HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT AT HOME – TOP 3 WORKOUT STRATEGIES

Fighting cravings, dodging temptation, scrambling for motivation… like a battle in a never-ending saga. Losing weight can feel like pure fiction at times, but it is possible to make it a fact. Combined with healthy eating, exercise plays a key role. Here you can learn 3 top workout strategies to lose weight at home.

Why Exercise?

First of all, it will make you feel better. No matter what your mood, a workout will always boost it. Research shows that many types of exercise impact conditions like obesity, diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.

When exercising, your muscle cells need loads of energy to perform. Your body uses a full range of motion to avoid injuries, and they burn calories to do so. This can continue even after the workout, so it’s time well spent.

By exercising, you’re improving your endurance and mentality, all at the same time as losing weight.

How to Lose Weight At Home

Here are the three most recommended strategies:

1. Endurance

Cardio

Cardiovascular training is a great way to lose weight at home. It increases stamina, and heart and lung endurance, delivering oxygen throughout the body. Activities can include jogging, cycling, elliptical trainers, treadmills, aerobics, and dancing. It lowers blood pressure, and improves cholesterol and bone health.

Low-impact activities like walking and swimming can help people with injuries or arthritis.

Cardio aids weight loss by getting you to your fat-burning heart rate zone and eating your fat stores. As your fitness improves, you can perform for longer periods, smashing more calories.

So maybe it’s time to dust off the sneakers or snap on a pair of goggles…

HIIT

This stands for High Intensity Interval Training, which is a combination of short burst workouts and recovery periods. An example is Tabata, with 20 seconds of exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest.

HIIT can be done with equipment (bike, dumbbells, kettlebells, ellipticals, treadmills, skip-rope, step-ups, etc.) or with no equipment (burpees, mountain climbers, lunges, squats, running, swimming, etc.)

It’s becoming more popular for several reasons:

• It’s highly effective in weight loss, burning calories 24-48 hours after your workout, and producing growth hormones that boost the metabolism.
• It’s very convenient for those who are time-poor. Some workouts are as little as five-ten minutes.
• It’s easier to stick to because it isn’t long and tedious, and there are many ways you can do it.

The higher the intensity, the harder your body has to work at recovery. So, it’s important you don’t overdo it and allow yourself days to recuperate.

HIIT produces a flood of endorphins, so it’ll leave you feeling great after a workout. Next time you’re short on time and looking for a high, why not give HIIT a try?

2. Strength Training

Also known as resistance training, this is a great way to kill calories and reshape your body. It fights the fat by boosting your metabolism and inducing the afterburn effect. While general cardio burns a lot of calories during the workout, strength training keeps on burning afterwards, even while you’re sleeping. It takes a lot of energy to repair and rebuild your muscle fibres.

It can literally transform your body by lifting and toning your skin and muscles. Women needn’t worry about bulking up too much as we don’t share the same hormone levels as men. Studies indicate only men’s testosterone significantly increases after lifting weights.

You can perform these exercises using:

• free weights (dumbbells, kettlebells, etc.)
• resistance bands
• hand grips
• medicine balls and sandbags
• workout ropes
• weight-lifting bench
• weight/cable machine
• your own body weight (check out effective core exercises here).

Strength training affects body fat, insulin resistance, metabolic rate, blood pressure, diabetes, and sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass as we age). Some resistance programs as short as 11 minutes have been shown to increase energy expenditure and impact fat oxidation, helping prevent obesity.

This form of exercise can greatly improve your self-confidence; you’ll not only look good, but you’ll also feel yourself getting stronger. Gone are the days of struggling with grocery bags or relying on someone to open a jar.

3. Flexibility

This mightn’t have a direct impact on weight loss, but it plays a key role in any exercise program. Stretching, bending, and flexibility exercises promote the full extension of the body, encouraging peak performance for all activities.

You’ll be more active throughout the day, which means you can burn more calories. Most importantly, it helps you recover quickly and avoid injuries.

Flexibility exercises decrease stress on the body and improve balance. Slow, deliberate moves and deep breathing promote relaxation and boost mental health.

• Stretching: great low-impact techniques to improve your joints and elasticity.
• Yoga: improves posture and focus, builds muscle strength, protects the spine, maintains the nervous system, and much more.
• Tai Chi: a slow-motion exercise that originated from China martial art. It lowers blood pressure and improves muscle relaxation and mind-body awareness.
• Pilates: a full-body exercise that improves core strength, stability, and posture.
• Exercise ball: this is a great tool that improves balance, posture, and core strength. You can use it on its’ own or add it to your strength training routine.

By boosting your flexibility overall, you can get the most out of workouts and burn more calories to lose weight.

Lose Weight at Home with the Best of all Worlds

Get the most out of your fitness journey by trying all three. Most trainers recommend using different muscle groups on other days to allow recovery. By alternating between cardio, flexibility, and strength training, you cover all bases.

There are many routines and machines that cater to a combination of activities:

• Multi-gyms have a variety of equipment from weights to chin-up bars and punching bags.
• AeroPilates Rebounder machine allows for cardio and strength training.
• Intensati is a cardio routine that combines interval training, positive affirmations, martial arts, and yoga.
• Feeling too tired? Snap on your favourite tunes and dance away with a pair of dumbbells. It won’t feel like a workout and it beats loafing on the couch!

Not sure how to start?

Here are 8 great channels that offer free online workout videos. They are easy to follow and cater to all fitness levels and exercise strategies.

Consistency Is Key

Whatever exercise you choose, consistency is the key to getting results. Skipping workouts can affect your motivation, endurance, and overall progress. Keep it fresh and fun!

To lose weight at home, it’s important to keep challenging yourself. Your body learns through repetition, such as muscle memory. As your fitness builds, what used to be hard may no longer be as effective. So, it’s best to keep progressing (alter your routine, increase your weights, etc.)

>> Need more motivation? Try these 20 tips to master the mental challenge of fitness<<

The longer you stick to your routine, the more you’ll come to love it. The fitter you become, the more challenges you’ll want to try. Eventually, your day won’t feel complete without your workout. There are endless rewards to exercise and so much selection that you’ll never be bored.

What about you? Is there a type of exercise you enjoy that hasn’t been mentioned? Feel free to comment below and share your experience.