The best exercises to lose weight are the ones that you enjoy enough to do consistently. However, when it comes to the best exercise for weight loss, some workouts burn fat and build muscle mass more efficiently than others. These two elements are crucial for anyone looking to change their body composition.
High Intensity Interval Training
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) involves short intervals of exercise at almost your maximum effort, followed by longer recovery periods. The key here is how hard you work during your intense intervals.
HIIT burns a lot of calories in a short period of time. A study found that HIIT burns up to 30 percent more calories per minute than weight training, cycling and running on a treadmill. Your body continues burning calories even after the workout is over. This afterburn is known as Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC).
Boxing
As weight loss exercise options go, boxing-inspired workouts are among the most effective since they build muscle and burn fat at the same time.
High intensity drills bring the calorie-burning effects of HIIT training, while bag work builds full-body muscle, since it engages the entire upper and lower body.
Skipping
Any form of rope practice is great for burning fat and strengthening the upper body. Skipping is a great exercise for elevating the heart rate, promoting cardiovascular endurance and building cat-like levels of coordination and agility.
Once you’re comfortable with basic skipping, attempt to speed up the skipping. Try single and double-foot jumps. You can step it up even more and try some explosive “double-unders”, where the rope passes underneath you twice before the feet land.
Squats
Squats work just about every muscle in the lower body including the glutes, hips, thighs, and calves. They are very effective for shedding the extra stubborn fat around your thighs and hips.
Once you are accustomed to the regular type, you can take it up a notch by altering the speed, maximising the reps and trying new variations such as jump squats, one-leg squats, barbell squats and pistol squats.
Yoga
Yoga might not be the first thing to come to mind when you think about exercises for weight loss. However, it is a great way to build muscle and burn calories in addition to improving your mental health.
Yoga helps in increasing your basal metabolic rate (BMR) which is a massive win when looking to lose body fat.
Weight Training
Contrary to popular misconception, adding weights to your workout actually helps you slim down and increase your metabolism permanently. Also known as resistance or strength training, weight training is an essential part of any weight loss regime.
Just like yoga, weight training also increases your basal metabolic rate (BMR) and helps you burn fat after your workout is over.
Circuit Training
Circuit training involves a combination of endurance training, resistance training, and high-intensity exercises performed in a circuit. Typically, six or more exercises are performed for either a set number of repetitions or amount of time, with short rest periods between each one.
It raises your heart rate and strengthens muscles at the same time, making it an extremely effective weight loss exercise. Additionally, circuit training targets most of your muscles and improves your metabolism due to its versatile and vigorous nature.
Burpees
One of the most feared and intensive exercises in any workout, burpees are extremely beneficial in aiding weight loss. The compound movement involves almost every muscle group in the body and sends the heart rate soaring. They are also helpful in conditioning and building strength.
In fact, they spike the metabolism at such a rate that the body will burn calories even after a burpee-laden session has ended. To increase the impact, you can introduce various variations in your workout such as superman burpees, dive bomber burpees, star jump burpees and mountain climber tuck jump burpees.
Swimming
Swimming is a highly effective form of exercise for weight loss and toning since it engages the major muscle groups such as your back muscles, arms, legs, hips, glutes and abdominal muscles. Apart from being a major calorie-burning exercise, it is also a great way to relax.
Zumba
Zumba is a feel-good workout that incorporates vigorous exercise and high intensity movement to improve your fitness and promote fat loss. It is all about loosening your body and burning calories. We definitely feel this is one of the best exercises for weight loss and also the most fun.
Moreover, it helps relieve stress, increase energy levels and improve strength.
DISCLAIMER
The priority, in this blog, is to supply the reader with clear and unambiguous information. However, neither The New Me nor Gagan Dhawan makes promises, or guarantees regarding the completeness of the information found here. The content is not a replacement for advice of a licensed professional. The opinions expressed in this blog are solely that of the writer’s.
