People work out for a variety of reasons. Some to be social, some to keep fit and healthy. Others may decide to work out as they want to tone their body and develop muscles in key areas. There are also those who choose to work out because they want to lose fat.
If you are someone who is choosing to work out with a view to losing fat, then you may not be a fitness expert so don’t know where to start. To help increase your chance of losing fat and in turn lose weight and tone your body, follow on for Losing Fat: 5 of the Best Workouts!
1. Walking
Yes, you heard us right, one of the best workouts that you can do if you want to lose fat is walking.
It’s easy to start and something that any one at any level of fitness can do. You don’t need to purchase any equipment (apart from perhaps a decent quality pair of flexi-sole trainers) and it’s low impact, which means that you don’t have to worry about any stress being placed on your joints.
You can also plan walking around your daily routine and you don’t have to do it alone, you can take your family with you on a walk, you could do it in your lunch break or you could even get yourself a dog to walk!
If you walk for 30 minutes at around 4 mph (which is a moderate pace) then you should burn around 160 calories, which is a pretty impressive amount for something that’s so easy to do. You should aim to do this around 3-4 days a week, however, you may need to increase this as your fitness level increases.
2. Jogging / Running
Once you have walking under your belt (for fitness not just being on your feet) you could try running or jogging. It goes without saying that this is a fitness step up and it is going to burn more calories and in turn, fat, than walking can. Jogging and running vary in pace and for the most part, you should aim for jogging until you have attained a decent level of fitness.
Jogging takes the pace to around the 5mph mark and if you can keep that up for 30 minutes then you could burn as much as 300 calories. Another great thing about jogging is that it is thought that it can be incredibly effective against the visceral fat which is found around your belly area being linked to a variety of health issues.
You might think that in order for a workout to be effective at burning fat, it needs to be cardio-based. However, this is not the case. Weight training can also be a great way to lose weight. In fact, during a weight training session of 30 minutes, you can burn around 115-150 calories.
Not only this, but weight training will also help you to build up strength throughout your entire body and promote muscle growth. It will also help to bring your resting metabolic rate up, which will help your body to burn calories, even when you are resting.
Much like other workouts you should aim for around 3 weight training sessions a week, however, as little as 15 minutes per session could be enough to start with.
4. HIIT
It goes without saying that high-intensity interval training (or HIIT as it’s commonly known) is one of the best ways to burn fat throughout your body.
These workouts last anywhere between 10 – 30 minutes and with the short bursts of intense exercise, interspersed with recovery, you can burn a lot of calories.
In fact, it is thought that HIIT workouts will burn as much as 25% more fat than other forms of exercise that you can do, such as cycling, walking and running. Even if you spend less of your time exercising.
Another great thing about HIIT is that it is a social exercise. Many fitness clubs or personal trainers will have HIIT classes that you can join and do with friends or others who are looking to improve their fitness. This will make you much more likely to attend classes.
That said, you can easily do HIIT workouts at home on a treadmill or cheap spin bike, which means that you can fit them in with the rest of your life and the limited time that you may have.
5. Swimming
If you’re keen to lose weight and fat, but think that high impact workouts might be a bit too much for you, then swimming is one to consider. Swimming is often under-estimated as a fat burning exercise but not only is it great fun, it’s also a fantastic way to get in shape.
The way that you swim is what will impact the calories that you burn during a session. 30 minutes of backstroke will burn 300 calories, breaststroke around 370 calories and butterfly 410 calories. Not only this, but if you simply tread water then you can still burn around 370 calories too.
Not only this, but swimming for an hour, 3 times a week is also great for your flexibility and will be much easier on your joints, than other forms of exercise. You will also reduce your risk of heart disease and can bring down your total cholesterol levels.
As you can see, there are plenty of ways that you can try to lose weight and in turn, fat. Try out the different types of exercise for yourself and see which one you prefer. You may even want to mix things up on a weekly basis, making sure that you workout each and every part of your body so you get a chance to see an overall change in the way you look whilst experiencing greater moods, and feelings of self-confidence.
Which of the above exercises do you prefer for weight loss, or fitness in general? Let us know in the comments below, and join in the conversation on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram!
