Losing weight with sport

Introduction

The basic principle for losing weight is: In order to lose weight, the body must consume more energy than is taken in through diet. This is why sport is particularly suitable for losing weight, as it burns a lot of energy. If the diet is not already balanced, it is best to combine sport with a change of diet.

Which sports are particularly effective?

In principle, endurance sports are best suited for losing weight. If you are looking for a sport for “sport beginners”, walking is the best way to start. The correct technique must be observed, so that it cannot be compared to a normal walk.

Walking is particularly easy on the joints and is therefore well suited for beginners and for building up physical fitness. Cycling is also easy on the joints, as cycling primarily demands the leg muscles and the joints are not exposed to the full weight of the body. Swimming is particularly suitable for strengthening the entire body.

Since, as with cycling, swimming does not put the body weight on the joints, swimming is also considered particularly easy on the joints. The most effective sport for losing weight, but at the same time probably the most strenuous of the sports mentioned so far, is running. For beginners, it is recommended to start slowly and to increase the intervals that are run, for example.

A method for getting started would be, for example, to alternate between running for 2 minutes and walking for 1 minute. After a week increase to 3 minutes running, 1 minute walking and so on until you are fit enough to run the distance. Although endurance sport is the most effective sport for losing weight, strength training is also suitable.

Strength training builds more muscle mass. Muscles consume more energy than other types of tissue, even at rest, so that trained people have a higher energy consumption. The body’s basal metabolic rate increases because more muscles are used.

The basal metabolic rate is the energy that a body needs at rest. The higher the basal metabolic rate of the body, the more food can theoretically be consumed without this being directly noticeable on the hips or other problem areas. Sports such as cycling and jogging, as endurance sports, primarily strain the leg muscles and build up less muscle than other sports. Therefore, it is recommended to do additional exercises to build up muscle, so that the body burns more energy due to the increased muscle mass built up. In conclusion, a combination of endurance training and light weight training/muscle training is optimal.

How much exercise should I do?

How much sport a person should do cannot be answered in a generalized way, this depends mainly on the physical condition of the person concerned. Beginners of sport should not go directly from zero to one hundred. This may still work in the initial phase, but quickly leads to frustration, so that the sports program is usually quickly stopped.

In the beginning you should start to build up your fitness slowly. Units of 20 minutes per day are sufficient for the time being and can be integrated into a break. Through the short units, one can quickly notice the success of the athletic fitness.

Gradually, the units can be extended and your own limits grow with them. In the long run, one can say that at least half an hour of sport per day is reasonable to reach long-term goals. Of course, this is not always feasible in everyday working life, so that for unusual units longer loads at the weekend can be used.

Studies have proven that shorter but more frequent intervals of exercise are more effective in burning fat: three thirty-minute intervals of exercise a day are therefore more effective than once 90 minutes. Even sessions twice a week are already suitable for losing weight. Of course it takes longer until success is achieved, but the feasibility is also more realistic.

It is therefore true that sport does not necessarily have to be done every day, but the more often sport is done, the more effective it is. One should “prescribe” individually realistic units for the frequency and duration of the sport, as otherwise the frustration of not following the training plan may predominate. Sufficient breaks should also be taken so that the body can regenerate itself. If you overdo it a little in one day, it is best to take a break the next day. Especially when training muscles, breaks should be observed, as muscle growth only takes place at rest.