Best Types of Exercise for Losing Fat

So you walk into the gym, hop on the elliptical and start pedaling away for the next hour. You put your headphones in and try to forget about the fact that you are even exercising in the first place with your face in your phone watching Netflix. You assume that just being at the gym and doing cardio is what will help you lose those stubborn 10 lbs, but you’re wrong.

Doing the same cardio in the gym day after day is going to eventually cause you to stop losing weight. This is because of adaptation; which means over time the body gets used to the stress you are putting on it and starts to adapt and change. This adaptation is what will cause your weight loss to stall, but there are ways to get around it…change your routine! Here are a few different types of exercise that are great for losing body fat!

Resistance Training

Resistance training is the best type of exercise for burning body fat and changing your physique. This is because it allows you to build muscle. Building muscle not only burns fat, during the moderate intensity exercise, but also allows you to burn more calories at rest. Muscle is a lot harder to innervate than fat, so it takes more energy for the body to function. This extra energy comes in the form of calories and therefore burning more at rest! Not to mention resistance training is going to help give you a “toned” look you might be wanting to achieve.

HIIT

High intensity interval training is a great way to burn calories, in a short amount of time! Interval training is an intense bout of exercise followed by a longer rest period to allow you ro recover before doing it again. HIIT sessions should only last 5-12 minutes, but should be extremely intense! This can be done in the form of plyometrics, biking, sprinting etc. High intensity training allows you to burn a lot of calories during the session because of the heart rate intervals, but it also helps you burn calories all day. This is because it raises your EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) which means your body is in “recovery” all day trying to get your body back to its resting rate. So it’s a win – win…short duration with HUGE benefits!

Both of these exercise techniques should be added into your training routine on a daily basis if fat loss is your goal. They have amazing benefits not only for losing fat, but also for overall health. HIIT helps with heart health and blood circulation and resistance training helps you build muscle which helps with daily activities. Exercise is a tool that should regularly be changed up, not only for adaptation but also for sanity. Doing the same thing over and over again gets boring and may cause you to lose interest in exercise, so keep things interesting!