The first and best exercise you can do to lose weight is a plate push.
What is a plate push you ask? It’s when you push your dinner plate away.
Okay, all jokes aside, the best way to go about weight loss is to eat in a calorie deficit. A calorie deficit is simply eating fewer calories than your body uses.
Easier said than done sometimes and a lot of different factors go into whether or not you’re successful at consistently eating in a calorie deficit. You can check out some other articles about how you can do that. HERE , HERE , and HERE .
There is no denying the biggest impact on weight loss will come from your diet a.k.a. what you eat on a regular basis.
All types of exercise will help you improve your fitness. There are a myriad of possibilities, and the best exercise is one you enjoy and one you will do consistently. And if you say you hate all exercise, well it’s good for you and your health, and you’re an adult so you’ll have to find whatever you hate the least and get to it.
With that being said there are different types of exercise that are most beneficial if your goals are to lose weight and tone up to achieve that fit and healthy look.
- Weight Lifting or Strength Training.
Why?
Weight lifting makes your muscles work hard and when muscles work hard, they are like, “Oh poop! Dude. That was heavy. We should build more muscle so it isn’t as hard to move next time.” And then your body is like, “You’re right. Let’s do it!” And then your muscles start to get bigger and stronger so next time you lift that 10lbs dumbbell it doesn’t feel as hard.
This results in more muscle mass, which is what you want when trying to lose weight. Muscle uses more calories than fat to exist, so that’s cool. More muscle mass means your body burns more calories just existing.
NOW about that boost in metabolism… the amount is honestly fairly small in the grand scheme of calorie burn, BUT, when you lose weight without strength training you’ll lose a decent amount of muscle mass along with fat.
What do you think that means?
Yup, your metabolism will slow a bit because one, you weigh less overall and two, you have less muscle mass. Meaning you missed a great opportunity to help keep your metabolism as high as possible.
When you lift weights while losing weight it helps keep your muscle mass as high as possible keeping your metabolism healthy.
You’ll also burn a few calories while you’re lifting! Not as many as you probably hope, but some. An added bonus.
Remember the whole point of lifting isn’t to burn calories, it is to gain strength, maintain or increase muscle mass and to keep your muscles, joints, bones, and you healthy and strong.
2. Focus on compound movements.
What is a compound movement and why should you do it?
A compound movement is an exercise that uses more than one muscle group.
A squat, you’re using your quads (front of your thigh), your glutes, (your bum), a bit of hamstring (back of your thigh), core, and back.
A deadlift, you’re using your hamstrings, glutes, back, core, and grip.
A pull-up, you’re using your lats (big back muscles) lower traps (a muscle in your low mid back), biceps (front of your upper arm), rhomboids (mid back muscles) grip, and core.
These exercises use a lot of different muscles each rep.
As opposed to isolation exercises like bicep curls, glute kickbacks, or crunches.
When the focus is weight loss this means you’re burning more calories because you’re using more muscles and big muscles at that, and you’re building strength in more of your muscles.
Win win.
3. Cardio.
Cardio usually is everyone’s first go-to when wanting to lose weight. They log hours on the elliptical, stair-master, or treadmill, hoping to burn enough calories to shed unwanted pounds.
And with just the addition of cardio, that doesn’t happen. Most people want to out cardio their diet and that is really hard to do. Possible? Technically, I guess, but do you want to run 10, 15, or 20 miles everyday? I bet you don’t.
A plate push or two is way easier and quicker than a 15 mile run.
So why did I put cardio on this list?
Cardio is GOOD for you. It keeps your heart healthy. It strengthens your bones. It keeps your cardiorespiratory fitness high and where it should be.
Your heart gets strong enough to pump more blood with each beat, your lungs and breathing muscles get stronger so you can take in more air, your mitochondria work more efficiently to fuel and power your muscles, and your bones get stronger to handle the impact of each step.
And when you’re trying to lose weight? Cardio does burn calories. Is it as much as you think? Probably not. Maybe 70ish calories per 10 minutes. Maybe that sounds like a lot, but a doughnut is 250 calories and that takes 3.5 seconds to eat. You do the math.
And again, cardio isn’t about calorie burn anyway. It’s about having a body that is fit. A body that is healthy. A body that is strong. A body that can walk around the fair and not fizzle out halfway through the day. A body that can go on hikes to see amazing views. A body that can chase kids and pets around without wheezing for air after 2 minutes.
Maybe you’re thinking, hey Sam, I’ve heard HIIT cardio is best for weight loss.
What is HIIT cardio? It’s hard. That’s what.
HIIT cardio is going ALL OUT for a short amount of time and then resting so you can do it again. When I say all out, I mean all out. Not kinda sorta hard. Not pretty hard. But hard as possible.
You should feel dead. And you shouldn’t be able to do 40 50 or 60 minutes of this. If you can, well you probably aren’t doing HIIT cardio.
You can totally do interval training. This is similar but you aren’t going 10 out of 10. You’re going pretty hard when you’re working, but not all out.
Think an 8 or 9 on a 1-10 scale.
Is this better for weight loss? For fitness?
You can burn some calories in a short amount of time and you can really work on your fitness too.
This is hard on your body though. It will need to recover.
Where steady state cardio, where you could do this for a long period of time, is easier on your body and you can do it practically everyday and stay safe and injury free.
So the best option is to do both! One day a week try some interval training or maybe two days if your advanced, and the rest of your cardio days enjoy some relaxing steady state cardio.
If I had to pick one? Steady state all the way.
If you’re on a journey to lose weight and tone up, first and foremost focus on your diet.
Working out and exercise is about creating a strong healthy body, not about burning calories. That just happens to be an extra bonus when you’re working toward a weight loss goal.
Then think about making sure you set yourself up for the best chance of success and add in some strength training, with a focus on compound movements, and get in your reasonable amount of cardio.