It’s predicted that half of all Indian adults attempt to lose weight every year. Apart from dieting, exercising is one of the most popular strategies used by those trying to drop extra weights. It helps in burning calories, and this plays a key role in weight loss. In addition to encouraging you to lose weight, exercise has been connected to many other benefits, including enhanced mood, stronger bones, and a decreased risk of many chronic diseases. However, we all want to start from the easy and effective exercises that have excellent results which lead to weight loss. Here are the 5 best exercises for weight loss.
1) Walking
Walking is among the best exercises for effective weight loss and an easy way for beginners to start exercising without feeling confused or wanting to purchase equipment. Also, it’s a lower-impact exercise that doesn’t stress your joints. According to Harvard Health, it’s assumed that a person weighing 70 kgs can burn around 167 calories per 30 minutes of walking at a moderate speed of 4 mph (6.4 km/h).
A 12-week study carried on 20 women with obesity discovered that walking for 50–70 minutes 3 times per week helps in reducing body fat and waist circumference by an average of 1.5% and 1.1 inches (2.8 cm), respectively. It’s easy to add walking to your busy schedule. If you want to add more steps then you should try walking during your lunch break, taking the stairs at work, or taking your dog for extra walks. In the initial time, you should set a goal to walk for 30 minutes 3–4 times a week. You can slowly increase the duration or number of walks as per your comfort and desire.
2) Jogging or running
We many times relate running and jogging with walking. However, they both are completely different. Jogging and running are great exercises to help you with weight loss and the key difference is that a jogging speed is usually between 4–6 mph (6.4–9.7 km/h), while a running speed is faster than 6 mph (9.7 km/h). Harvard Health determines that a person weighing 70-kg can burn approximately 298 calories per 30 minutes of jogging at a 5-mph (8-km/h) speed, or 372 calories per 30 minutes of running at a 6-mph (9.7-km/h) speed.
Not only this, but studies have also found that jogging and running can help in burning harmful visceral fat, generally known as belly fat and subsequently helps you to attain weight loss. This type of fat is wrapped around your internal organs and has been joined to several chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes. Both jogging and running are excellent exercises that can be performed anywhere and are easy to combine with your weekly or daily routine. In the initial time, set your goal to jog for 20–30 minutes 3–4 times per week. If you discover jogging or running outdoors to be hard on your joints then try running on softer surfaces like grass. If you are using treadmills then you should know that many treadmills have built-in cushioning, which may be softer on your joints.
3) Cycling
Cycling is yet another exercise that improves your fitness and can help you to attain weight loss. Cycling is traditionally done outdoors but these days many gyms and fitness centers have stationary bikes that enable you to cycle while staying indoors. Harvard Health estimates that a person weighing 70-kg can burn around 260 calories per 30 minutes of cycling on a stationary bike at a moderate speed, or 298 calories per 30 minutes on a bicycle at a moderate pace of 12–13.9 mph (19–22.4 km/h).
People who cycle regularly get many health benefits like increased insulin sensitivity, and a lower risk of heart disease, cancer, and death as compared with those who don’t cycle regularly. So cycling has many health benefits apart from reducing fat. Cycling is excellent for people of all fitness levels, from beginners to the athlete and it’s a non-weight-bearing and low-impact exercise, so it won’t add much stress on your joints.
4) Weight Training
Weight training is a common option for people looking to lose weight. According to Harvard Health, it’s said that a person weighing 70-kg can burn roughly 112 calories per 30 minutes of weight training. It can also help you in building strength and encourage muscle growth, which can increase your resting metabolic rate (RMR), or how many calories your body burns at rest. 6-month research revealed that simply performing 11 minutes of strength-based exercises 3 times per week resulted in a 7.4% rise in metabolic rate, on average. In this research, that gain was equal to burning an extra 125 calories per day.
Another study discovered that 24 weeks of weight training pointed to a 9% rise in metabolic rate among men, which helps in burning approximately 140 more calories per day. Among women, the rise in metabolic rate was approximately 4% or 50 more calories per day. Moreover, various researches have revealed that your body remains to burn calories many hours after a weight-training workout as compared with aerobic exercise.
5) Interval Training
Interval training is commonly known as high-intensity interval training (HIIT) which is a broad term that leads to short rounds of intense exercise that replace with recovery periods. Also, a HIIT workout lasts 10–30 minutes and can burn a lot of calories. A research carried on 9 active men observed that HIIT burned 25–30% more calories per minute than other types of exercises that include weight training, cycling, and running on a treadmill.
This means HIIT can assist you in burning more calories and is much more effective than other exercises. Moreover, various researches have determined that HIIT is effective at burning belly fat and benefiting against many chronic diseases. HIIT is easy to include in your daily exercise routine as you just need to do is pick a type of exercise, such as running, jumping, or biking, and your exercise and rest times.
Disclaimer:
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a health advice. We would ask you to consult a qualified professional or medical expert to gain additional knowledge before you choose to consume any product or perform any exercise.
