TOP 10 EXERCISES TO LOOSE WEIGHT

Just as eating healthy, it’s important to do some exercise as well. The best exerciseswill contain a cardio aspect and a toning aspect, as this will allow you to see the results fastest. Here are my top 10 weight loss exercises, and how many calories they burn

!

1. Step Aerobics …

Calories Burnt: 800 cal/hr This mainly targets your legs, hips and bum, which are often the areas that women most want to tone. Doing an hour a day, split into two half an hour sessions, will ensure that you see results within 2 weeks. If you aren’t sure how to do these, check out 7 Best Ab Exercises. Another very similar exercise is bench presses, which go very well in sets with step aerobics. I found it really hard to do them to start with, so make sure you’re doing them right or you’ll see no results!

2. Bicycling …

Calories Burnt: 500 – 1000 cal/hr Depending on how fast you go, this can be a real calorie burner. Riding outside is always enjoyable, but if you’re a little more time restricted, invest in a good quality exercise bike. This is my favorite calorie burner, because it’s so easy to do. How about riding while watching the TV? I find that cycling through Eastenders keeps me distracted, but working hard. In case you prefer to ride outside, make sure you take a look at this post called How to Not Get Hit by Cars When Bicycling. Just in case…

3. Swimming …

Calories Burnt: 800 cals/hr Doing lengths up and down the pool for an hour will burn off 800 calories, and also tone almost all of your body. Stay motivated by giving yourself half an hour extra to make use of the Jacuzzi when you’ve finished!

4. Racquetball …

Calories Burnt: 800 cals/hr The side to side running involved in this is a great cardio workout, and will also help to tone your thighs and legs. I also find this to be much more sociable, which keeps me working out for longer and stops me skiving my gym sessions!

5. Elliptical Burner …

Calories Burnt: 600 cals/hr This is brilliant cardio, and also helps to build strong muscles, as well as toning the stomach. I personally find Elliptical Burner really boring, so I split my session into ten minute bursts and do them throughout the day, and I find that listening to some upbeat music really helps as well.

6. Rowing …

Calories Burnt: 500 – 600 cals/hr Rowing is a brilliant way to tone your arms, and is also very good fun. Get involved with the local rowing club and you’ll get to try it for free, or simply use the rowing machine at the gym. As well as building arm muscle, you’ll also burn calories and get an incredible workout.

7. Walking …

Calories Burnt: 360 cals/hr The easiest exercise, brisk walking is a great cardio workout and will also help to tone legs, stomach and hips. Sprinting, walking across hills or walking uphill will add to the amount of calories burnt, and walking tends to be very easy to fit into daily life. Just walking to the train station has made me so much fitter, and it really wakes me up going for a brisk walk in the morning. Check out Hate Running? Get Fit Walking! for the detailed walking workout!

8. Dancing …

Calories Burnt: 600/800 cal/hr This targets all over your body, and is an excellent work out. I frequently put a music channel on and dance around, as well as burning calories I also find that it’s a great stress reliever! Just make sure you stay active, and try and keep going for at least an hour! If you want to learn some new sexy moves while you are at it, you might want to check out Dancing DVDs reviewed in this post: Do Your Dance Moves Need A Makeover?

9. Exercise DVDs …

Calories Burnt: 300/500 cals/hr While these come under a lot of different headings, some exercise DVDs do actually help you to lose weight and tone up. Find a high energy one, and try and do it once a day. As well as burning calories and toning up, you’ll also feel much fitter. My personal favourite is “Pump It Up”, because the music keeps me motivated!

10. Horse Riding …

Calories Burnt: 200-600 cal/hr This one may be slightly harder to arrange, but going horse riding once a week is one of the best ways to stay fit, healthy and enjoy nature. The view from up there is so amazing, you won’t notice that your toning your butt, abs and thighs, and burning calories while your at it! You’d be surprised at how cheap it can be to arrange a session once a weekend, and if your feeling extra fit you could even cycle to the stables! Check out these 7 Riding Tips for more information…

7 Ways to Loose Weight

I was always wondering if there were certain rules of a fast yet healthy weight loss.

And after doing some serious browsing, I got an answer for you – Yes, there actually are such ways!

In fact, there are 7 of them. And they all look pretty simple!

Do you think you can manage them?

1. Drink water …

No, you don’t have to fill up like a tub, but ensure that you drink 8 to 10 glasses of water every day. Don’t substitute for juice. Your body should always be hydrated. Your kidneys will thank you as it can easily flush out the waste. With adequate water intake your body will be able to metabolize fat more effectively. And if you have a glass of water 10-15 minutes prior to your meal, you will feel full once you start eating. Another fun fact, did you know that you can lose 62 calories by drinking ice cold water? But it’s better to drink it between meals or before meals, so that your food gets digested properly.

Check out the 10 Ways How Water Helps You to Lose Weight … for more details.

2. Eat 5 times a day …

Start with breakfast. The more you eat for breakfast, the less food you will want to eat at night. Please, don’t skip this meal as you’ll end up devouring everything in sight for the rest of the day. You don’t need to gobble up 5 large meals, just 3 meals of a sensible size and 2 delicious yet low calorie snacks. Eat sensibly so your body doesn’t crave for food. If you treat your body right it won’t demand for more attention!
Read these 5 Tips on Eating More Often and Losing Weight … for more.

3. Use weights …

Needless to say, exercise is crucial to weight loss. You can’t expect to sit on the couch all day, sip water and lose weight. Join a good gym that lets you work with weights. It will help you build muscle and your metabolism rate will increase. You’ll soon see the fat come off and in its place muscle will develop.

