Fitness training is an essential part of losing weight and achieving good health. While there are a lot of quick fixes, hype and contradicting advice about the easiest, most effective and best ways to lose weight, the reality is quite simple. To lose weight, you must expend more energy than you intake, and exercise is an integral part of achieving this.
Regardless of your age, metabolism and individual situation, there are ways to improve your health and gain the body you want, and we can show you how right here. To maximize the effectiveness of this program, you should combine any fitness training for weight loss with a good weight loss diet.
While the proven long-term weight-loss methods are quite simple to explain, they can sometimes be difficult to follow. Depending on your individual scenario, it could mean lifestyle changes, sacrifices in other areas and some amount of discomfort. However, with the right strategy, knowledge and attitude, you can achieve real success.
The strategy is the key word
The strategy is the key word here, and it’s this part where people often fall short of their fitness and weight loss goals. While you might have the knowledge and access to the equipment necessary, successfully executing a weight loss plan is often the hardest part. It’s so hard that the weight loss industry reaps millions of dollars a year from people searching for a quick fix that is often harder than the sensible route anyway.
If you are serious about losing weight, then we have the information you need to succeed. It’s time to shed the excuses, stop looking for the miracle cure and to take charge of your health and weight. Don’t worry, once you start down this path, you will realize it was the easiest choice all along, and the changes you make today can stick with you for the rest of your life if you choose it.
Professional Advice
Before you embark on a new fitness training program, it’s worthwhile considering the benefit of professional advice. Hiring a personal trainer, visiting a boot camp or becoming a member of a gym or fitness club can have many benefits for those that are unsure about how to lose weight through fitness training.
It’s also a good idea to visit your doctor or health professional before undertaking any physical activity program. If you are overweight, experience health problems are middle aged or older, then these are all good reasons to get advice from medical professionals tailored to your individual situation.
Cardio Fitness Training
Cardio is an essential part of effectively losing weight that is often misunderstood. Many people spend a lot of time on cardio and do not maximize the results they could be getting if they altered their training schedule. The good thing about cardio training is that you can do it pretty much anywhere, and it doesn’t have to cost much to get going.
Depending on your level of fitness, you should be aiming for anything between 20-40 minutes of cardiovascular fitness training each session. For weight loss purposes, there is certainly no need for a training session to last longer than an hour as you will face diminishing returns and muscle loss, which will hurt your weight loss efforts in the long run.
While you build your fitness, a brisk walk can be enough to start effecting change, but eventually you should be aiming to increase the intensity of the workout. Build to a slow jog and then a run, never pushing yourself so hard that it becomes difficult to talk during the aerobic exercise.
Walking and running is not for everyone, though, so if you have trouble with your joints, do not enjoy the high impact activity or running simply does not appeal to you, you could try cycling, swimming or even aerobics classes. Whatever you try, have a set distance and time, and record your progress as you go. Beating your own time is a great motivator.
Quick Cardio Fitness Training Tip
For the best weight loss results, do a combination of sprints, short distance sessions and long-distance sessions with your cardio workouts.
Weight Training
If you don’t already know, weight training is great for burning fat. In fact, some argue that it is even more important than cardio training, and at the least, it is essential if you want to take the shortest route to weight loss. Weight training builds muscles that in turn burn energy to increase your total consumption and help it grow above your intake.
It also has many other weight loss and health benefits, from increasing your metabolism to strengthening your bones and cardiovascular system. Joining a gym will give you access to the machines and weights you need, or if this is not an option, a simple bench, barbell and dumbbell set-up will provide all the equipment you need.
Common Myth
There is a common myth that using a low weight with high repetitions is the most effective way to burn fat. This is not true and can waste a lot of your valuable time and effort. Instead, you should be aiming for heavier weights – as heavy as you can comfortably lift – and around 10-12 repetitions over two to three sets.
This will maximize your weight loss potential and help improve your overall fitness, and just so it’s clear – there is no chance that you will turn into a hulking mass of muscle using weight training this way. Tone, definition, lean muscle? Sure, you will achieve all these things, but biceps like Arnold Schwarzenegger? No way.
For Women
For women, it’s exceedingly difficult to gain muscle mass without spending years on dedicated weight training, special diets and for many – testosterone supplements. That’s because the male hormone has a lot to do with muscle growth, which is why most women will not achieve muscle mass increases, and especially not using weights like this.
