Lose weight using exercise
Most of us are well aware that there are basically two keys to losing weight: exercise and diet. We understand what calories are and know that we gain weight if we eat more than the energy we expend. So, if you want to lose weight without changing your eating habits, the obvious option is to resort to exercise. In other words, this is an option for expending more energy. But it can be hard to understand exactly how this actually works with calorie consumption and fat burn.
Losing weight through walking
Walking can be an excellent way to become more physically active. It doesn’t require any special equipment, just a pair of comfortable shoes. It is also an activity that most people can do regardless of how much exercise they have done before. Walking can also improve your sense of wellbeing through getting fresh air, sunlight (which provides us with vitamin D), and help reduce stress. If you want to lose weight, walking can also help increase calorie consumption. Taking a walk every day for around 20 minutes can make a difference to your build.
However, it is worth knowing that walking doesn’t burn off so much energy as your pulse rate is just as low. There are far more effective ways of increasing energy consumption – some of which we will discuss later on. By the same token, just because you have gone for a walk doesn’t give you an excuse to eat larger portions or less healthily. On the other hand, it can be used to mark the start of healthier habits. And if you continue your previous eating habits, but start going for walks, you may start to lose weight.
Can you build up muscle and lose weight at the same time?
If you are overweight and haven’t done much exercise before, you can increase muscle mass while the fat mass reduces. However, you need to focus on reducing the calorie intake. This means that you take in less energy than you expend. To achieve the best result, the amount of protein in food should also be increased. A common way of doing this is to take powder-based protein supplements. This is an excellent option for increasing protein intake without taking food supplements. To ensure the success of this approach, you quite simply need to focus a lot on both diet and exercise.
On the other hand, if you don’t carry that much fat and are used to doing regular exercise, it will be considerably more difficult to build up muscles and lose fat at the same time. Therefore, in this case, it is more reasonable to focus on one thing at a time. If you want to build up muscles, you should eat a little more than normal, which includes, preferably, some extra protein. If you would rather lose weight, you should eat slightly less instead (or else increase the physical activity you do).
Stronger muscles instead of weightloss
Being overweight is definitely a risk factor for certain diseases, but it is possible to compensate for this. Physical activity is one of the best ways of becoming healthier without losing weight. But not only is it good for our heart, blood vessels, and brain if we are active, it is also important that we maintain our muscles. This means that losing weight may involve losing muscle mass, which is not desirable for a number of reasons.
One of the things muscles do is to help us keep ourselves upright and enable us to move about. Increased muscle mass can also boost our metabolism. Muscles use up more energy than fat does, even at times while we are resting. This means that if you have more muscle mass, you can eat more without gaining weight, compared to someone that doesn’t have very much muscle. Muscles also take up less room per weight unit. Therefore, a kilo of muscle takes up less room than a kilo of fat. As a result, we don’t necessarily need to lose weight to reduce fat mass. This is why “weight reduction” is a misleading term.
Exercising for maximum fat utilization
The amount of fat we carry is determined by two things: fatty deposits and fat utilization. Just as the terms describe it, this is about how much fat we store and how much we use up. Our diet determines our intake, while physical activity determines how much we use up. But what kind of exercise is best for achieving maximum fat utilization?
Different types of exercise use up different things: either fat or glycogen (carbohydrates). Fat or glycogen can also be used up before or after exercise, depending on the type of exercise. Exercise resulting in high fat utilization during the session will result in lower fat utilization afterwards. However, if exercise uses up mainly glycogen during the session, the opposite will happen, with greater fat utilization afterwards. The body simply adapts its energy consumption according to the type of fuel that is available for it. In a nutshell, the type of exercise you do is less of a factor if you want to lose weight or use up fat.