Eating a healthy diet is the only way to lose weight, and it works in tandem with exercise to help you feel and look better. Exercise alone won’t help you lose weight if you eat junk food, drink alcohol, or overeat. Maintain a healthy diet to lose weight, and exercise to firm up and keep weight off – even a skinny person can be flabby.
Exercise does more than help you lose weight. It protects against dozens of chronic diseases, including diabetes, osteoporosis, heart disease, and depression.
Here are six easy exercises to help you lose weight, tone your legs, trim your waist, and get rid of belly fat. Be sure to eat sensibly, reduce stress (which can cause overeating) and get enough sleep to stay fit and maintain your ideal weight.
Walking
Anyone can walk around their neighborhood. You don’t need to buy equipment or pay money to join a health club. Walking is part of your everyday routine already; all you need to do is increase the frequency of your walks to lose weight.
Walking is a low-impact exercise that doesn’t hurt your joints.
Take the stairs instead of the elevator or walk to the store instead of driving to add more steps to your daily count.
Yoga
Yoga tones your body, and it also burns calories. If you weigh 155 pounds, you’ll burn 149 calories doing yoga for a half-hour. Obese women who performed two 90-minute yoga sessions a week lost an average of 1.5 inches in waist circumference than members of the control; group.
Doing just a few yoga asanas (postures) will also calm your nerves and improve your mood. If you are prone to overeat when you’re upset, yoga will help curb your appetite naturally. Studies have shown that
Pilates
Pilates won’t burn as many calories as aerobics, but it’s a low-impact exercise for beginners. You’re more likely to follow through with an exercise program if its fun, and most people find Pilates easy and enjoyable. If it’s been awhile since you’ve exercise regularly, Pilates, along with yoga and walking, are great ways to get our body moving again.
Performing Pilates for an hour and a half three times a week, middle-aged women reduced their waist and hip circumference and lost belly fat, according to one study, while women who didn’t exercise during the same time saw little to no difference in their measurements.
Burpees
Burpees work your chest, shoulders, core, triceps, lats and quads. Thy also get your blood and heart pumping.
Stand straight with your feet a shoulder width apart. Thrust your hips back and lower your body until you squat near the ground. Put your hands outside your feet and pull your feet back. Let your chest touch the floor. Push hands on the floor and lift your body up like a plank. Jump your feet slightly away from your hands.
Place you weight on your heels and jump forcefully into the arm with your arms over your head.
The average person can do 10 to 20 burpees a minute, but you’ll reap benefits if you do just a few burpees. You’ll burn 9.4 calories for every minute you spend doing burpees.
Squats
If you’re concerned about losing weight in your lower body, doing squats will help. Eating a healthy diet ensures that you shed pounds all over your body, but there’s no guarantee that you’ll lose more weight from a particular area. Do “spot” exercises to target areas that need extra toning. (A flabby lower body may be a problem for people who sit at a computer all day, even if they eat right.)
Squats tone the hips, thighs, calves and glutes. Perform squats by standing with your feet a hip-width apart. Your toes should face straight ahead or angle outward. Bend your knees and squat. Your hips should be behind you, and your torso should be straight. Keep your abdominals pulled in tight.
Your toes should say behind your knees. Your feet, knees and the rest of your body should point in the same direction. Squat as low as possible and then engage your heels and stand up straight.
Do as many repetitions as you can comfortably perform. If you haven’t exercised in awhile, start with three and work your way up to ten.
Strength Training
Lifting weights helps burn fat, especially belly fat, and it tones your entire body. Even lifting two-pound hand weights daily can improve cardiovascular health. Incorporate strength training as part of your daily workout, or do a few repetitions while watching TV at night to
The more weight you lift, the longer the afterburn – you’ll burn calories even after your workout is over. The average person doesn’t need to lift weights to bulk up, so don’t concentrate lifting too much extra weight. Increase repetitions and lift slowly to increase the burn, and add a pound or two when your stamina increases.
Women should begin strength training with five to eight pound dumbbells, but men can use eight to ten pounds to start.
Add more challenging exercises in your daily routine as you feel stronger and more energetic. Other weight loss exercises include:
- Swimming
- Bicycling
- Jogging
- Interval Training
However, any exercise that gets you moving will tone up your body and aid your weight loss diet. Studies show that 30 minutes of exercise a day will help you lose weight. Regardless of the physical activity you choose, you will lose weight if you exercise a half-hour daily and eat a healthy diet. You don’t need to exercise for 30 minutes straight; you can spread the activity over an entire day.
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