Top Rated Exercises For Weight Loss

Exercise can help you lose weight. The important word is "help" -- exercise alone may not help you lose weight. It must be combined with a good diet that reduces calorie intake. The key to weight loss is burning more calories with exercise than you take in with food. Jogging to burn 500 calories won't help if you consume another 500 calories.

Best Exercise

The best exercise to help you lose weight is one you can do and will do regularly. Running, bicycling, cross-country skiing, swimming, weightlifting and rope skipping are among the top calorie-burning exercises, but not everyone can or will do those. The National Institute of Health recommends 30 minutes of moderate to intense physical activity every day, which can help you lose weight when you reduce your calorie intake.

Walk, Jog, Bike

Walking is the easiest weight-loss activity. Walking 2 miles briskly in 30 minutes burns about 160 calories in a 160-lb. person. A heavier person burns more, about 240 calories in a 240-lb. person. That 160-lb. person can burn 296 calories in 30 minutes by jogging at a 12-minute-per-mile pace, 528 calories when running at a 10-minute-per-mile pace or 200 calories when bicycling at a 10-mile-per-hour speed. Walking and bicycling are easier on joints than jogging.

Weights and Machines

Weight training and exercise machines also can be useful for weight loss. Weightlifting should be done only three days a week and is most successful when combined with aerobic activities, such as jogging or bicycling. Half an hour of moderate weight training will burn 200 calories in a 160-lb. person, but skipping rope, a frequent aerobic choice of weightlifters, uses 456 calaories in that time. Exercise machines, such as elliptical trainers and stair steppers, combine weight and aerobic exercise and can be almost as effective in burning calories as jogging or biking.

Dance or Swim

Aerobic dancing and stepping, swimming and active sports, such as tennis and racquetball, also can be good for weight loss if done regularly. Aerobics and swimming are the easiest on joints for those with knee or back problems and can rate almost with high-impact exercises, such as running, for calorie burning. Both can be very intense workouts.

Time

The length of time spent exercising is more important than the intensity. The body burns glycogen, carbohydrates stored in muscles, before it starts burning fat. Weight loss depends on burning body fat, so an exercise period must last long enough to deplete glycogen and burn fat. That time varies by person and diet, but eating foods with high-carbohydrate and low-fat content helps.