Strenuous exercise will make you lose weight, right? This is a common misunderstanding. Exercising can help burn fat, thus making you lighter, but it must be done in the right way. Aerobic exercise will burn fat, but not in the way you might expect. If you are practicing something like kick-boxing or running for half an hour 3 to 4 times a week, you are not burning fat with your exercise routine.
Your body uses glucose to produce energy when you exercise in the aerobic zone. The aerobic zone will differ from person to person; it is achieved when your heart is working so hard to get oxygen to your muscles (also working hard) that it beats at 70 per cent or more of its maximum rate. It is because your body is working so hard that it pulls its energy from the readily available blood sugar rather than from stored fat. It is easier for your body to get to the glucose than to the fat. You are working hard and you are burning calories, but you are not burning fat in the aerobic zone.
Eventually, you will begin to burn fat in the aerobic zone, but this will only happen after the readily available blood sugar is gone. Usually, it takes at least 20 to 30 minutes of working in the aerobic zone to burn up all your glucose energy. After that, you would have to work out another 20 to 30 minutes to burn enough stored fat to make a difference.
What then is the solution? How do we lose this extra body fat? The answer is simpler than you’d expect. When you’re not doing anything strenuous your body burns fat. Walking is the most valuable and most effective exercise for healthy weight loss. Simply stated: walking burns fat.
Walking also uses your own body weight to build lean muscle. Lean muscle burns fat. Walking every day, eating a balanced and nutritious diet of whole foods, and drinking water to thirst are the easy ingredients to successful weight loss.
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