The 10 Best Fat-Burning Exercises
Have you noticed lately that your body is feeling squidgy and all those hours spent on the couch are finally taking their toll? Do you feel out of shape, out of breath, and the pants are, well, a bit snug.
Like most people, you’re experiencing weight gain which results from taking in more calories than you expend through exercise, thermogenesis, and the body’s usual metabolic functions.
To burn off the excess body fat, you must create a calorie deficit. And since a pound of fat is roughly 3,500 calories worth of fuel, you must burn 3,500 more calories in a week than you eat, according to the American Dietetic Association (ADA).
Even Muscle Loss Contributes To Weight Gain. A couch potato attitude leads a sedentary lifestyle, which translates to a body that loses muscle mass-at a rate of about one percent a year after the age of 45. This age-related muscle loss (known as sarcopenia) is caused by a decline in metabolic rate.
So here’s the bad news: each lost pound of muscle depresses the body’s metabolism, and you burn fewer calories every single day. If you burn even 50 calories less every day, you will gain an extra pound of fat every 70 days, or about five pounds each year; and about 50 pounds of fat in 10 years.
Diet and nutrition certainly play an important role in the amount of fat your body stores, but an active lifestyle is the key to effective weight maintenance. And an active lifestyle doesn’t mean strenuous exercise such as running or swimming which, while they are great for strengthening your heart and lungs, may not be sufficient to prevent sarcopenia. In addition to cardio activity, you should try to include some type of strength-training exercise two or three times per week.
You don’t have to put in long sweaty hours doing an activity you don’t normally do, and possibly, don’t even enjoy. In fact, you don’t have to join a gym to get a daily workout; you can burn calories at home, on your lunch hour, or while on vacation. The list below will give you an idea of the types of activities you can start doing (or do more of), which are ideal calorie burners.
The top 10 ways to burn fat
1. Jogging or running (5 ½ mph): An average 150-lb runner can burn up a whopping 700 calories in an hour. But if you’re not a runner, not to worry: you can still get the same workout from walking, it just takes longer. Don’t believe the myth that a person will burn more calories jogging a mile than he can by walking it, because the caloric expenditure is the same per miles traveled: somewhere around 62 calories per 100 pounds body weight. As long as you can cover the same distance, then you will burn the same amount of calories walking the miles as you could running them.
2. Cardio circuit machines: If you have access to a gym or are have a home gym, these machines have adjustable resistance so you can vary the intensity of your workout. An hour spent on a cardio circuit can burn up 500 to 600 calories. Try to do 20 minutes per machine and choose from among the stair stepper, treadmill, upright & recumbent bikes, rowers, and elliptical crosstrainer. These machines have an easy-to-use computer that provides a screen read-out with speed, distance, calories burned, heart rate and more.
3. Cycling (12 mph). You can choose a stationary bike or hit the road, but don’t miss out on this exercise that goes easy on the knees and provides a good cardio workout. You’ll soon find that your endurance and energy level will increase dramatically, and the pounds will melt away. Like aerobics, an hour of biking will burn around 400 calories or more.
4. Low-impact aerobics. Joining an aerobics class, or following along to a video, is a good way to strengthen your heart rate, which allows you to exercise at your full capacity. Low-impact aerobics involve no jumping that could stress your knees, and will include a lot of stretching. Aerobic conditioning can include dancing or square dancing, light step aerobics, or power yoga.
5. Swimming and water-resistance exercise. Going to the pool is an excellent way to strengthen your muscles, and improve flexibility in the tendons and ligaments that supports the joints. And you don’t have to be a swimmer to enjoy the water; you can join a water aerobics class or do water exercises on your own. Depending on your technique and speed, you can expect to burn from 275 to 500 calories in an hour during swimming. The pool provides an ideal fat-burning-and fun!-activity.
6. Tennis or Golf. Charging the net to get your racquet on that wicked drop shot during a game of singles will expend about 400 calories per hour. Golfers who hit the links and carry their own clubs (no pull cart!), can expect to burn about the same.
7. Play. You read that right: Go play! An active lifestyle provides great benefits (both physically and mentally) when you get out with the kids and toss a football, shoot baskets, or join a game of volleyball at the beach. Play time is great for your mood, and keep in mind that any recreational activity, including dancing in the evening, can burn up to 320 calories an hour.
8. Strength training. Yes, tucked in here among all these cardio exercises is working with free weights and machines. It’s important to include it here because working out at the gym will tone your muscles-even if you train only two or three days per week for 20 minutes each visit. The aim of weight lifting is to increase strength, but it also creates a burn rate of 250 to 400 calories an hour. Any improvement in your lean muscle mass and metabolism will help you to burn more fat all of the time (even while sleeping). This is something cardio alone can’t achieve. Toning your muscles is essential if you want to achieve an ideal weight on your frame since a pound of muscle requires about 30 to 50 calories per day just to support itself, while fat cells don’t burn up a thing. A person with a high percentage of muscle and low body fat will look leaner and more slender than a person of the same weight who has a lot of body fat and little muscle development.
9. Work. This is not just a dirty word; physical labor is the original exercise. You’ve already got some physical work in your daily life but you can always add more. Yard and housework can include pushing a lawn mover, splitting firewood, pruning hedges, planting your garden with a shovel instead of a tiller, raking leaves, and housecleaning. In fact, if you increase the amount of work you do around the house, you will not only get more chores done, but you’ll have a better attitude when you realize you’re burning calories-about 320 per hour!
10. Walking (3 mph). This is the easiest and least expensive method to maintain your weight loss program and to keep fit. A 150-pound person walking for an hour, at a steady pace of 18 to 20 minutes to complete one mile, will burn about 320 calories. You can hike in the woods, around the neighborhood, or do it on a treadmill. And don’t forget you can take the stairs instead of the elevator, and park further away at the store. It’s easier and more convenient to make walking a daily regular routine than almost any other exercise.
Getting into a routine of walking, or any physical activity, just 30 to 60 minutes DAILY, can help with an array of health problems (including osteoporosis, diabetes, and arthritis), and offers stress relief as well as the ability to drop those unwanted pounds. Just as variety is the “spice of life,” a variety of activities is the key that will lead you to success in feeling and looking younger, and burn fat while enjoying a healthy lifestyle.
Tags: fat burning exercises, strength training, tennis for fitness, walking for health