Quite simply: Any exercise is good for losing weight! But, there are some that are heads and tails over the others. Before we discuss which are the best exercises for losing weight, we should discuss how the body uses exercise to lose weight. Unfortunately sweat is not fat cells leaving your body or I would be in the sauna everyday! The science of weight loss can be simplified pretty well so that you have a good idea of how your body is benefiting from exercise.
There are two ways your body loses weight through exercise and both of them have to do with burning calories. Despite fad diets and wacky fitness products the old weight loss formula of calories in must be less than calories out, is the only way to lose weight naturally. You can abide by this formula by either cutting calories out of your diet or burning calories with exercise. A combination of the two usually results in the best outcome. The best exercises for losing weight, therefore, are those that burn serious calories.
Good news: your body burns calories at rest! True you can burn calories through high intensity cardio workouts, but you can also increase your metabolic rate to burn more calories at rest. Our body uses energy to maintain itself. All of our tissues and organs need calories as energy to survive. Muscle must have more energy than fat to maintain itself. This means that muscle burns through more calories on a daily basis than fat does, even at rest. So, one of the best types of exercises for losing weight is that which increases your muscle.
Strength training is an excellent way of building muscle. Light resistance training or actual weight lifting are both satisfactory ways of doing this. Even Yoga and Pilates are excellent at building lean muscles. As your percentage of muscle increases, so will your resting metabolic rate. This means you can ingest the same amount of calories and lose weight. For this reason, muscle building workouts are definitely one of the best exercises for losing weight.
Another way your body burns through calories is during cardio or aerobic workouts. When your heart rate is elevated and you are working out hard, your body requires immediate increases in energy. While you are using this energy, you are burning calories. This is the immediate choice for the type of exercises for losing weight. You workout, burn calories, and lose weight. No waiting for muscle growth here.
When you add a healthy diet to both cardio and strength training workouts, you have a recipe for success. By incorporating both types of exercises for losing weight you can be sure that you are not only burning immediate calories when you workout but increasing your metabolism to ensure you are burning more even at rest!
