Can Exercise Help You Lose Weight More Quickly?

The only way to achieve weight loss is by adjusting your calorie intake and your calorie expenditure, so that you burn more calories than you consume. It therefore makes sense that increasing the amount of exercise you do will help you to lose weight. However, this is only true if you make exercise a regular feature of your life, since going to the gym once a month is hardly likely to help you achieve your weight-loss goals any faster. Plus, you need to be conscious of just how many calories you burn, because it is easy to overestimate the number, believeing you've burned lots far more calories than you actually have. This is when you might end up eating more food as your 'reward,' and actually cancel out the calories you burned off.

Thus, it is a good idea to pay attention to factors such as how heavy you are; the intensity of your workout; and how long you exercise for. The heavier you are and the harder you push yourself, the greater the number of calories you use. There are plenty of online calculators which will give you a rough idea of how many calories you've been burning off, and this will enable you to adjust your calorie intake accordingly. There is no point working out and then stuffing yourself with junk food if you want to speed up your weight loss, but you may be able to consume more calories and still lose the same amount of weight, if not more, depending on what you choose to eat.

It is obviously important to fuel your body for exercise and to ensure that you eat something after working out to ensure that your body has all the energy and nutrients it needs to repair any damaged muscles. You might decide to treat yourself, because you've done some exercise, but it is obviously advisable to limit the amount of junk food you consume and focus on eating foods containing complex carbohydrates and protein. Unfortunately, keeping active does not mean you can eat whenever and whatever you want, although, clearly, the more exercise you do, the more calories you burn, and thus the greater the number of calories you are able to consume.

Overall, though, making time for exercise could benefit your weight loss and help you reach your goals faster than if you choose to do no exercise at all. When you exercise, your metabolism speeds up, increasing the number of calories your body burns during the activity and for hours afterwards. Plus, if you also incorporate weight training into your routine, you will be able to tone up and build muscle, which, again, can increase the number of calories you burn.

Keeping active will also make it easier for you to maintain your weight loss, although it is worth bearing in mind that you have to exercise more than once a week. Ideally, you should exercise at least five times a week, for half an hour at a time and to an intensity that leaves you feeling somewhat out of breath.  Not only will exercise help you to control your weight; it will also benefit your long-term health and sense of well-being.