The Best Exercises For Weight Loss
Is exercise the answer?
Firstly, before we talk about the best exercises for weight loss, I need to make this abundantly clear.
The only way to lose weight is by being in a calorie deficit. Which is done in one of two ways (best if both are combined), eat less or move more.
Firstly, for the eating less, part, unless you’ve been living under a rock, I have written many other articles on an assortment of topics. So check out my other articles if you’re looking for dieting or weight loss tips strictly related to eating. This article will focus primarily on exercise.
Now, let’s get into the good stuff. Not that dieting isn’t good. Food is great. So is exercise. It’s hard for me to pick which is better. Anyways, before I lose my mind…
We all know that moving more will burn more calories. But we need to be more specific. Moving more could be doing more jazz hands. Although yes, you are moving more, your hand muscles will fatigue pretty quickly with minimal calorie burn. So unless your goals aren’t to lose weight, but instead to set some sort of jazz hands world record, then you can stop reading here.
Now, if your goals are to lose weight, then keep reading!
If you were to ask your average gym goer what the best exercise is to lose weight, they would probably say some exercise involving either the treadmill, elliptical, or cycle. As a personal trainer, I know this not because it’s necessarily true, but because that’s the area that 99% of gym goers will walk straight to and spend most, if not all, of their time in the gym at right after checking in…
So obviously, as a population, the majority of us understand that any form of exercise can help us lose weight. Although exercise does play a huge role in weight loss, it’s not the only thing we should be concerned about.
This is also question I get asked a lot. It’s hard to exactly answer because the best answer is also the one that nobody wants to hear…
It depends.
But because people really want an answer. This is what I usually say…
But before we dive into exercise, we must discuss what makes up our total daily calorie expenditure. Because when we look at the big picture, exercise only plays a small role.
How Your Metabolism Works
Total Energy Expenditure (TEE)
Your total energy expenditure (basically totally calories burned over a certain period of time) is broken down into 4 things:
1. Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
This accounts for where the majority of your calorie intake is utilized (~60%). This includes standard maintenance, repair, and functioning of your bodily systems such as breathing, blood circulation, and repairing and synthesizing cells and tissue. Basically, all the stuff that keeps you alive.
2. Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT)
For the majority of people, this accounts for the second most amount of calories burned (~20%). This includes all types of physical activity and movement except structured exercise. For this, think of every time you get up to go to the bathroom, walk to and from your car running errands, cooking, or even just sitting at your desk shaking your leg or fidgeting with your pen.
3. Thermic Effect of Food (TEF)
On average, this accounts for ~10% of your calorie expenditure and can vary depending on what you eat. But the main thing is, every time you eat it doesn’t just instantly get stored as fat or burned for energy. It takes energy for your body to convert that turkey sandwich you had for lunch into a usable form of energy for your body to use or store.
4. Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (EAT)
And finally, exercise. The one form of calorie expenditure that we are all familiar with and know and love. This can vary greatly from person to person, but for the majority of people, this will account for about 10% of your calorie expenditure. One exception is if you’re either a professional whose livelihood revolves around training or a recreational athlete training for a high level event.
Now that we have all that covered, let’s dive into how different types of exercises can affect not only the ‘Exercise’ portion of the equation, but can change some of the other components as well resulting in a hack to burn more calories not only while you’re exercising, but also while you’re living life doing other stuff.
Bust out your notebook because now we’re finally getting into the best exercises for losing weight!
The Best Exercises For Weight Loss – Weights vs Cardio
1. Weight Lifting
Now, I do have to start off with a disclaimer… The action of lifting weights does not burn that many calories. It doesn’t matter how many calories your Apple Watch said you burn. Even on your hardest leg day, you’ll have burned 200-300 calories MAX after the entire session. But don’t worry, it’s not all bad news. Lifting weights will build muscle which, over time, will increase your BMR. So although performing it won’t burn as many calories as other forms of exercise, you’ll steadily increase the number of calories you burn at rest the more muscle you build.
An analogy I like to think about is it’s like a job versus an investment. For example, cardio (or a job) will give you immediate returns in the form of burned calories (or wages) for your time spent working. Whereas weight lifting (or an investment) won’t give you as many immediate returns (in the form of calories or money) but will yield much greater returns in the long run.
The one major mistake that most people make when weight lifting is thinking they need to weight lift to burn calories. However, this will result in only you wasting your time and energy. If your main focus while weight lifting is to burn calories, you will:
- Not build the most muscle you can efficiently and
- Not burn as many calories as you could doing something else
If there is one thing you can take away from this article, it should be this:
Your main goal when lifting weights is to maximize muscle growth NOT burning calories or losing fat.
If you want to learn how to build your own weight lifting routine, then check out my other article here!
Lifting weights also comes with so many other benefits including helping you achieve a more ‘toned’ and ‘defined’ look that most people are after rather than just being ‘skinny fat’. If you want to know the other ones, check out my YouTube video on this!
2. Cardio
For the sake of time and your sanity, I won’t mention the thousands of different types of cardio exercises and equipment you can use. Instead, I will say try as many forms as possible and stick with the ones you enjoy.
Just keep in mind that cardio is any type of exercise that elevates your heart rate for an extended period of time. So unfortunately, underwater basket weaving doesn’t count.
In terms of how much cardio to do, the American Heart Association recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise per week. However, this is for heart health purposes rather than from a calorie burning perspective.
If you want my more in depth discussion on how much cardio to do, check out this YouTube video I made!
And in case you were wondering, moderate intensity is at a pace where you’re still able to hold a conversation, but would not like to. Vigorous intensity is a pace where you’re not able to hold a conversation.
Anyhow, 150 minutes of low to moderate intensity is an excellent place to start for many people. You can start by going on walks around your neighborhood, using some of the gym cardio equipment, or even playing your favorite sports leisurely. The main thing is to enjoy your exercise. Exercise is a reward, not a punishment!
The Best Exercises For Weight Loss – HIIT vs LISS
One side note about the different types of cardio. You’ve most likely have heard about the benefits and drawbacks of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) versus Low/Moderation Intensity Steady State (L/MISS) cardio. To save you time and frustration here’s a quick infographic from my Instagram @austincfitness:
Final Thoughts on The Best Exercises For Weight Loss
The most important takeaway point from this article is to choose the types of exercises that you enjoy the most. Because honestly, at the end of the day, the more you enjoy something, the more likely you’ll do it and stick with it for the long term. It doesn’t matter how many calories a certain exercise will burn. If you enjoy a mode of exercise, you’ll likely do it longer and with more intensity simply because you enjoy it which will lead to more effort and more calories burned. However, the only requirements are that they fulfill two purposes:
- Build muscle (any type of resistance training)
- Build cardiovascular strength & endurance (for a healthy heart, because that is actually the most important muscle in your body)
Just remember that any exercise is better than no exercise. And always strive to train harder than last time. Don’t settle for the bare minimum. Always go to the gym (or wherever else you may go to train) and train with a purpose and level of intensity. I see far too many people at the gym just going through the motions training at less than half of their max effort and expecting to see crazy results in their performance or appearance only to be disappointed.
And to sign off always keep this mantra close to your heart, If you put in half-assed efforts it will yield half-assed results.
Hope this helps you in choosing the right exercises in helping you achieve your weight loss goals!
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