For the most part these exercises should generally be cardiovascular in nature, meaning they get your heart rate up but don’t require that you work your muscles against weight resistance.
Exercises such as walking, volleyball, running, tennis, jogging, horseback riding or cardio machines all fit into this category. And there is nothing wrong with cardiovascular workout plans – except that you have to do them for long periods of time to see results.
But if the goal is to workout less and see greater fat burning, what are the best exercises to lose weight? You may feel like the more you work out at a cardio activity, the more calories you will burn. In fact the opposite is actually true.
Recent research has found that muscles and your metabolism will accommodate to the consistent workload that you impose each time you get on the treadmill for 30 minutes. So doing the same exercises each time - but for longer periods - is not the answer, even when doing exercises that burn fat.
Exercise Routines That Confuse Muscles
Confusing your muscles, which researchers advise rather than doing the same exact fat burning exercise each time, is basically the same exercise routines that high school and college coaches have been teaching for years. However, rather than referring to it as 'confusing the muscles', they call it interval training, a great addition to any natural weight loss program.
During interval training, the body alternates between moderate and intense, and long and short cardio workouts rather than indulging in one long cardiovascular session. And you’ll find that interval training is not nearly as boring as doing the same routine, at the same pace, for the same amount of time, on the same days of the week, week after boring week.
You can change the actual routine that you use or, to confuse your muscles even more, you can incorporate weight work into your workout program a couple days a week. This method of working out leads to greater weight loss and calorie burn, and more toned muscles.
Using interval training, you’ll also find that your body continues to burn calories for another 24 hours after you’ve completed the workout. And for ultra-busy people, that added benefit means that you can workout 3 times a week instead of five and receive the same benefits.
Another important factor is that intensive workouts like weight lifting is not just for men - even women can do them. You may think that you will have a body like Arnold Schwarzenegger if you do weight lifting, but actually the opposite is true. In order to build that kind of body, you will need more than intense workouts and also different hormone levels than are usually present in a woman’s body.
Don't complicate this! Turns out, the best exercises to lose weight, which are the best fat burning exercises, are also the ones that you are more likely to stick with for the long haul - and you don't even need complicated exercise equipment or gym memberships to pull it off. Keep it simple and basic and you will soon see some amazing results from your efforts!
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