Weight loss and exercise: everything you need to know to lose weight fast
Exercising to lose weight, it works in the short and long term!
Exercising is a great way to force the body to utilize its fat stores. To maintain effort during a training session, the body needs energy. Once it runs out of calories still circulating in the blood from your last meal, it consumes the fats that were previously stored in the adipocytes.
Exercise also helps increase muscle mass. As part of a slimming program, this is very important, because muscle consumes more energy than body fat, even at rest! By building muscle, you will increase your basal metabolic rate and therefore your daily energy consumption, even when you're not doing anything in particular.
Note: When you want to lose weight, you don't want to shed a lot of pounds, but primarily fat. Why do you have to make a difference? Simply because muscle weighs more than fat for an equivalent size! You can check your pants size without changing the number on the scale. Always keep this information in mind, because if you exercise, you will burn fat, but you will gain muscle. So it is possible to lose weight at one time or another without actually losing any pounds.
How many times a week should you exercise to lose weight?
To stay healthy, the World Health Organization recommends at least 30 minutes of daily activity or taking 10,000 steps per day. To lose weight while exercising, you should go beyond these recommendations and add at least 3 sessions of 45 minutes of physical activity per week. This will allow your heart and muscles to gradually build up. It is better to do several 'small' weekly sessions rather than a long one if you want satisfactory and lasting results.
How long should I train and at what intensity?
It is recommended to train for at least 45 minutes, because the body only begins to rely on its reserves of fat after 30 minutes of exertion. In the first half hour, carbohydrates are used up in the blood. However, several studies have shown that exercises performed at a very high intensity also provide good results while reducing training times. We will tell you more about it later.
Training time is certainly an important criterion for weight loss, but intensity is also essential. It is estimated that energy expenditure is optimal when the heart rate remains in the range of 60% to 70% of the maximum heart rate (FCM).
To find out the latter, it is possible to take a medical test, but if you do not want to pass it, you can perform a simple calculation to assess it. In general, your FCM corresponds to the FCM reference, i.e. 220, from which you are drawing your age.
What is the best time of day to exercise to lose weight?
The ideal, if possible, is to stop the gym sessions in the morning, as soon as possible. Thus, the body is strengthened as soon as you wake up, which increases your calorie consumption throughout the day. But the most important thing is to find a time period that works for you.
To maintain the benefits of exercise on your weight, you must be able to continue training regularly and over the long term. If you impose difficult schedules on yourself, your motivation will quickly weaken and you will give up. However, avoid exercising late at night, as this may disturb your sleep. And lack of sleep often chime with weight gain!
Cardio, HIIT or Strength: What's the Best Way to Lose Weight?
Cardio, the king of sports for weight loss?
Strengthening the cardiovascular system, cardio exercises are those that burn a lot of calories. So it allows you to lose weight quickly, which has beneficial effects on your motivation in the short term. You can bet on cycling, running, rowing machine, elliptical trainer or even a treadmill to achieve visible weight loss in just a few weeks. However, it is better to choose sports such as bodybuilding that build muscle in general, to enjoy more benefits for your health, but also to increase your basic metabolism.
HIIT, a good way to lose weight in short sessions
HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), also called High Intensity Interval Training, is a training method that combines cardio and muscle strengthening exercises. It consists of alternating high-intensity, even high-intensity activity and recovery phases.
By forcing your body to utilize its reserves, you will cause rapid weight loss. The big advantage of this technique is that you get dramatic results and excellent fat burning with less training times. A 20-minute session is just as effective as a 45-minute cardio session and also helps increase muscle mass and thus basal metabolism. All traditional cardio sports can be practiced in HIIT: rowing, swimming, running, cycling, etc.
Strength exercises to lose weight permanently
People tend to think that cardio makes you melt and weight exercises...muscles! Of course, all of this is true, but in fact, weight training can also help you lose weight. Low-intensity exercise burns fat, but consumes fewer calories than a cardio session. However, fat burning continues for up to two hours after the session. Additionally, the big advantage of weight training is that by dramatically increasing muscle mass, it also dramatically increases your basal metabolism, allowing you to consume more calories while at rest.
So, cardio, strength training or HIIT?
You may have already understood that the best way to achieve effective long-term weight loss is to combine cardio training to burn calories quickly and weight training to increase muscle mass and basic metabolism. You can also focus on HIIT exercises, but it will be important to keep the long cardio sessions in parallel to continue working on the endurance and weight training sessions for muscle development.
Whatever sport you choose to lose weight, remember that to lose weight, physical activity must be undertaken as part of a healthy lifestyle as well as a varied and balanced diet, providing a calorie intake proportional to your energy expenditure. In just a few weeks you will notice real results while enjoying the health benefits!