Does Exercise Help You Lose Fat?

You’re probably quite aware that exercise burns extra calories, which helps you lose weight. Most people don’t consider what type of weight they lose. Are the calories burned from muscle tissue or fat? You lose fat when you’re exercising and build muscle tissue. Dieting without exercising can help you lose weight, but it will come from both muscle tissue and fat. That can be significant, since the more muscle tissue you have, the easier it is to lose weight.

Exercise burns calories as you exercise and calories later.

Some exercises continue to burn extra calories even after you quit. The extra calories are burned for up to 72 hours. Muscle tissue requires extra calories to maintain than fat tissue does, so the more you have, the easier it is to lose weight. If you simply diet to lose weight, you’ll lose both muscle and fat tissue, but if you do strength-training workouts, you’ll build muscle and lose fat. The more muscle you have, the easier it is to lose weight.

Exercise can help you balance your hormones.

If you have an imbalance between progesterone and estrogen, you can gain weight easier and most of the time it packs on fat around the hips. Exercise helps burn off the hormones of stress, like cortisol. Cortisol is linked to the accumulation of fat on the abdomen. Many hormonal problems and imbalances can be corrected with exercise. It also triggers hormones that make you feel good.

There are ways to burn even more body fat.

HIIT—high intensity interval training—helps burn more fat. It’s not an exercise, but a way of doing exercises. You alternate your workout between a high intensity pace and a recovery pace. You can use it with any type of workout, including cardio and strength training. Circuit training is also another fat buster. With circuit training, you move from one type of exercise to another with little rest between each. Again, it could be cardio, calisthenics, or resistance exercises.

• Pushing yourself harder, rather than working out longer, is the best fat buster. If you work out for longer than an hour, it subjects you to muscle injury and provides very little benefit for the extra time.
• Eat healthier to get the best results. Protein is vital for building muscle tissue. It can come from plant sources or animal sources, but it’s easier to consume all essential amino acids from animal sources.
• Don’t worry about your weight if you’re trying to lose fat. Muscle tissue weighs more per cubic inch than fat tissue does. Even if you weigh the same, you’ll look thinner if you have more muscle tissue. Track your progress in inches.
• Make sure you get adequate sleep and stay hydrated. Both help boost energy levels so you’ll work out more efficiently. When you sleep, your body changes fat to energy and balances hormones.

For more information, contact us today at Get RIPPED! by Jari Love