- Walking (at quick pace) – 300
- Skating (ice or roller) - 450
- Jogging – 650
- Bicycling – 300
- Aerobics – 400
- Swimming – 400
- Tennis – 500
- Basketball – 500
- Football – 560
- Volleyball – 320
- Handball – 750
- Dancing – 350
- Bowling – 250
- Golf – 300
- Calisthenics - 400
These numbers are an average and would vary depending on your weight and how much energy you put into the activities.
If you want to go even further and see what is out there, check out some of the best Diet Programs.