For Men
Even for men, this will build lean muscle and improve definition, but not much in the way of size and mass. To put on mass, you need to be working with the maximum amount of weight you can lift, preferably with a spot, and using low repetitions. This type of weight training listed here will help you lose weight, though, and you will need to work all your muscle groups evenly to get the best results.
Quick Weight Training Tips
You need to work all your muscle groups to effectively lose weight, especially your big muscles in your back and legs. You cannot choose a spot to lose your weight from – it simply doesn’t work that way. For example, doing 100 sit-ups a day will not cause you to lose weight purely from your stomach. Sure, it will tone and strengthen your abs and contribute to overall weight loss, but weight loss will be occurring in different areas depending on your genetic make-up.
Work a different major muscle group each day. It’s very important to work opposing muscle groups evenly, or you can risk muscle imbalance leading to injury and many other health problems. Start with the hardest exercises requiring the biggest muscles and then work your way down to the supplementary exercises.
Weight Loss Training Program
Obviously, we can’t work out a program to suit your individual situation because each person and gym will have different machines, different health and fitness capabilities and different time constraints. However, we can give you a rough guide to get you started that you can then tailor to your own needs or use to perform further research.
In our weight loss training program, you will be using a combination of weight training and cardio training to achieve your maximum weight loss potential. If you are starting from a basis of no previous fitness activity, we recommend very light workout sessions until you build your fitness. Start with one or two sessions a week and then increase to three and four.
For those middle-aged or older, it’s even more important to perform proper stretching and warm-ups. Pay attention to your body and be careful not to overdo it or you will end up with an injury or worse. If there’s any doubt, consult a professional.
Once you build up a good basic level of fitness, you should be aiming for three to four sessions a week in the gym. Each session should take around 40 minutes.
Day 1 –
Spend around 20 minutes working out your back muscles, biceps and forearms. You can do this by performing rows (pulling motion towards your chest), pull downs (machine needed), deadlifts (using very light weight or even none at all) bicep curls, wrist curls and forearm extensions. Do two sets of each, with 10-12 reps keeping rest time between sets fairly brief. Have a break for a few minutes, and then spend 20 minutes on a cardio exercise of your choice, such as running swimming or cycling. Tip – When you first begin, use light weights and start by doing only one set of 10 reps until your fitness increases.
Day 2 –
Spend a 40 minute gym session working your shoulders and legs, using 10-12 reps over two sets again. For shoulders, a behind the neck press (lifting arms straight up), upright row (palms in and lifting weight to chin) and lateral raises (keeping arms straight and lifting out) will do the trick. Squats or leg presses, hamstring curls and leg extensions will work your legs. You can do this with machines or free weights and bands. After working out your legs, you will not need to do any cardio.
Day 3 –
Spend 15-20 minutes working your chest muscles and triceps. You can do this by performing a bench press, flyes (keeping arms straight and while lying down bringing them together right above your chest) and tricep extensions (the tricep is the muscle on the rear side of your upper arm, and an extension is basically the opposite of a bicep curl. Face palm to the outside and extend sideways away from the body). Next spend five minutes performing some ab exercises such as crunches and leg raises. And then finish off the session with a 20 minute cardio stint.
With just three relatively short sessions, you can see huge weight loss gains using this program. Alternatively, you could split shoulders and legs to create a fourth day, or plan an extra day that is focused solely on cardio. You could also choose to focus more on either cardio or gym, depending on your personal preference. But just make sure the intensity is kept high to burn the most fat.
Quick Weight Program Tips
A quality low-calorie protein powder can help your muscles with recovery (helping muscle soreness). And it can also be a great way to satisfy your appetite without the heavy meal. Just remember to watch your caloric intake.
Motivation
As we mentioned earlier, the strategy is probably the most crucial factor in any fitness training program for weight loss. There are many different training programs you can undertake from boot camps to customized sessions with personal trainers that can help you with motivation. Or perhaps some high intensity music and convenient access to training equipment at home is the extra motivation you need to succeed.
There will be times when you do not feel like going, and times when you can’t make your planned schedule. However, it’s these situations when it is most important to put in the effort. If you have planned a morning session but overslept, it’s imperative you make up that session in the afternoon.
At first, you will probably find the new schedule difficult and you may experience slight soreness of muscles. However, in a short amount of time, your body will respond by giving you more of the pleasure hormones, such as endorphins. You will have more energy yet will be eating less and soon you will find your exercise schedule has you feeling good all week long.
