[pankaj]

When trying to lose weight we all know it’s important to exercise, relying on diet alone usually means poor results. By not exercising the body misses out on many of the physiological benefits such as a boosted metabolism, improved fitness and increased energy levels. Regular exercise not only helps reduce fat stores it also helps to regulate the appetite, thus it can be easier to control energy intake.

The main concern for many dieters when exercising to lose weight is which exercise is the best to choose?

Not all exercises have the same effect on the body. The chosen exercise will depend on what suits the individual body type and what each person wants from exercising; burning fat, losing weight or gaining fitness. Anaerobic exercises tend to burn carbs rather than fat because they naturally require more effort. The greater intensity of anaerobic exercises often contributes to slight gains in muscle weight, especially during the initial period of starting a new exercise. This type can also encourage muscles to store more glycogen (carb stores in muscles); every time glycogen is stored it causes the body to take on three times more water and again results in a slight weight gain. Intense anaerobic exercise reduces the muscle glycogen stores quickly so our body tends to store more in-between workouts to make sure we have more energy the next time the exercise is performed. Also if muscles start to store more carbs then it gives cells the opportunity to use its preferred fuel rather than using fat stores.



Although, gaining muscle is not a bad thing, it will benefit most healthy people with a higher metabolism. However for those more interested in losing weight and especially those who haven’t exercised for some time it may be best to perform aerobic type exercises.


Anaerobic exercises include..

*

Weight training
*

Sprinting
*

Football
*

Tennis

Aerobic exercise can be anything that maintains a steady heart rate at 50-70 percent of the hearts maximum rate. This means the exercise should feel easy and in fact it should feel easy in order to burn a higher percentage of fat. The human energy system works a bit like gears and at a slow pace it’s much easier to shift into fat burning gear. The downside to working out at low levels of exertion is that the actual calories burned are fairly minimal thus it will take longer to reach weight loss goal. However, for beginners or people very overweight it is essential that exercise is slow to allow the body to switch into that fat burning gear!

Probably the best exercise to begin losing weight is walking. Many overweight people can manage a walk with ease so it maybe a good starting point - although you must seek your doctors approval before starting any exercise *

When exercising to lose weight any exercise chosen should be started slowly and the goal should be to gradually build up the intensity level over the course of a few months. This helps build up fitness levels and enables the body to work at a higher degree of effort and still burn fat!

[meanne2007]

Why Exercise?

The reason we exercise is not just to burn those 100-plus calories for every mile we walk. Exercise does much more--it helps to increase our metabolic rate so we burn calories faster, Also, studies show that for a few hours following exercise, we continue to burn calories at a faster rate.

Exercise helps to prevent the body from moving towards the starvation or hibernation response. Many persons who go on a low-calorie diet cause their metabolism to be lowered and their body starts to conserve energy. Exercise will resist the body's attempt to move into this condition.

Those who exercise usually gain muscle mass instead of losing it. Up to 20 percent of the weight lost by those who diet without exercise can be lean tissue. Those who increase exercise and while cutting calories usually gain a few pounds of lean tissue as they lose body fat. Lean tissue is needed to help metabolize fat. Those who diet without exercise lose lean tissue and therefore have less muscle tissue to metabolize fat.
Regular exercise has a positive effect on body chemistry. Studies show that muscle tissue from trained athletes contains more fat-burning enzymes than muscle from untrained individuals. Untrained subjects who participate in endurance-type exercise for several months develop an increased amount of fat-burning enzymes.

Most fat people have excessive insulin in their body tissues. An excess of insulin in body tissues, which is not used by the cells, can actually cause an increased storage of fat. Exercise helps the body's cells to better utilize insulin, thereby reducing the need for more insulin.

All of the evidence is not in on exercise as a means of appetite control for humans. Some studies show obese people seem to experience an appetite suppression following moderate exercise, while other studies seem to contradict the findings. Appetite suppression following exercise may be psychological, but it certainly works for many.

Grant Gwinup, a researcher from the University of California campus in lrvine, studied obese men and women to see if exercise alone was effective in helping people lose weight.

Gwinup worked with a group of 34 obese men and women who were de-moralized after years of trying to lose weight. He told them to start a daily walking program and gradually work to increase their time and distance. The group accomplished nothing until they worked up to half an hour a day. Then they started losing weight and, at the end of the year, every one of the 11 patients who stuck with the program lost a significant amount of weight. The average weight loss was 22 pounds. The most successful lost 38 pounds, the least successful 10 pounds.