What is the Most Effective Workout for Weight Loss?

Assuming you make no changes to your diet, most forms of exercise will result in losing weight. However, there are countless kinds of exercise, each with its own variety of regimens, applications and proponents. Use these guidelines to help choose which exercise program will help you most effectively lose weight.

Aerobic vs. Anaerobic

• Most fitness experts divide exercises into aerobic and anaerobic. Aerobic exercises force the heart and lungs to work harder, generally building endurance. Anaerobic exercises work out individual muscles and groups of muscles, generally building strength. As a rule, aerobic exercises burn more calories than anaerobic exercises, and are thus better for weight loss.

Caloric Burn

• Another important question is just how many calories an exercise burns. The body stores excess calories as fat, so burning extra calories means fat loss. There are several quality lists of how many calories an exercise will burn. For example, jogging burns approximately 670 calories in an hour, while an hour of swimming burns about 603 calories. Cross-country skiing, widely regarded as the most strenuous aerobic exercise, burns 740 calories per hour.

  Keep in mind that those numbers aren't absolute. Factors like your body weight, level of effort and even the weather can greatly affect your calorie burn result.

Effort and Duration

• Although most calculators seem to list calorie burn by the hour, most experts now recommend 20 to 30 minutes of moderate exercise for your daily workout. Moderate means you break a light sweat, but aren't breathing hard enough to interfere with speech.

  A moderate pace is superior when exercising because you can keep it up. Few athletes can maintain a vigorous pace for more than 10 to 15 minutes, and very few people want to do so every day.

Sustainability

• A final consideration when choosing your weight-loss exercise routine is sustainability. An exercise program only works if you keep it up. Thus, you should choose an exercise regimen that you can stick to. Some tips for choosing a sustainable exercise schedule:

  Choose an exercise you enjoy. Walking burns fewer calories than running, but walking burns more calories than finding excuses not to run.

  Choose an exercise that's convenient. Cross-country skiing burns lots of calories, but not everybody has skis or a Nordictrac handy.

  Find a buddy to exercise with. It makes the workout more fun and provides you with a personal cheerleader for days you feel less than motivated.

  Vary your workout. If you do different exercises on different days of the week, you'll burn out a lot slower.