When you want to lose weight, both diet and exercise are important. Which is the most important? It’s actually your diet. You simply can’t out-exercise a bad diet. However, exercise boosts your weight loss efforts, so it can make it easier. It not only burns extra calories, but it also builds muscle tissue, which requires more calories than fat tissue does. That effectively boosts your metabolism. Even if you have no time to exercise there are some things you can do to boost your activity level, which is important.
Your diet should be the top priority for weight loss.
If you really have no time for exercise, focus on your diet. Your diet not only determines the number of calories you consume, but it also provides the raw materials to build muscle tissue and provide extra energy and good health. Making dietary changes that create lifelong habits are called lifestyle changes, which can help you keep weight off permanently.
If you’re busy, there are ways to boost your activity level.
Just moving is important. If you normally sit at work, take five minutes every hour to get up and move. Walk to lunch, park further from the store when you go to the grocery or take the stairs not the elevator to increase your activity level and boost your calorie burning. Do exercises while you’re watching TV or binge watching videos. You can do a plank while you’re watching or take a break every hour to do a ten minute routine.
Do compound exercise, HIIT workouts or full body workouts for efficiency.
If you’re busy, you want to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to workout time. You can use compound exercises that work several joints and muscles at once, like squats. Squats work core muscles, glutes, hamstrings, calves and quadriceps, while burning lots of calories. HIIT workouts aren’t specific types of exercises, just how you do the exercise. It can even be done with walking. It’s modifying the intensity of the exercise. It also burns a lot of calories. It’s going from top speed for a few minutes back to a recovery pace, then back to top speed. Full body exercises like planks or push-ups, burn tons of calories.
- Losing weight is definitely easier when you burn more calories with exercise. It doesn’t have to be a formal exercise program. It could be as simple as dancing, taking the kids for a walk or gardening.
- Consider using ankle and wrist weights if you walk. It can boost the effort and burn more calories every time you walk.
- If you don’t have a fun hour or half hour to workout, break it up to five or ten minute sessions. It’s just as effective as doing your workout all at once and easier to fit into your schedule.
- You can save time and make more time for exercise by having a list of exercises to do when you have a few minutes. You can use your cell phone to record when you did it or have a list to check it off.
For more information, contact us today at Rising Fitness Gym