Top 8 Activities For Weight Loss

Gunjan Lal
April 24, 2017
Views : 1590
Top 8 Activities For Weight Loss

Why do you need physical activity?

Eating right isn't the only thing that'll keep you healthy. Regular physical activity is equally important for good health. Physical activity becomes essential all the more when you're trying to lose weight. It doesn't just help you in losing weight fast but also helps in maintaining a proper weight.

When you try to lose weight, an addition of more physical activity enhances the number of calories your body uses for energy - better known as burning calories Burning calories with the means of physical activity, combined with a watchful control of the calories you eat, creates a 'calorie deficit' which results in weight loss.

A regular physical activity routine reduces the risks of some serious diseases. Medical conditions such as diabetes, depression, and anxiety, and diseases such as cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, arthritis pains and disabilities associated with it. Some serious consequences of diabetes and heart diseases can be warded off simply losing weight. It's true that the major reason for weight loss is the of controlled caloric intake. However, it's also a fact that the only way to maintain weight loss is to engage yourself in regular physical activity.

A well- shaped body and maintaining proper weight is everybody's dream, but you've gotta work for it. Most of the athletes that we see and know have pretty well-shaped and strong physiques, I always find myself secretly wondering how great it'd be if I could exchange bodies with them. The dream to form an athletic physique is not easy; it requires a lot of hard-work and consistency. Professional athletes burn thousands of calories in the field as well as off the field to maintain their perfect bodies.

So, here's a list of effective sports/ physical activities that will help you to burn thousands of calories in a short time. If you start with these sports you'll surely keep yourself in proper shape.

Swimming

Swimming is an amazing form of physical exercise. While swimming you use every single muscle in your body to propel yourself in water, this includes the neck and the face as well as the toe muscles. Swimming helps in developing muscle strength and fortitude, and also helps in improving the posture and flexibility.

Swimming serves as an effective aerobic workout. It's a great and fun sport for people of all ages and all expertise levels. If you want to lose weight with swimming, try to speed up your pace a little and add a bit of more time to your swimming sessions. Doing a brisk forward crawl often burns as much as eleven calories per minute. With account to your weight and exertion level, you'll manage to burn between 90 to 550 extra calories in just a thirty-minute session.

Sprinting

If you're looking for a fast way to burn calories or lose weight, sprinting is the simplest sport that you can adopt. Sprinting makes you breathe harder, therefore, increasing the amount of oxygen in your blood. This assists your body to detoxify. This sport also strengthens your muscles and increases your metabolism and heart rate.

Doing sprints at short intervals daily enhances your heartbeat, blood circulation along with raising your body's temperature. All these things ultimately contribute in losing weight in short span of time. Here are a few tips that'll help you in going about it.

Warm-up

The main focus is to take your heart rate up progressively. Try to put emphasis on the large muscles like the quads and hamstrings. Try knee circles, ankle circles, some light hip stretches - all of these get your muscles and ligaments prepared to go faster.

Time Your Sprints

The key is to get yourself totally gasping for air in about 30 seconds or less. If you're on an exercise bike or a treadmill, start sprinting as the machine picks up speed. When it reaches the top speed, go all out for 30 seconds. After that, slow it down and go nice and easy for about 90 seconds to recover.

If you're not using any machines and running outside, try to cover about 200 feet (you can monitor the length by downloading a monitoring app on your phone). Do it as fast as possible. After that, walk slowly for about 90 seconds so that you would cool down, then repeat your course.

Straighten Up

Almost everyone who works out on a cardio machine tends to lean forward. Leaning forward lets you use gravity to sort of pull you forward, making the applied effort a little bit easier. If you keep in mind to stay upright during your sprints, it will keep the intensity on your muscles the whole

Never Rush Recovery

You get the biggest spike in a number of calories burned when it is required by your body to transition from a state of complete rest to a state of full-on, high power activity. If you feel like you can go all out once more after just 30 seconds, don't rush, you're better off waiting an extra minute and then pushing yourself even harder in the next sprint.

When Outdoors, Go Gradually

When you're sprinting outside, start with half (50 percent) of your top speed till your first interval. Then escalate your speed up to 60 or 70 percent with the next sprint and so on. Try to push your body as hard as you can, till you get into the groove of the workout.

Don't Count

You should not feel duty- bound with your routine. For instance, you shouldn't keep track to do two intervals today, three in the next time, and four the time after that and so on. The total intensity of the intervals you complete is far more important than counting how many you do it.

Cycling

Like swimming, Cycling is also one of the best and fun workout programs. It is an effective exercise which everyone can try out, it doesn't matter how old you are or how fit you are. It helps you to burn calories, gets you in the right shape and improves your health. This physical activity is also beneficial for those who have heart disease, diabetes, obesity, or high blood pressure.