4. Use smaller plates in dark colors …

The hotel industry has changed the way we look at food. Today a regular burger can feed an elephant. Well, almost! Check your portions the next time you dine out. You don’t need to finish every morsel. So, what you should do is ask your waiter to put half of your meal into a doggy bag before it even makes to the table. This way you will not be tempted and you will feel full eating less. And you will have something for breakfast too!

Learn more about how to use colors to lose weight for an even more successful and faster diet!

Check also these 10 Easy Weight Loss Rules

When eating at home, it’s better to get rid of the huge plates you usually use. Substitute them with small ones – when food starts to fall off, you’ll know it’s enough. Try to get these new plates in dark colors. Dark blue will be your best choice since it’s the #1 color that fights off the appetite (just look at the picture above, I already can’t even think about food). Avoid red, orange and yellow in your dining area – they are the ones making your appetite go sky high! (Think McDonalds’ logo and you’ll do fine – do you think the colors they use were random?)

5. Read between the lines …

Food and drink products are all out to get you. They scream ‘Buy me! Buy me!’. It could be ‘fat free’ but it could still have a lot of calories. You need to analyze the nutrition label on the cover. The number one example of this is sodas. Find out what’s good for you and what isn’t. Knowing in advance can help you stay away from products that are calorie-enriched. Oh, and when shopping for groceries, avoid the aisles with cookies, frozen pizzas and ice-cream – it’s not the best place to test your will-power.

See these 10 Tips on How to Read Food Labels …

6. Keep a journal …

It helps to document what you eat. This way you can keep track and evaluate your eating habits at the end of each week. And if you’re a little more tech-savvy, then you could always maintain a weight-loss blog. Ask your dietician to look at your journal and suggest improvement points. I found it helpful to measure myself with a meter every morning. Every time I skipped dinner, my waist was a little bit smaller – and that’s what gave me the strength to get my appetite under control.

Check out 12 Tips on How to Keep a Food Journal … for the ideas.

7. Don’t punish yourself …

Go easy on yourself at least one day in a week. If you begin to dislike your diet then there’s something wrong. Find a diet that suits your body type and your lifestyle.

You will definitely see results with these 7 fastest ways to lose weight. If you’re motivated enough to stick to the regime, you’ll get there faster than ever! Stay committed!

I can’t wait to hear from you about your weight-loss learnings, guys! And if you know other great ways to loose weight, please share them in the comments, I’d love to hear how you tackle the weight problem!

Loosing Weight Easily

Despite the way it feels, losing weight isn't a mysterious process. It's a simple matter of burning more calories than you eat. But, if it were really that simple, none of us would have a weight problem, would we? Weight loss can be such a struggle that we start thinking we have to do something drastic to see results -- diets, pills or those weird fitness gadgets on infomercials that promise instant success. The true secret to weight loss is this: Make small changes each and every day and you'll slowly (but surely) lose those extra pounds. The key is to forget about instant results and settle in for the long run

To lose one pound of fat, you must burn approximately 3500 calories over and above what you already burn doing daily activities. That sounds like a lot of calories and you certainly wouldn't want to try to burn 3500 calories in one day. However, by taking it step-by-step, you can determine just what you need to do each day to burn or cut out those extra calories. Below is a step by step process for getting started.

1. Calculate your BMR (basal metabolic rate). Your BMRis what your body needs to maintain normal functions like breathing and digestion. This is the minimum number of calories you need to eat each day. Keep in mind that no calculator will be 100% accurate, so you may need to adjust these numbers as you go along.

2. Calculate your activity level. Use a calorie calculatorto figure out how many calories you burn while sitting, standing, exercising, lifting weights, etc. throughout the day. It helps to keep a daily activity journal or you could even wear a heart rate monitor that calculates calories burned.

3. Keep track of how many calories you eat. You can use a site like Calorie Count or use a food journal to write down what you eat and drink each day. Be as accurate as possible, measuring when you need to or looking up nutritional information for restaurants, if you eat out.

4. Add it up. Take your BMR number, add your activity calories and then subtract your food calories from that total. If you're eating more than you're burning, (your BMR + activity is 2000 and you're eating 2400 calories) you'll gain weight. If you're burning more than you eat, you'll lose weight.

Example:

Mary's BMR is 1400 calories and she burns 900 calories in daily activity with regular exercise, walking around and doing household chores. To maintain her weight, she should be eating 2300 calories but, after keeping a food journal, Mary finds that she's eating 2550 calories every day. By eating 250 more calories than her body needs, Mary will gain one pound every 2 weeks.

This example shows how easy it is to gain weight without even knowing it. However, it's also easy to lose weight, even if the process itself can be slow. You can start by making small changes in your diet and activity levels and immediately start burning more calories than you're eating. If you can find a way to burn an extra 200 to 500 calories each day with both exercise and diet, you're on the right track. Try these ideas:

Instead of...	Do this...
An afternoon Coke	Drink a glass of water. (calories saved: 97)
An Egg McMuffin	Eat a small whole wheat bagel +1 Tbsp of peanut butter (calories saved: 185)
Using your break eat sweets	Walk up and down a flight of stairs for 10 minutes (calories burned: 100)
Hitting the snooze button	Get up 10 minutes early and go for a brisk walk (calories burned: 100)
Watching TV after work	Do 10 minutes of yoga (calories burned: 50)

Total Calories Saved: 532 (based on a 140-pound person)

How Much Exercise Do I Need?

Exercise is an important weight loss tool, but how much you need varies from person to person. The guidelines recommend at least 250 minutes per week, which comes out to about 50 minutes, 5 days a week. If you're a beginner, start small, for example with 3 days of cardio for 15-30 minutes, gradually adding time each week to give your body time to adapt.