The Best Workout For Weight Loss - Cardio or Weights?

You know exercise is good for you, and you want to have a fit body, but you only have so much time in your day and cannot do it all. 

What do you focus on, cardio or weight training? On the other hand, perhaps you want to buy some home fitness equipment, but are not sure about the best thing on which to spend your limited funds. Do you buy the treadmill or the weight set? 

Despite weight training's reputation as a "jock" thing for he-men who want to bulk up, the answer for most people is weights. 

While cardio exercise can help you to increase your heart health and stamina, and can burn some extra calories while you are engaged in it, weight training can help you get stronger, tone your muscles, improve your appearance, increase your metabolism to burn calories more efficiently all day long, and fight age-related muscle and bone loss. If you must choose between the two, weight training comes out the winner, easily.

Weight training is strength training, using a variety of weights for resistance. In the same way that cardio exercise strengthens your heart and lungs by providing stress on your breathing and circulation, weight training improves your overall body strength by providing enough stress to different muscle groups that they adapt and grow stronger. Weight training also helps with the following:

•Lose weight and maintain fat loss: Muscles are thirsty for calories, so the more lean muscle mass you have, the more efficient your body will be at converting that smoothie into the energy you need to keep going all day. For every 3 pounds of muscle you develop with weight training, your body will burn an extra 120 calories a day simply vegging out on the couch! That can mean about 10 pounds of fat lost per year, without even forsaking your favorite treat. Yes, please.

•Reduce the possibility of injury: Unlike the pounding action involved in many cardio exercises, correctly training with weights can actually protect your joints and spine. Strong muscles connected to joints helps to protect them from injury, and increased core muscle strength contributes to better balance and a stronger back.

•Develop bone density: Just as muscle mass naturally diminishes with age and inactivity, bones lose strength and density too. Strength training increases bone density, helping to prevent fractures due to brittle bones or osteoporosis.

•Boost your stamina: As you develop stronger and more efficient muscles in all parts of your body, fatigue will be outdated, and everyday activities will no longer make you want to lie down for a nap in the middle of your day.

Too often, people focus solely on the number of calories burned during their workout, or the number they see on the scale. Focusing on either of these is shortsighted when it comes to your health and fitness. Instead of watching the "calories burned" readout on the treadmill and being satisfied when you hit your magic number, consider how your body is expending calories outside the gym and after your workout. Weight training exercise, by developing calorie-thirsty muscle tissue, increases the number of calories you burn all day long, no matter what you are doing.

So, spend those limited funds on the weights, and the majority of your limited workout time on weight training to build your muscle strength. Your body will thank you, and your mirror will become your friend.

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Weight Loss Vs Fat Loss - Yes There is a Difference!

In order to lose weight, your body must burn more calories than it takes in, but keep in mind that your body needs calories for energy and when you exercise your body needs even more calories. Before I talk about energy, the first thing you must understand is that losing weight and losing fat is not the same thing. Just because you lose weight, does not mean you lose fat, and just because you lose fat, does not mean you lose weight. When people talk about losing weight, what the really want to do is lose the excess fat on their body and obtain an attractive figure.

When you eat, the body uses most of the calories for energy. If you eat more calories than the body uses, it will get stored as fat. If you do not consume enough calories per day you will lose weight, but you will also lose energy. When you do not consume enough energy (calories) for your body, it will start using up your energy stores to make up for the energy deficiency. Unfortunately, the energy stores used is not your stored fat, but instead it's protein and carbohydrates (carbs) that will supply most of the energy (stored fat makes up a very small percentage). 

Your body will take the protein and carbohydrates from your muscle cells; causing your muscle mass to reduce (say goodby to that toned attractive look) which forces your metabolism to decrease (a low metabolism = slow or no fat burning). When this happens your body requires less energy to maintain its new lower body weight (remember the body weight is lower because you loss muscle), which is why your body conserves energy by slowing down the metabolism. In other words, the body has adapted to the new lower energy (calorie) intake which means that you will no longer continue to lose weight.

Keep in mind that the weight you had lost in the first place was mostly water weight and you will eventually gain it back in the form of fat, not muscle (in order to get your muscle mass back to the way it was before, you have to work on rebuilding it). When carbohydrates and protein that are already in your body are used as the energy source, your body will lose water weight because both carbohydrates and protein hold water in the cells. In essence, you are dehydrating yourself to lose weight. So yes the scale will go down, but approximately 75% (if not more) of it is water instead of fat. And just so you know, exercising while consuming a small calorie intake just makes the situation worse. 

