Exercise routines for weight loss

Increasing physical activity in your life is probably one of the most important changes you can make, to ensure long term weight loss and control of your weight regulator.

Physical activity - not just exercise, but also any kind of physical activity- increases the number of calories your body burns.

People who increase their physical activity to lose weight are much more likely to keep the weight off. Those who don't exercise do very poorly over the long term.

If you have a high amount of body fat around your cest and waist, then you are likely at a higher risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, strokes or diabetes. Losing fat around the hips and thighs can be harder, but exercise is a given if you want to lose that fat.

Why exercise is so effective at keeping weight off

Weight lost through dieting without exercise, often comes from muscles, organs and fluids, not from body fat.
Exercise helps preserve lean muscle mass while reducing body fat.
Exercise burns calories.
Exercise increases your metabolic rate - not only during the exercise, but also for a period of time afterwards.

Exercise, weight loss and insuling

Exercise speeds up the fat burning process by burning calories, increasing the metabolic rate, and lowering insulin levels.
When insulin is lowered, glucagon is elevated and exercise really starts to pay off, by burning maximum levels of stored body fat for energy.
When you load up on carbohydrates before, during or right after exercise, you inhibit glucagon and HGH (human growth hormone) release by stimulating insulin - forcing your body to burn glucose instead of stored body fat. This completely negates the hormonal benefits of exercise.
Research shows that exercising first thing in the morning allows you to tap into more body fat, as glucose levels in the blood and tissues are lower because of overnight usage for repairing and rebuilding.
Exercising for 20 minutes first thing in the morning is like exercising for an hour, later in the afternoon or evening from a fat burning standpoint. This is because meals consumed during the day, have filled up the depleted glucagon in muscle tissue and liver reserves (the liver stores about 800 calories - enough for 10-12 hours of normal daily activity).

Exercise goal for weight control

The goal is to be active for 20-30 minutes on most, if not all days. To make this easier, remember that your time can be broken into shorter periods of 8-10 minutes or more.
Be more active throughout the day, every day. Accumulate physical activity, like interest in the fitness bank. As you get fit, you can do more - and enjoy it more.

In order to lose weight, you must burn more calories than you take in. Get moving and watch your body change. Please visit Nahanni River Herbs' book store. While there, browse through the large selection of brand name books, ebooks, and excellent CDs, DVDs or tapes. Remember, that all these items are available to you at competitive or discounted prices - directly from our merchants.

The indisputable long term key to fat loss, is exercise.

The reason: this is virtually the only proven way to increase metabolism and boost calorie burn.

Exercise, weight loss and your health

Exercising decreases a chance of contracting an unhealthy condition in the first place.
Exercise can help such common conditions as:

Arthritis
Heart Disease
Back Pain
Osteoporosis

Diabetes
Cancer
Obesity

What other things can exercise be good for?

Physical activity supports healing and helps you cope with disease when it is already present.
Exercise delays the progress of many diseases.
Exercise helps strengthen the immune system.
Exercise helps you relax more completely.
Regular physical exercise helps to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Exercise helps alleviate stress.
Exercise helps produce endorphins that create a peaceful, euphoric state - helping to improve mood and ability to perform daily tasks. Exercise also increases energy levels.

How do you rate? Check out our interactive corner for health analyzer and other health calculators.

Exercise weight loss - diet and cortisol

A typical workout session should last 20-30 minutes. Making it easier to consistently work out.
It actually does the body more harm than good, to work out for long periods of time. When you exercise more than 45 minutes, the body begins to produce increased amounts of cortisol, which triggers muscle breakdown.

High levels of cortisol are known to be the cause of:

Decreased bone density.
Increased blood pressure.
Inhibition of the immune system.
Muscle wasting.
Insulin resistance.
Increased body fat levels.

When exercise is combined with an improper diet:

Blood sugar fluctuations can elevate cortisol.
Excessive carbohydrates can elevate cortisol.
Protein deficiency can elevate cortisol.
Eating too little can cause cortisol to rise.
During times of stress, cortisol is elevated.

Cortisol is able to overpower just about all other hormones in the body.
Cortisol can cause accumulation of body fat even if you think you are doing all the right things correctly.
Cortisol will block HGH from doing its job.

Working out regularly and vigorously both preserves and builds muscle mass, which even at rest, burns nearly twice as many calories as fat tissue. Dieting without exercise, on the other hand, only signals the body?s many different physiological safeguards to turn on, which slow down the metabolism and protect body fat reserves against possible starvation. These things are much more powerful than the mechanisms we have to protect ourselves from obesity. Fortunately, there is a proven way to lose fat and permanently keep it off. The answer lies in working with our body systems and body chemistry-through diet, exercise and positive thinking.

Please visit Nahanni River Herbs' book store. While there, browse through the large selection of brand name books, ebooks, and excellent CDs, DVDs or tapes. Remember, that all these items are available to you at competitive or discounted prices - directly from our merchants.

Resources

You can also try our article about Running for beginners - a great way to get exercise.

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