What the title says. I want to know what the best exercises to lose weight are. Whenever I search I get conflicting opinions, so I thought you guys might know better.
EDIT: damn, you lot really came through with a ton of good advice! Thank you! Looks like eating healthy is the most important thing.
Exercise is more of a prerequisite to weight loss, not the main thing. Weight loss mostly comes from dieting, it's just that if you try to go on a weight loss diet without routine exercise, your body will rebel and you'll feel like absolute dog shit.
The best diet is one that you stick with (and actually reduces calorie count (aka is a real diet)). An easy diet is to snack on leafy green vegetables before meals, so you're already kind of full before you pick out your portions. Eating more, smaller meals in general makes dieting easier, though our society is in many ways designed around preventing you from doing that.
The best exercise routine is the one you stick with. For most people that's either some sort of social exercises (sports, dance, etc) or weight lifting. Cardio is better for weight loss, and good for you, but most people struggle to just dive straight in with cardio, and it's easier to start after you've been doing something else for a while.
(If you don't like this "the one you can stick with" stuff because you're a discipline monster who can put up with anything and are just trying to optimize, the best diet is calorie counting, and the best exercise is a rowing machine.)
Never thought about snacking on greens before eating thats actually a great idea. When i feel hungry its so easy to over eat and make more than i actually need.
love what you do and you wont work a day in your life ! (for real this time though). rock climbing.. cycling.. swimming.. whatever cardio you enjoy
There's no definitive "correct" answer but this is what I think are the best exercises.
Deadlifts for weight training exercises. If you're not super into the idea of lifting and want to keep it simple, start here. Engages almost the entire body and is especially taxing on glutes, hamstrings and upper back. Very taxing on your nervous system. If you only want to do one exercise, this is the one to do. You will see rapid changes to your body if you start learning to deadlift. Its okay to start with basically nothing on the bar, but once you get your feet under you, you might be surprised at how fast the weight you can lift increases. Form is important for safety and you'll need to watch videos on how to properly do them. I'd recommend Alan Thrall. It's not as dangerous as some people make it sound.
Rowing for cardio. Rowing machines are in most gyms, usually the ERG brand. Will leave you breathless and has minimal impact on your joints. Destroys your legs and has very good engagement for back and core. Again technique takes time to learn but don't be intimidated by that.
Another thing to consider if you're interested in weight loss is try to limit how much fructose is in your diet. Fructose is a sugar type found in fruits that became widespread as a sweetener in foods in the 70s. Its most common form is high fructose corn syrup. Your body does not process fructose the same the way it does most other carbohydrates. Like ethanol (alcohol) it can only be processed by your liver. Excessive consumption can lead to various health problems and also, excess fructose is converted to fat at a much higher rate than other carbohydrates There is a ton of fructose in pretty much any product with artificial sweetening, including stuff like regular grocery store bread.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM&ab_channel=UniversityofCaliforniaTelevision%28UCTV%29
This is an hour and a half long college lecture on fructose if you're interested in a more detailed explanation. It's hard to tell someone interested in weight loss to "just diet", but this lecture really does put into perspective what type of food can be harmful to your body, as well as why its harmful.
I'm trying to lose weight in ways that are fun or easy for me. So far, dancing, hiking and walking are getting good results. Planning to swim more soon too.
Heck ya! I always hate on my dancing because I've never been very coordinated. But recently I've been just letting it go and dancing my heart out. Now I like my moves alot more and wanna dance more!
TBH, the thing that was, far and away, the most successful in me finally losing weight was not focusing on exercise, but on diet.
I spent most of my life overweight, and while I was never an extreme case (I was probably borderline obese at my worst), the time in which I was at my heaviest was also the time in which I was exercising more than I ever had in my life. That didn't work, because my diet was so shitty.
I'm not a believer of any diet that tries to do caloric restriction through portion control if the same unhealthy, calorically dense foods are still being eaten. Maybe it will work in the short term, but highly unlikely in the long term, IMO. If your body is telling you that it's hungry, there's probably a good reason for that.
In this sense, the thing that I saw far and away the best luck with (and still mostly follow to this day) was a whole foods plant based diet (also, :im-vegan:). Unprocessed plant foods, in most instances, are going to be a lot less calorically dense than animal products or processed plant foods. Intuitively, this makes sense to me too--fiber is in abundance with many plant foods, and is also very good at providing bulk in your food while also keeping you feeling full for a longer period of time and mitigating the chance of overeating. Seriously, you will probably see a notable difference just by going from white pasta to whole-grain pasta. And by focusing on less calorically dense foods, this should naturally lower the number of calories you're eating.