This is because when you exercise, you start burning off more energy and the more you workout, the more energy your body needs. I already told you above where the energy comes from, and if you do not give your body the energy it needs, it will just feed on your muscles even quicker now that you are exercising. So eat more food! In addition to this, when you cut down too much on your calorie intake, your body will start storing calories because it doesn't know when you will eat again. The calories that are stored will be stored as fat. So in other words, when your body is storing energy, it's basically storing more fat.

To summarize my point: Not eating enough calories results in muscle loss, dehydration, slower fat burning, and your body will always adapt to a lower calorie intake. Bottom Line: if you can't maintain that lower calorie intake for the rest of your life, you will gain your weight back when you get tired of starving yourself!

To lose weight properly (burning fat) you must increase your metabolism (weight training) and your need for oxygen (aerobics) while eating enough calories each day (nutritious diet) to give you energy and maintain the protein in your muscles because protein helps build muscles, which indirectly burns fat.

This brings up another good point: When you build muscle your weight will increase because your muscles are made up of mostly water, but your body fat percentage will decrease because building muscles increase your metabolism (in other words, muscles way more than fat, but take up less space than fat). So keep in mind that losing body fat can't be measured by a scale; use a measuring tape and also look at yourself in the mirror, and then you will see the true results. One of the best ways to know if you are losing more body fat than water is by using a body fat analyzer.

Make sure that you focus on fat loss not weight loss. Your goal should be to lose weight by burning fat, not losing water from your muscles. Remember this when you choose your weight loss program.

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Healthy Weight Loss

To many people nowadays are becoming desperate in order to lose weight. They are starting to go to unhealthy lengths in order to look skinny, because they think that it is attractive. However, losing weight in an unhealthy way could certainly be very damaging to your body, and you might not turn out so attractive if you are bony. You probably hear commercials and ads all over the place trying to sell you the newest diet or the newest weight loss operation, and you should ignore these red flags. Instead, you should take the healthy and natural path towards weight loss, one step at a time.

Things to Watch Out For

As mentioned above, new weight loss procedures are being thrown at the public very frequently. However, not a lot of people really know about the health risks of these procedures. Liposuction, a procedure where doctors literally use a vacuum-like contraption to suck the fat out of your body (usually from the stomach area), can be deadly. It also sounds very gruesome, and I assume after reading a more in-depth description of it, you will agree with me. Another weight loss procedure is the Lap-Band procedure. This is where doctors place a band around your stomach, so that you feel fuller sooner and eat less, which eventually leads to weight loss. 

This is practically like starving yourself, since you aren't actually full and you aren't actually getting all of the nutrients that your body requires to function. The band has also killed a few people, since it has been broken before. Imagine having an unnatural band wrap around your stomach! It makes me tighten up, and I don't know how other people can stand the thought of it, much less the actual procedure. Also, if you eat too much with the lap-band, you could end up throwing up, which is unhealthy as well.

Starving yourself on a diet is another weight loss strategy to watch out for. Starvation is a very serious health condition if you let it go too far. You're losing all of the nutrients that your body needs in order to function, and eventually your body will shut down due to lack of energy. Your body will not target your fat first, but instead will consume your muscles. You will lose all of your muscle mass before you lose any fat, and having nearly no muscle makes life very hard to manage. Starving yourself and denying your body the proper nutrients is never the way to go.

The Steps You Can Take

 

Healthy weight loss is accomplished through healthy eating and exercise. I know you have been told this time and time again, but it is the truth. This is the only way that you can lose weight in a healthy manner. Plus, if you exercise, your body will be in shape, and will look more attractive than the body of someone who is anorexic. Eating healthy and exercising will make your body feel better, and you will have more energy throughout the day.

Eating healthy will provide your body with the nutrients it needs, and you will feel the difference after about a week or so of changing your eating habits. It might be hard to switch at first, but eventually it will feel natural to eat carrots instead of burgers. Exercising also releases feel-good hormones to your body, so after you get the motivation to leave your couch, you will not regret it! Start making your way to a healthier and fitter you by watching your eating habits and hitting the gym more often. http://ezinearticles.com/?Healthy-Weight-Loss&id=7766745