Cycling helps in strengthening the major muscle groups in your legs - the hamstrings, calves, gluten and the quadriceps. With respect to your exertion level and weight, cycling can help you lose weight by burning calories between 75 to 670 calories in a thirty-minute session. So, if sprinting sounds too difficult then try out cycling as an alternative.

Choosing a bike (cycle) which is best for you also plays an important role. You should choose the one with is more comfortable for your body shape. A helmet, for safety, is mandatory. Older people must use knee and elbow guards to eliminate any risk of getting a serious injury.

A healthy body will keep your mind fresh and will help to improve efficiency at work. But not all the people have time to maintain a proper fitness level, or to work- out for two to three hours a day. If you manage to do at least 15 minutes of proper exercise, it would be more beneficial than doing work out for a long time period.

Jogging

Jogging (even running) is one of the best physical activities which includes a full body workout and the only equipment you need is a pair of good shoes. Going for a jog for a few kilometers a day will boost your usual metabolic rate, increase your fitness levels and endurance, and help you ward off unwanted body fat.

All these amazing effects of jogging will happen faster than you ever thought possible. But jogging can be hard on your knees, so to make progress slowly would be the best idea, increasing your distance as well as speed as your fitness levels increase.

Keep in mind to never try to increase your speed and distance at the same time! The best thing is to first focus on increasing your distance while keeping your speed at the same level. Depending upon your stamina, you can manage to burn approx. 435 calories in an hour.

Jumping Rope

Jumping rope has been one of the favorite activities of my childhood, I'm sure the same may apply to most of you. It is an excellent way through which you can lose weight. An hour of doing jump rope can help you to burn something between 800 and 1200 calories, of course, depending on your current weight.

Besides the fact that it helps in reducing body fat, jumping rope has various other benefits - it helps in toning your body, it helps in increasing overall endurance. This physical activity can prove to be the most efficient exercise for burning fat.

Zumba

If you love to dance, you will definitely love Zumba. It's a new sport- sensation that combines the fitness of gym along with dance and a whole lot of fun. To put it in other words, Zumba is the type of physical activity that helps you lose weight and with added benefits, it helps you to forget all stress and prepares you for a great day ahead. An hour of Zumba at the start of your day will help you stay active all day and you'll be able to burn between 500 to 1000 calories.

Even if your Zumba sessions leave you feeling exhausted, you'll soon find a better-toned body shape only in a short span of regular sessions. You will definitely feel a few pounds lighter and happier! The best part about it is that you will learn during these workouts a few steps that will remove the deadlock at any party you go to, cool right?

There are different types of Zumba sessions, you can choose the one which you find best. The 'Zumba fitness party' brings together a group of people who want lean and toned bodies, or maybe lose a few extra pounds or some who just want to have fun. 'Zumba for Seniors' creates a mirth and party atmosphere in a small space (could be at someone's home), adaptation exercises are carried out with this session and an emphasis is paid on the socialization of the participants.

'Zumba in the circuit' is specially designed for super busy people who don't have more than thirty minutes available. It's good for people who have less time but a hard working spirit. 'Zumba for kids' yes, that's a thing, and I think the name says it all. Lastly, 'Aqua Zumba', it's simple - a workout routine in water, so if you're a swimmer or you just love being in the water, this one's for you!

Squash

Another sport that promotes weight loss is squash. It would be a good choice to bring back fitness in your life. You'll surely manage to burn a lot of calories by playing squash. As it's an extremely intense moving exercise, it is also considered as a great cardio exercise. You can expect great results from playing squash. This sport too can be played by everyone irrespective of age.

A person with the body- weight of about 65 kilograms (171 lbs), can burn about 130 calories in a 10- minute game session. In a game of 30 minutes, you can burn 390 calories and 780 calories in one hour of this game.

Soccer (football)

Soccer is hands down the most popular sport in the world. All the professional soccer players have amazing bodies. So, it goes without saying that soccer is also an effective sport for weight loss - it works on the muscles and heart in various ways. Soccer helps in building more muscle mass and burning more calories, it does so by employing both slow- twitch and fast- twitch muscle fibers.

Playing soccer preserves and builds muscle mass, giving an extra kick to your metabolism instead of supporting muscle loss. By playing soccer you can burn around 260 calories in just thirty minutes (for a 155-pound person). To get rid of 1 pound a person needs to burn 3,500 calories. So, if you play soccer three times a week for an hour, you'll be able to burn 1,500 calories extra each week and shed two pounds every month.

Gunjan Lal

Gunjan Lal

Hi! I’m Gunjan, a self-proclaimed tea fanatic and intrigued with alternative ways to lead a healthy life. I firmly believe that we should take care of our bodies because it’s the only place we live in.

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