You probably know the advice that's always given for weight loss: Eat less and exercise more. But when it comes to exercising for weight loss, you may wonder what type of exercise is best for burning excess fat and shedding unwanted pounds.
At Living Waters Regenerative Medicine Center in Gulf Breeze, Florida, internal medicine physician Deborah D. Viglione, MD, and our team understand how important weight management is to our patients. We provide a wide range of weight management support services, such as prescribing appetite suppressants and other medications and recommending nutritional supplements that support weight loss and fat burning.
We also offer guidance on lifestyle changes you can make to shed pounds, including adjustments in your diet and exercise regimens. In this blog, we explore the types of exercise that are best for weight loss.
The most basic benefit of exercise for people who wish to lose weight is that it burns calories. The longer and more vigorously you work out, the more calories you burn.
For example, if you weigh about 150 pounds, jogging at 5 miles per hour burns about 590 calories per hour. If you weigh more, you burn more calories.
But calorie burn is just one of the benefits that exercise delivers. It also reduces stress, tones muscles, improves mood, builds confidence, enhances sleep, and boosts heart health. Even without major weight loss, exercise can help you feel sexier, stronger, healthier, and better about yourself.
Many of our patients find that when they start exercising regularly, they also develop more of the willpower they need to say "no" to junk food and snacks that add flab to their waistline.
Overall, any type of exercise aids weight loss because it burns calories and helps give you a psychological edge. But the best approach is to combine cardiovascular exercise with strength training.
Cardiovascular exercise is any exercise that gets your heart pumping faster, including:
Strength training uses weight or resistance — your own body weight, weight from barbells, or resistance from stretchy bands or other exercise tools — to strengthen your muscles.
Although strength training doesn't generally burn as many calories as cardiovascular exercise, it benefits your weight because it speeds up your metabolism and calorie burn even after you finish your workout. And over time, muscle burns more calories than fat.
Don’t choose an exercise simply because of the calories it burns. Pick something you enjoy so you’re more likely to stick with it over the long term.
No matter how much weight you wish to lose, we're here to help. Exercise is just one of several strategies for losing excess weight and maintaining a healthy weight.
We provide a full range of weight management services, from behavioral health changes to pharmaceutical medications and supplements. And we advise you on lifestyle choices that can help you slim down and become healthier.
Start losing weight now. Schedule a weight management evaluation with our team at Living Waters Regenerative Medicine Center. To make an appointment, call the office at 850-290-4806.
