Exercise, an effective and safe way of losing weight

By Clare E. Urwin

This is the third of four articles on the best way of losing weight. All the writer's articles are interactive and readers are encouraged to ask questions or comment through the writer's email address or through features@thejakartapost.com.

SURABAYA (JP): Exercise is crucial in losing weight. It speeds up the loss process. Exercise burns fat, tones muscle, expends calories, mobilizes fat from fat cells and increases metabolism. Physical activity gives you a real edge in reaching your target weight.

Most people on a diet actually want to lose fat. They long for an end to those stomach rolls, that protruding belly or their ballooning bottom. Unfortunately, merely cutting down on calories without exercise will lead to a loss of muscle and bone as well as the flabby bits.

Therefore, how can you lose weight and make sure it's the fat that goes first? The answer is exercising at the same time as controlling what you eat. Although about sixty percent of a sustained healthy weight loss will come from a diet change, the remaining forty percent must depend on exercise.

Doing almost any regular exercise is beneficial. As well as making you look and feel good, exercise increases energy, improves mental alertness and gives greater resistance to disease. Happily, it also stops you aging and contributes to a better sex life.

Nevertheless, some exercises are better than others at losing weight. The length of time spent practicing it is critical for fat-burning too. Therefore be smart and use your precious activity time on the exercises that will bring you the best and fastest results.

Contrary to popular opinion, relatively short periods of quite strenuous activity can be very effective in losing weight. Also strength training and strong muscles really help in burning off those calories.

So, back to basics for a moment. During exercising the body uses three main fuel sources. The immediate one, utilized for instant energy, is the sugar already present in the blood. However, this is only a small amount and it constantly needs "topping up" during exercise.

The body keeps a large supply of fuel for this purpose in the form of a substance called glycogen. This is like a type of glucose and is found stored in muscles and the liver. The third fuel source is fat and obviously that's the one you want to use the most during your exercise.

Long and slow

However, it takes almost 20 minutes from the time exercise begins before the body starts using its fat stores as fuel. Unfortunately, it takes this long at whatever intensity you are exercising until any fat is burned in substantial quantities.

So, conventional thinking about weight loss through exercise, always meant "long and slow". It was presumed that in order to burn or strip fat off it was important to practice prolonged periods of low to moderate activity. This was sensible of course, in case fatigue caused premature abandonment.

However, it's now recognized that at faster speeds, the body tends to use more fuel. Just like a car in fact. In other words, at a more rapid pace we can burn additional calories and, most importantly, extra fat calories in less time. So, if you can comfortably exercise at a higher intensity, do it!

Aerobic exercise is a great way to increase calorie burning and fat stripping. Get those big muscles working. Exercises such as jogging, power walking, swimming, tennis, squash and cycling are all ideal. Be smart and pick something that you enjoy; otherwise you won't stick with it.

To get real weight loss benefit, try to exercise aerobically four days a week, for at least thirty minutes each time. Five days would be better, three will do. Please don't forget to warm up and cool down -- always.

Another short cut to rapid fat loss is interval training. This is where you alternate between a fast pace and a moderate pace throughout the exercise period. It substantially increases the rate at which the body burns fat. More importantly, the after-burn benefits of interval training are much higher than if you exercise conventionally.

With a traditional aerobic workout, you can expect the body to burn calories and fat at a higher rate than normal, for about one to two hours after you've finished exercising. With interval training, those wonderful after-burn effects can last three times as long!

So, how exactly do you interval train and how often do you need to do it before you see results? Start off by trying 20 minute periods, three times a week.

For instance, if running, break down each run into alternate two minute periods of high and moderate exercise. A sprint, followed by a jog, then a sprint again etc.

Gradually increase the length of time to 30 minutes or more and extend the periods of high intensity exercise as you become fitter. Interval training gives your normal aerobic activity a real boost. It's very effective.

Strength training is another very impressive tool in losing weight. Maintaining muscle, or even adding a little, will have a big influence on your dieting success. Muscle tissue is "metabolically active". This means it burns calories all of the time, even when at rest.

People who have strong muscles can improve their metabolic rates by 15 percent. And ladies, there is no need to panic. Improving muscle strength does not mean muscle bulk. You won't turn into a female Sylvester Stallone.

The best way to keep the muscle bulk strong and healthy is by strength training. Joining a gym, using their equipment and being advised by their fitness professional is an intelligent way to begin.

Those weird looking machines are great for a fitness novice. They take you through the correct range of movement and are safe. Free weights have a habit of falling on your head until you're experienced.

Exercising in the privacy of your home is an alternative. Slowly increase the number of push-ups, squats, stomach crunches, calf raises and lunges you complete, using your own body weight as resistance.

Remember that strong muscles burn more calories and give a healthy lean look to the body. Only 20 minutes of strength training two or three times a week will produce rapid and welcome results.

If you're very keen and if you have the time, how about exercising twice a day to supercharge your metabolism? After all, most top athletes do! A suggestion would be aerobic exercise in the morning and weight training in the evening. Try it if you can, but only for a fortnight at a stretch. It's very hard work! Also, always have at least two days rest every week.

Consistent regular exercise combined with controlling the calories you eat is the best way to lose weight healthily and effectively. It's worth it. The benefits are terrific and are obvious within days. So, what are you waiting for? Good luck.

Next week -- Weight Management.

The writer, clareu@attglobal.net, is a fitness and health advisor based in Surabaya.