You might have been wondering about what’s the best exercise for weight loss. Actually, there are lots of them. But before choosing for the best exercise that suits you, you need to consider the following aspects.
Have the right motivation
First, you need to have the right motivation in why you want to lose weight. A strong motivation can help you hold on when the going gets tough. Losing weight is not as easy as it seems. Challenges may pop up from nowhere. They can be weather gone bad, hectic schedules, family emergencies or your own body working against you.
Have a proper diet
Second, watch what you eat. Once your motivation is set in place, your diet choices come in next. This means you have to give up munching on unhealthy fats such as fried foods and replace them with more natural ones like nuts and healthy oils. Cut back on foods with artificial flavorings and sweeteners and give up unnecessary snacking. As long as you stay away from unnatural foods, you’re safe.
Make it a habit
Third, make sure your exercise program becomes a habit. You need to promise yourself that you will do it on a regular basis for best results.
Take a break
Fourth, never forget to give your body some rest. You can exercise for five days a week and rest for two days. It actually depends upon you. Listen to your body. It will give you hints when to push for more and when to stop and pause.
Don’t stick to one exercise
Fifth, you need to know that you don’t have to stick to one exercise only. You can do a combination of them or alternate doing them every day. This ensures you’re targeting all your body muscles, which are important in achieving balance. This is also a way of not getting bored doing the same thing every day. Here are the best exercises you can try.
Walking
Sounds simple, right? It’s because it only takes a pair of tennis shoes and a place to go. But walking has tons of benefits even if you do it for only 30 minutes a day.
Walking is a de-stressing activity that lowers your blood pressure and pumps your brain to become much more creative. It also boosts your mood and reduces your risks of cardiovascular diseases.
Some doctors even recommend walking as the best exercise for their patients because it’s simple and one of the most effective low-impact ways to mobilize fat.
If belly fat is your problem, then walking is absolutely the right exercise for you. Walking on a regular basis helps your body’s response to insulin, which helps reduce those unwanted fats around your waist.
Begin at a regular pace. Once you’re comfortable with it, you can walk a bit faster. The faster you walk, the greater the benefits. If you find that you’re already walking much more briskly with less effort, then it might be time to do power walks. This involves walking uphills. Walking 10 to 15 minutes up and going down again is already a form of high intensity exercise, which is a good way to lose weight faster.
Running
Running is another great form of exercise that not everybody is in love with. Yes. love it or hate it but running is the best way to keep your whole body working hard to achieve your weight loss goals.
If you want to try running, make sure you maintain a good posture. Having a good posture while running is the key to achieve optimal breathing. The more you breathe properly, the better able you are to run longer.
If you’re a total beginner, you can alternate between walking and running. Walk for half a minute, run for a full minute. Lengthen your running time as you progress.
Cycling
Before you rule out this high intensity form of exercise, you may want to consider the weight loss gains that cycling can bring. If your aim is to burn calories faster, cycling is the best option. You can burn as much as 1,000 calories for an hour when you’re cycling. But of course, this must be combined with eating well and finding pleasure while doing the activity. Doing something that you don’t like typically affect your body’s ability to burn calories. It’s of vital importance to choose the kind of exercise where your body and mind both agree.
Another considerable thing about cycling is it can not only burn fat but help you build muscle. Meaning, you not only become fit but will have toned muscles too. If you want to try cycling, you can make it more fun by exploring new places with your bike or joining a cycling club.
Yoga
You read it right. Yoga belongs to the list no matter how difficult it is to connect yoga with weight loss. And if you want to lose weight while staying indoors, try yoga.
Yoga is popular in mindfulness, flexibility, and stress reduction. Because of this, yoga’s function on weight loss isn’t that popular yet. But yoga is extremely beneficial for lasting weight loss and overall health.
Yoga asanas, the poses performed in sequence, have the ability to burn fat stores. These power poses also help you develop strength and muscles. With yoga, you don’t need any equipment to lose weight. You only need your mat and your body weight.
Yoga routines may look simple, but they do require a great deal of physical and mental strength, focus, endurance, and flexibility.
What’s unique about yoga is that it has the ability to transform yourself from the inside out. Yoga helps the proper flow of your body’s energetic layers: body, mind, and soul. Each of this layer depends on and affects the others. You can’t have one layer running properly when the other two aren’t working right. Yoga unites and harmonizes these three decision makers that rule your life. Once these three get along, you find balance in all areas of life, weight loss included. In a way, weight loss is only an added benefit to a yoga practice.
There you have it. From a simple option to more intense ones and to a more mindful activity. Find the one that suits best to your lifestyle, schedule, and above all, the one you really love to do.
You can try combining some of them or you can try all of them to see what works. Just do it gradually to avoid over exercising. And never forget to have fun. It’s one secret to keep going.