Maintaining a healthy weight improves your overall fitness and will help you live longer and feel better. Aerobic exercise burns calories and resistance training increases muscle mass, which boosts your metabolism. To lose one pound, you have to burn 3,500 calories more than your body needs to function. If you burn 500 calories more than you eat each day, you will lose one pound in a week. Extreme cardio workouts burn the most calories and are the best exercise for fast weight loss.
Running
Running is not for everyone, but it burns maximum calories and can be done outside, in a gym or on a home treadmill. Running for one hour burns 1,472 calories for a 240-pound person, 1,229 for a 200-pound person and 986 for a 160-pound person. Running on a treadmill burns 25 percent more calories than using other aerobic riders.
Circuit Training
Circuit training with weights boosts your metabolism and burns calories. It is also an efficient use of gym time. By combining resistance training with your aerobic workout, you can streamline your workout time and routine. This is especially useful for individuals who workout on their lunch hour. Circuit training can be done using a dumbbell routine working three body parts using two exercises per body part. Use low weights and perform three sets of 15 repetitions with 45-second breaks between sets. Do not stop between exercises. When one exercise is complete, move on to the other exercise. You can use a split routine, where you work the upper body one day and the lower body the next.
Boot Camp
Boot camp workouts are intense aerobic workouts that target specific muscle groups each workout. Some boot camp programs are available at private training facilities. The training consists of military-like obstacle courses with continual aerobic exercise mixed with coordination exercises such as running through tires, climbing ropes and scaling walls. Home boot camp programs are available on DVDs that use a choreographed program designed as a progression training technique. Many gyms are starting scaled down versions of private boot camp programs. This fast weight loss program adds variety to your workout routine.
Indoor Cycling
If you do not like running, indoor cycling is another fast weight loss method that is low impact. An aerobic instructor leads the class on a stationary bike ride using music and motivation during the ride. Using the resistance levels on the specially designed bikes, you go up hills, sprint and cruise your way into shape. A 154-pound individual burns 733 calories per hour during this type of class.
References
- Mayo Clinic: Weight Loss
- Mayo Clinic: Aerobic Exercise: Top 10 Reasons to Get Physical
- American Council on Exercise: Treadmills Burn More Calories Than Aerobi Riders According To New Study By American Council on Exercise
- Bangkok Bootcamp
- Extreme Pittsburgh: Programs
- USA Today: How Many Calories Have You Burned?
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