Consistent workouts that include running, swimming, walking or other aerobic activities are the best way to trim your overall body weight and avoid dangerous conditions like obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Reducing your weekly exercise won't help you lose fat --- just the opposite --- though abandoning your strength-training workouts will cause a decrease in muscle mass, or muscle weight. Reduced muscle mass weakens your bones and puts you at risk for osteoporosis. Investigate the facts about exercise and weight loss to protect your health.
The Risk of Losing Muscle Weight
Lifting weights like barbells, doing push-ups and pull-ups, working on a weight machine or even stretching colored resistance tubes are all methods of strength training. Doctors often suggest strength training as a method to lose fat, since the workouts give your body the power to burn calories with greater efficiency. Strength training also helps your body build and retain valuable muscle mass, or weight that begins to decline as your body ages. Depriving your body of muscle can lead to weakened bones and other health concerns. Strength training keeps your bones strong, improves your balance and stamina, and decreases your chance for diabetes and arthritis. A decision to eliminate strength training from your schedule will likely result in weight gain --- not weight loss --- as well as future health problems.
Protect Your Muscles and Your Future
Visit your doctor to confirm that strength training is safe for your health condition, especially if you have existing medical concerns that require medication. Plan to start slowly. With two to three workouts every week that last at least 30 minutes, you will have sufficient time to reap the benefits of the activity --- including less body fat. Stretch lightly or go for a quick walk to warm your body before each workout and lower your chance for a muscle injury or strain.
Recommended Exercise for Weight Loss
Aerobic activity is the most effective way to achieve a lower body weight. Experts usually recommend aerobic workouts up to five times each week for between 30 and 60 minutes. Reducing your exercise time will likely lead to increased weight gain, not weight loss, so add more time to your workouts to burn the most calories. Your doctor can review the various types of aerobic activity and help you plan a safe fitness regimen. Choose exercises that you enjoy, since you'll need to work out regularly to see the benefits of the increased activity. Popular aerobic methods for beginners include brisk walking or riding a bicycle. Swimming, aerobic dance classes, jogging and stair-climbing machines typically provide more vigorous workouts. Reschedule your exercise and seek care if you suffer shortness of breath, chest pain or dizzy spells.
Essential Ingredients
A nutritious diet is an essential complement to your exercise regimen if you hope to achieve substantial weight loss. Avoid diets that promise easy or fast weight reduction --- especially those that require you to consume fewer than 1,200 calories daily. Eat plenty of vegetables, fruits and whole grains, as well as fat-free dairy products, and ask your doctor for a referral to a nutritionist if you need help planning your meals.
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