People trying to lose weight frequently find that diet isn’t effective in shedding pounds, nor in keeping them away after the diet program has ended. Physicians and health care professionals now recommend a combination of watching food consumption, and exercising to burn excess calories – around a pound a week is the best rate of weight loss.

It’s easy to become unsure of what sort of exercise is best for permanent weight loss. A lot of people join a gym in the hopes of becoming fitter, but quickly become disheartened, and wind up asking “what’s the best exercise for weight loss?”

Motivation is the key factor to losing weight with an exercise regime. Anybody wishing to lose weight should consider what they enjoy doing, or what sort of activity will encourage them to keep coming back – some might find that a martial art fills them with enthusiasm, while others might prefer a daily jog in the park.

There are 2 main types of exercise, and when considering what’s the best exercise for weight loss for an individual, it is important to try and find exercises which include both.

Aerobic exercise works by increasing the heart rate and oxygen intake levels; this causes the body to burn more calories in order to compensate for the increased energy demands. These activities include using a stationary bicycle, walking, swimming, football, and basketball, for example. Cardio fitness is not always the best type of weight loss program.

Anerobic exercise, occasionally called strength or resistance training, does not increase the heart rate, but rather builds muscles through short bursts of energy; this type of activity includes weight-lifting, ‘sports day’ activities such as push ups, squats, and using resistance bands.

An ideal exercise program combines both of these types of exercise; workouts in gyms will frequently involve a couple of minutes on a cross trainer, and then a couple of minutes lifting weights; other activities such as kick boxing combine rapid aerobic exercise with bursts of anaerobic strength training.

When considering what’s the best exercise for weight loss, then the time that’s available to perform these exercises, plus level of fitness at the beginning, might limit the choices available.

For somebody with trouble moving, a combination of strength training and cardio wouldn’t be advisable – a series of thirty minute walks in the park could improve body fitness and general health, and is a good way of building up towards something more high-intensity. Strength training will also help to improve the body, and prevent injury when more active sports are begun.

For diabetics, evidence suggests that brief cardio exercise was good at helping to control blood sugar, when combined with strength training; the latter has previously been shown to help control blood sugar and improve Hb1Ac scores. A few 45 minutes sessions 3-5 times a week of both walking and weights training can do even better than this. Diabetics shouldn’t debate the different types of exercise, but rather combine them in interval training for the best effects.

Burning calories is the most effective method of losing weight and keeping it off and it is not necessary to debate what the best types of exercise for weight loss are, as a combination of strength and aerobic exercise provides a lot of benefits to the individual.