How to Maximize Exercise for Weight Loss
Happy beginnings to 2022! Did you decide to make a resolution for the new year? If you did, you may be like millions of other people who have decided to lose weight and get fit. Health goals are often the New Year’s Resolution for many people. If you do it correctly and stick to it, it’s definitely worth it. But have you thought about how you’re going to exercise, or are you just going to the gym and doing different exercises at random? Planning it out and having a strategy can help you stay on track and get to that place you want to be. Keep reading to learn the blueprint for maximizing weight loss during your workout. Just a disclaimer: If your goal is to gain weight and build muscle, this is NOT the way to do it. I’ll save that for a future blog.
Determine what you want your target weight to be and create short and long term goals for achieving it. Safe weight loss should be 2-3 pounds per week. This will likely fluctuate week to week, but find an average and determine a rough idea of how long it should take. Pick some short term goals along the way to keep you on track.
Aim for more longer workouts, as opposed to shorter. It takes a while to get into a good fat burning mode (about 30 minutes), so by extending your sessions closer to an hour, it will give you more time in this mode. The more time spent in that fat burning zone, the more effective it will be. There is some research in fat burning with high intensity interval training, but that’s more complicated. If you’re just getting started, keep it simple for now.
Workout in a fasted state. This means working out when you’ve had 12-16 hours since you’ve last eaten. When you exercise, your body is efficient at finding calories and the most available calories will be those in your blood stream from your most recent meal. Your body will burn through this before touching your fat stores. By fasting before your workout, you won’t have much in the blood stream and your body will get into a fat burning mode even faster.
After working out, try to delay your next intake of calories. By delaying your meal after your workout, you will stay in your fat burning mode even longer!
Optimize your exercise intensity for optimal fat burning. Determine your maximum heart rate (220 minus your age) and your exercise heart rate should be 65% of that. You will find that your intensity should not be too high, allowing you to exercise longer. Working out too hard will cause you to burn muscle instead.
BONUS TIP: Believe it or not, your success in losing weight is more greatly affected by your diet than your exercise. In fact, weight loss is 80% nutrition and 20% exercise! Think about it. Let’s say you do a good workout today and burn 400 calories, then decide to polish off a pizza and a big glass of soda. Everything you burned is now back in your system with more to spare! Calories in/calories out really matters! You need to have a caloric deficit to make weight loss happen.
I hope you found these tips helpful if you have just made your weight loss goals. Of course, if you have specific health conditions to consider, this advice may not be for you. When in doubt, consult with a health care provider before jumping into your new routine to make sure you’re good to go. If you’re clear of any potential issues, then give these a try and see how it goes. Good luck!
Rob Liguori, DC