Though I'm not gonna lie, if you go all-in at once on this diet, it's probably going to suck for a few weeks--at least, that was my experience, until my tastebuds started adjusting over time and I increasingly got cravings for genuinely healthy foods. Now it's something that's pretty second nature to me, and I'm not even 100% compliant and never was (though the vast majority of my calories are still from unprocessed plant foods). I'm sure one could still see a lot of benefit just from mostly adhering to it. And I never feel like I'm starving myself either, and find it pretty easy to maintain a healthy weight--and I say this as someone who only does pretty light exercise.
TL;DR: Eat more :bean:
People say cardio is they best way to lose calories, but building mass and letting that mass burn calories is easier.
Muscle requires more calories to maintain that fat. If you build more muscle you'll passively use more calories to maintain it.
To reiterate what @MF_BROOM said, diet is really the key to lose weight, which is why it is such a pain in the ass, as junk food is literally the most advertised commodity in the U.S.
That being said the key is just to keep your daily intake under 2000 calories, and try to limit sugar intake. Which is easier said than done, but you can have like, a candy bar a day. Although I would recommend a granola bar.
That said, strength training is a good second, but without diet you won't see any weight loss, just muscle gain (which is also good but a separate body building criteria).
My most successful weight loss was just running a huge caloric deficit by only eating small portions of protein and vegetables and like a couple apples a day.
Best answer I got to this question is whatever physical thing you enjoy, that you can do regularly. I'm sure you can debate swimming vs running vs deadlifts, and come away with some useful answers, but the biggest problem is finding something you can make yourself do as often as possible. I started walking a lot more, two long walks a day, as I enjoy it. I still run sometimes, but that's hard work, and harder to keep up a schedule if I kind of dread it. Consistency and scheduling help you reliably be active.
However, for just losing weight, eating fewer calories is better than exercise. 30 minutes hard running is, based on a lot of factors, probably between 200-500 calories burnt. If all you want to do is lose weight, you're probably better trying to eat that many fewer calories instead.
In the real world, both is good. Also, I find that exercising some helps keep me feeling less tired (which happens when I eat less). Downside is working out makes me a lot hungrier, which makes the calorie deficit harder to hit.
Also, for health, you should still do some hard exercise that get your heart rate and breathing rate going for a few minutes at least a few times a week, but tbh if it's just a workout for 5 min, it probably isn't burning much calories. But that fives minutes of high BPM help keeps your cardiovascular system in shape.
I enjoy biking! I need new tires though. I should do my bike up.
I just wish I didn't live in such a humid, hot area. I tried gyms once to get out of the heat but they were so expensive and noisy and everyone looks at you there and I'm just like aww hell naw
Yeah, I feel that. Never really liked gyms, even if it is somewhat convenient.
And I love biking too, but its a bit of a pain to load up and drive somewhere bike friendly for me atm, no to mention there only a pretty narrow window in spring and fall where its actually pleasant out. Miss college days at cooler latitude, where I could just bike around campus whenever I wanted.
I am thinking of investing in one of those stationary bike conversion things, which should just fit in my apartment, so I can do better cardio in the AC on these 95° days I'm already getting.
I think, sadly, eating less is much more effective
Source: don’t listen to me either, gained 20 lbs the last year (Ate delicious food tho )
Something low-impact, sustainable, and imo focused on strength. Will keep your metabolism up, help with function, and have a low chance of injury.
I saw that you mentioned biking: biking is great! Maybe add some pushups (half pushups are fine!) and pullups (reverse ones are fine!).
Losing weight is mostly about reducing calories but exercise makes it so that it's more healthy when you are on a diet.
A rare beast in fine form, the half pushup naturally transitions into the passive plank.
I assume push ups naturally also are planks (just not sustained for super long, unless they are)
Swimming or swim sports like water polo. I'm dead serious.
Shadowboxing is also pretty high up on the list.
Running is very effective, but as a former competitive runner, I can tell you first hand that the risk of injury is higher than a lot of other options, and even higher if you're starting out out of shape.
for running?
shin splits is the most common, followed by (in no particular order):
plantar fasciitis, patellar tendonitis (or knee pain, more generally), and inflammation of the IT band.
runners are at relatively low risk of acute injury, but high risk of chronic/stress injury. stress fractures are disproportionately common in runners, though less common in casual runners, as the latter group is better about stopping when problems first occur, rather than pushing through until it becomes a stress fracture.
any/all, more cardio than lifting things generally.
Source: dont trust me I'm not fit
There's no one size fits all exercise BUT the best exercise is one you actually enjoy doing. I've known many people who've had great success with walking, jogging, cycling and swimming but pick one you actually want to do otherwise it'll be hard to maintain.
As for diets low calorie but high quantity foods that taste good are best. Will most likely involve learning lots of different meals though which is a bigger challenge than exercise imo especially cos most of us are raised on high carb calorie dense foods. But im sure hexbear also has many resources to help with this in c/food
Whatever you do, don't forget to stretch and do it all the time. I've had a lot of injuries that could have been prevented from stretching.
