Reasons Why Exercise is Essential For Weight Loss

Exercise is an essential part of weight loss. You may be able to lose some weight without exercising, but if you expect to reach your goal weight exercise is going to have to enter into the picture somewhere. Besides helping you lose weight, exercise helps you maintain your health in other ways.

1. Exercise Prevents Muscle Loss. Keeping your muscle may not seem important to you, but it should. Your muscle is what helps you burn calories while you are rest. If you lose muscle, your body will not be able to process the calories you ingest as efficiently. Studies show that dieters tend to lose 25 percent muscle and 75 percent fat. You need to try not to lose any of the muscle. Maintaining your muscle is done by doing strength exercise. Strength exercise involves resistance, such as exercising with weights.

2. Exercise increases the calories burned. Bottom line here is that when you exercise you are going to lose weight, as long as you make reasonable choices most of the time. You are going to be able to consume more calories just because you exercise. Exercise can be used to offset that extra piece of pizza you had for dinner.

3. Exercise helps control your appetite. You may feel increased hunger the first day you exercise, but after that due to your body using stored glucose and fat; your sugar levels will remain more even. When sugar levels are even you have less trouble with hunger.

4. Exercise makes you feel better about yourself. Exercise releases endorphins in your brain. This is a chemical that makes you feel good. The psychological effects of exercising do a lot towards keeping you motivated. This benefit by itself should encourage you to exercise. When you feel positive about things, it makes it easier for you to make the right choices.

5. If you exercise regularly you will lose more weight and keep it off. Research shows that the people that are most successful at losing weight and keeping it off the ones that have a regular exercise plan as part of their lifestyle. They also burn off about 2500 to 2800 weekly. This translates into about 6 hours of walking, 3.5 hours of swimming or 9 hours of bike riding weekly.

The best way to stick with an exercise plan is to find something you like to do. If you try to make yourself do something you do not like, you will never stick with it. Exercise has many benefits. One thing is for sure, if you want to lose weight and expect to keep it off, exercise will have to become a regular part of your lifestyle.

Discover The Benefits Of Exercising

The following article is one of a series of articles which focus on Self Improvement, Motivation and Empowerment. It is based on research done over twenty years as a personal and business coach. This self improvement article was written in response to questions which have been asked on losing weight and long term weight loss as well as address common challenges that people have with this subject. I sincerely hope that you find the following
information of value.

Discover The Benefits Of Exercising

Health experts encourage us to include exercise as a necessary part of our daily routine to promote our general well- being. Together with healthy and balanced diet, adequate rest and relaxation, exercise is recommended to promote optimal health.

People who are usually inactive can improve their health and well-being by becoming even moderately active on a regular basis.
Physical activity need not be strenuous to achieve significant health benefits.

Greater health benefits can be achieved by increasing the amount (duration, frequency, or intensity) of physical activity.
There are many benefits of exercise, not only as an aid in effective fat/ weight loss, but also in reducing our risks of developing or dying from some of the leading causes of illness and death. Here is a general overview of what exercise can do for us.

1. Exercise reduces our risks of dying prematurely.

2. Exercise reduces our risks of dying from heart diseases, cancers (including uterine, colon, and breast), stroke, diabetes and arthritis.

3. Help us lose weight, especially fat weight by decreasing our Body Mass Index (BMI), reducing our total cholesterol and reducing the circulating levels of triglycerides in our blood and increasing our metabolic rate. Perhaps this is why active people can “Eat anything and not gain weight.” and why other folks “Gain weight just by looking at food.”!

4. Exercise improves the functioning of our Immune System as well as blood and oxygen circulation for our vital organs.

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When it comes to the subject of self improvement, I fully understand (through my own experiences) that it is a lot easier said than done. However, you are here, right now, because you have a desire to improve your self or you are at least interested in this subject. Perhaps you are reading this to help a friend or colleague – great. If this article helps you or you help a friend, paying it forward is what lif’e all about so we all win.

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5. Exercise increases our insulin sensitivity to prevent against type 2 diabetes.

6. Exercise increases our energy and endurance level.

7. Exercise slows down aging by improving our physical, mental, emotional and psychological well- being.

8. Exercise reduces our risk of developing many bones and joints diseases or disorders.

9. Exercise even helps in enhancing creativity and imagination. It is also linked with improved mental vigor, including reaction time, acuity, and math skills.

10. Exercise helps in providing physical and mental rejuvenation, making us feel good about ourselves and thus improve our esteem and confidence.

11. Exercising improves mood and due to the chemicals it releases in the brain called endorphins, it gives you an overall feeling of well-being. This is the same chemical that being in love or eating chocolate induces!

12. Exercise will help you sleep better. Just be sure not to exercise too close to your bedtime if you exercise at night, because it may keep you awake. If you need to exercise within a few hours of going to bed, make sure it’s only a brisk walk. Experts say you should allow yourself about three hours between exercise and going to bed.

So get off that couch and start moving. Remember, the time and effort that you put in exercising today may spell your health and well- being tomorrow.

NOW is the time!

O.K. you have read the article. Now is the time for action. Without action, this article adds no value whatsoever to your self improvement. But remember, without action, you cannot blame this self improvement article or any article for that matter. So, take action NOW.

Even if only one piece of advice, one piece of information, one tip makes a difference, then the whole article has been worth it for all of us. NOW is the time!

Be the person you want to be, you deserve it!