Reach and Maintain Your Weight Goal

Diet and exercise are like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. They compliment eachother without a doubt. When trying to lose weight, diet and exercise are the main factors. Eating right and choosing healthy foods is a major part of the equation, but without exercise losing or maintaining weight is a difficult task. The reason being is most people do not count calories or keep track of everything they eat. Therefore, if you engage in weekly exercise it is easier to maintain your caloric balance. Losing weight by watching both calories in and calories out makes it easier on you and you will see results a lot faster. Over restricting calories (below 1200) is not the way to go, since working out requires energy, and if you work out on an empty gas tank you won't be very productive.

In regards to the type of exercise, strength training can provide you with faster weight loss results. Cardiovasuclar exercise is great, especially for a warm up and cool down, but it doesn't raise your metabolism as high as strenght training. Raising metabolism higher=buring more calories=faster weight loss. It not only raises your metabolism, but it keeps it revved up for 48-72 hours post exercise (depending on your intensity), versus cardio-- which only keeps it up for about a few hours post exercise. Both cardiovascular and strength training are a part of being fit, but when it comes to weight loss you need to focus on both with a little more emphasis on strength training. Better yet, you can do circuit training which involves both cardio and strength concepts.

Remember, the best time to start is now, especially with the New Year rolling around. Time to get serious about your weight goals as a way to prevent disease and to live a healthy more prosperous life. Try and aim for at least 2-3 times per week of strength training activity. The best time to work out is when you can fit it into your schedule!