While our title seems like an easy question, it is unfortunately far more complicated than it first appears. Physical activity is one of the key factors in losing weight – though it certainly isn’t the easiest to get started. And once you do, you may start to wonder which type of exercise is best for you.
Exercise is the foundation of weight loss. As you eat food, you are fueling your body; if you don’t use this energy up, your body will store it as adipose tissue (body fat). This tissue can be coaxed into breaking down to release the stored energy, but only when your body doesn’t have enough calories to sustain itself – exercise uses up energy from the food we eat, meaning your body is more likely to dip into these stores.
The standard to aim for should be around 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week (roughly 30 minutes per day, with weekends off!). This doesn’t need to mean hitting the gym; a brisk walk, a light cycle, some heavy cleaning
However, weight loss is about more than calories burned – a long-term weight loss plan includes changes to your behaviours, being more active in your day to day life, and an understanding of your own limits. With the proper planning and execution, your weight loss goals can be easier to reach than you might think!
In this article, we will look at the benefits of three different types of exercise, what they do for your body, and how to get started with each one.
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Does Strength Training Help with Weight Loss?
Strength training is what many people think of when they picture exercise – lifting weights, curls, squats and press-ups all fall under strength training. Strength training focuses more on building muscles than it does on burning calories; however, by virtue of being exercise, you will still burn more than a few!
Resistance training (using a weight to provide resistance to your movements) is the main form of strength training. Of course, this weight can vary, from bands to actual weights to your own body weight. While it may not burn as many calories as cardio, you are building your strength and stamina, which can allow you to exercise for longer and with greater resistance, thus burning more calories.
Is Yoga Beneficial for Weight Loss?
As it involves physical exercise, you can lose weight through yoga. There are more active, intense forms of yoga; “hot yoga”, such as Bikram yoga and power yoga, mix elements of cardio and strength training in to provide a more rounded experience. However, you will not lose as much as the other types of exercise listed here.
Despite this, yoga can be an excellent tool in your exercise regiment. Not only will you be more flexible, making certain exercises easier to do, but even a gentle yoga course can help you get more active, starting the snowball into a more strenuous form of exercise.
Yoga can also be an excellent way to stretch your muscles before or after a workout, or when you are on an off day from fully exercising.
Is Cardio Good for Weight Loss?
Aerobic exercise (“Cardio”) is designed to keep your heart rate elevated for an extended period of time. In turn, this means you will be breathing deeper, taking in more oxygen to fuel your cells as they work.
Cardio is the gold standard for weight loss exercises – by using more energy, you are allowing your body to start burning off fat. In an average cardio-focused workout, you will generally burn more energy than either strength training or yoga – however, strength training increases your muscle mass, which leads to a higher base metabolic rate.
In turn, this can make it easier to stay in shape, and you will burn more calories throughout your day; yoga can help with your motivation to eat less fatty foods, and improves your flexibility, making it easier to keep up an exercise regime.
So, Which is Better?
Many trainers and professionals will advocate for a mix of all of these approaches and more. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) has been quite popular among the weight loss crowd. The basic idea is that, by doing short bursts of very intense exercise, your body’s metabolism will peak and then take time to lower back to its resting state; by taking breaks, you can recover enough to do another burst before your metabolism resets.
This has been shown to allow you to burn more calories; a solid mix of cardio, strength training and stretching exercises, as part of a HIIT regiment, may well be the best exercise format to lose weight.
Here at Simple Online Pharmacy,we also offer plenty of weight loss medications, from injections like Wegovy and Mounjaro to pills such as Orlistat and Alli. We also provide support for those looking to lose weight with our renu app, as well as plenty of Health Advice blogs such as this one!
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