How Does Exercise Help Weight Loss?

Exercise causes us to burn calories, which in turn leads to weight loss, in a couple of different ways. Obviously, it causes our muscles to do additional work, which burns more fuel. Then it also enlarges our mass of muscle tissue, which raises our metabolic rate, which is the rate at which our body burns fuel, even while we are resting. The more metabolically active muscle burns fuel at a much higher rate than body fat. Exercising expends calories immediately and keeps us burning at a higher rate long after our workout is over.

Different kinds of exercise burn fat differently. Aerobic exercise (like walking, jogging, swimming, and most sports) require oxygen to be delivered to the muscles by our lungs and blood supply during the workout. This kind of exercise strengthens both our heart and lungs by sustaining this oxygen delivery to our people for extended periods of time.

Anaerobic exercise (like weight training and yoga) does not rely on oxygen for fuel, and instead are powered by fuel sources in our muscles, such as glycogen.

Though both forms of energy burn calories, aerobic training is only useful for the duration you are exercising, while weight-training increases our basal metabolic rate and continues to increase your "all the time, no matter what you're doing" rate of calorie burning.

For maximum effect, you should do both types of exercise, cardio to build your heart and lungs, and weight training to build your BMR (basal metabolic rate) for optimal body performance.

For More Related Topics Blog: Day By Day Weight Loss Plan