There is no list of special exercises that magically cause you to drop pounds. The top weight loss exercises are conditional upon what you like and are willing and able to do. However, there are some guidelines for what types of exercise are best for weight loss. Strolling around the block or just trying to stay active might cause some weight loss, but they aren't the top ways to go about reaching a healthy weight.
Weight Training
Weight training is frequently overlooked as a weight loss exercise, but it is one of the best ways to promote weight loss. Muscle is known as active tissue, meaning that the body burns calories not just to build muscle but to maintain it, as well. Fat is not an active tissue and has no calorie burning properties. Lifting weights with machines and free weights is certainly the most well-known of weight training exercise. Pilates, yoga, manual labor such as digging ditches, and using rubber band-like resistance cables are other forms of exercise that build muscle.
Cardio Activities
Cardio exercise is anything that elevates your heart rate and increases your breathing. This can be using a cardio machine, signing up for a cardio bootcamp class or playing sports. What is important to know is that cardio exercise falls into the three categories of light, medium and high or vigorous. Light cardio barely increases your breathing rate so that you can sing without trouble. This does not result in weight loss. Moderate and vigorous intensity exercise is best for losing weight. Moderate exercise includes activities like hiking and riding a bike on flat ground that increases your breathing so that you can converse but do not have enough breath to sing. Vigorous intensity makes continuous speech impossible, but if you're gasping for air, you're doing too much. Running and intense sports result in vigorous intensity and burn more calories. It also is harder on the body, and you will be able to exercise moderately for a longer duration than you can vigorously. Both are effective for weight loss.
Cardio Frequency
To lose weight, perform a minimum of 30 minutes of cardio exercise on all but two days of the week. Whether you do continuous exercise for 30 minutes, two 15-minute sessions or three 10-minute sessions is up to you. Any of these will result in the same weight lost, but shorter sessions are easier as far as endurance goes.
Tips
Even the best weight loss exercise is the world won't burn a single calorie if you avoid doing it. Exercise that you hate or is too difficult simply won't get done, no matter how effective you know it to be. Choose exercises you like, and you will improve the chance that you will do them. Also, when starting out, it might be easier to just do anything, any time you feel like it, instead of being rigid. For long term success though, pick a time dedicated to exercise so working out becomes habitual. This makes it easier to stay with it on days when you do not feel like exercising or would otherwise forget. Another tip is to think healthy, not thin. If you focus on improving your health instead of meeting a weight goal, you give yourself a greater chance of success.
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