I saw an interesting article the other day that headlined “What is the best exercise for losing weight?” The article looked a little bit at different types of exercise (i.e. weights vs cardio) and which had the greatest benefits, etc. But one point that I think that it did raise really well is that it doesn’t matter too much what exercise you do, as long as you can do it consistently.
For example, let’s take cardio exercise (e.g. running, cycling, swimming, etc). It may be a very good form of burning lots of energy during each session and you can do it anywhere. like running on a treadmill to hiking up a mountain. But if you find it very slow and boring (like me), then why put yourself through it again and again. Find something else you would enjoy more and makes you feel energised.
This may be more resistance training based exercise?
Resistance exercise can be very beneficial when it comes to increasing your metabolism by building up and strengthening your muscles. This means you will burn more calories at rest than you would normally do beforehand. Furthermore, you become subject to what is called the afterburn effect, which is where your metabolism is significantly boosted for an extended period of 48 hours after your workout.
However, even with all of these benefits, if you don’t enjoy only this form of exercise but enjoy a bit of both with HIIT training, then go with that.
High intensity intermittent exercise (HIIT) is pretty much a mix of both steady state cardio training and resistance training all in one workout. The aim of this type of training is to combine the best of both forms of training. Firstly, trying to torch a load of calories like you can do with cardio training, but also build muscle and improve metabolism by helping you burn lots of calories at rest, which will help keep weight off in the long term. All of which can be done with various bits of kit (battle ropes, hills, treadmills) and in a huge variety of formats.
But despite all this you need to find the best form of exercise for YOUR weight loss. This is the one that you feel you will enjoy and can do consistently for a long time in conjunction with healthy eating habits. All of which builds into a really healthy lifestyle of good consistent exercise and healthy nutrition.
So stop searching for the ultimate workouts and the best exercise for weight loss, just get back to basics and move more by doing what you enjoy, whether that be exercise, sport, hiking, anything you can keep consistent is really going to help you progress towards your goals and maintain that progress in the long term.