What Is the Best Exercise to Lose Weight Fast?

When thinking about the best exercise for weight loss you first need to think about why you are trying to lose the weight. It may sound like a silly question, but if you think about it in more detail you will see why you need to answer that question first.

Many people say they want to lose weight. However, weight is just a number. It could be that they just want to have a small number appear on the scales when the jump on, but don't really care about their health or the shape of their bodies. If so, then just losing weight will be fine for them. They can go on a quack diet, and probably lose a fair few pounds in a short period of time. Great. However, it won't last as dieters always reach a plateau, they won't gain any health benefits and they won't change the way they look in the mirror that much either.

Most people who say they want to lose weight really want to do rather more than just have a lower number on their weight chart. Normally they want to change the shape of their bodies, get a sexier, slimmer body for the beach on holiday, and maybe improve their long term and short-term health. If that's what they want a diet will be useless. The key is to get rid of fat - it's bad for the health, especially the internal or visceral fat that surround the organs. It also covers over what muscles you have lurking underneath, so no one can see how great they are. I'm not a big fan of the bodybuilder look, but I do like nice toned bodies where you can see some muscle and the outer layer doesn't continue wobbling for 10 minutes after you stop moving.

The best exercise to lose weight then becomes the best exercise to get rid of body fat. This is a much better target and it is simple to do.

Start doing regular cardiovascular exercise. Regular means 5 times a week for 30 minutes or more. Cardiovascular means something that gets your heart pumping. Newly weds won't need any suggestions. For the rest of us it means running, cycling or swimming. As long as it make you hot, puffed out and sweaty it doesn't really matter what you do, so the best thing is to try a few things and find out what you like. Something you enjoy doing will be easy to keep on doing regularly, week in, week out. I found by trial and error that I love running in the countryside, but some people find that boring. We're all different - just do something that you enjoy.

Build up a little lean muscle. It looks good, and it helps to stop your resting metabolism slowing down. As you do more and more cardio exercise your body becomes more efficient. That means that it tends to burn through fewer calories in you normal daily life than it did before. Building some lean muscle mass by doing bodyweight exercises (abs, press-ups etc) or weights helps counteract this and keeps your body burning more calories even when you are asleep.

One further thing that might help, if you are able to do it, is to do your exercise early in the day. The reason is that exercise tends to suppress the appetite, meaning that you tend to consume

fewer calories. If you exercise in the morning before breakfast, you will eat less at breakfast and at all of the other meals in the day. If you exercise in the evening you will only reduce the amount you eat in the evening meal. So the overall calorie deficit will not be so great.

The best exercises to lose weight are a combination of good old heart pumping cardio work and a little muscle building to help burn through the most calories and reveal the sexy body which is currently hiding beneath a layer of fat. Just concentrate on burning fat, not on losing weight. Your weight sill still decrease, but you'll also make a huge difference to your appearance, and your health. What could be better?

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rob_Knowles

weight loss & fitness