Which Types of Exercise Reduce Body Fat?

30/03/2020

If you’re hoping to slim down and improve your overall health and well-being, then it helps to get active.

Losing weight isn’t easy, and there’s no safe, quick fix but if you’re up for the challenge, get your gym wear on and try out these seven exercises to help burn off the calories and reduce body fat.

These Boots Were Made for Walking…

It may sound simple, but walking is one of the best exercises for burning body fat. There’s no need for fancy equipment or expensive gym memberships; all you need to do is take a stroll.

As a low impact exercise, walking won’t place any stress on your joints, and with our 1 walk a day allowance, it’s easy to work it into your routine. Why not stretch your legs on your lunch break?

Beginners who are looking to reduce body fat should start to walk for about half an hour around 3 to 4 times a week, and then gradually increase your distance and pace.

Jog On!

Slightly more intense than walking, jogging is a great exercise for reducing body fat and can help to burn more harmful visceral fat that can contribute to chronic heart disease and diabetes.

Once you’ve incorporated jogging into your regular weekly routine, you can then pick up the pace and move on to running. Hitting the pavement can be hard on your joints, so if you feel any stress, try running on grass or use a treadmill at the gym.

On Your Bike!

Why not go for a bike ride instead of your allotted walk for the day? Cycling is a fun exercise that can help to improve your overall health and fitness as well as burning calories and reducing excess body fat.

It’s a great way to explore the outdoors, but if you’d prefer there are also stationary exercise bikes for both gym and home use. As well as helping you to lose weight, taking regular bike rides can also increase insulin sensitivity and lower your risk of heart disease and cancer.

Cycling can be enjoyed by both beginners and more experienced riders and doesn’t place too much stress on your joints as it is a non-weight bearing and low-impact exercise.

Just Keep Swimming…

Although we’re not able to visit swimming pools at the moment, it’s worth noting that swimming is excellent for burning calories, reducing body fat and giving you a full-body workout.

Try practicing different strokes such as the backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly to keep it fun and challenging. Swimming lengths for around an hour 3 times a week can also help to improve your flexibility and lower cholesterol.

It’s also a nice and easy exercise on your joints, making it ideal for people recovering from injury.

HIIT It!

High-intensity interval training (HIIT), also known as interval training, refers to doing short bursts of intense exercise training with alternate recovery periods.

This type of workout usually takes around 10 to 30 minutes depending on your experience and ability. It burns plenty of calories to help you reduce body fat and can be more effective than longer periods of less intense cycling and running sessions.

As it isn’t too time-consuming, it can be easy to work into your exercise routine once you’ve chosen with exercises, such as running, jumping and cycling, you’d like to focus on and establish your rest times.

An example of interval training would be to run as fast as you can for 30 seconds, followed by a light jog for a couple of minutes and repeat the process.

Like jogging, HIIT also helps to battle visceral fat (also known as belly fat) and lower your risk of chronic diseases.

It May Feel Like a Stretch…

Although yoga may not be the first exercise that comes to mind when trying to reduce body fat, it is a fantastic form of exercise, can help you to burn calories and has other fitness benefits that can promote healthy weight loss.

As well as burning calories, incorporating regular yoga sessions into your weekly routine can also improve your mental and physical well-being and teach mindfulness. This new approach to health and fitness can help you to make better diet decisions.

Get out into your garden, or set up in your lounge and start stretching out. There are loads of online videos and tutorials available online for you to follow!

Weight a Minute…

Weight training is another great exercise for reducing body fat and losing weight.It can also help you build your strength, promote muscle growth and raise your resting metabolic rate so that you burn more calories per day!

If you’re lucky enough to have weights at home, you can use those. If not, it’s time to get creative! BBC posted a great baked bean tin workout during their tea time toning challenge. But you can also use baked beans tins for bicep curls or bent over rows.

Other Ways to Help Reduce Body Fat and Burn Calories

Aside from exercise, there are other factors and steps you can take to increase fat burning and promote weight loss:

Include more protein-rich foods in your diet to preserve muscle mass, reduce your appetite and burn more body fat.
Eat more healthy fats from olive oil, nuts and avocados!
Drink plenty of water and avoid sugary drinks! Green tea is a great option and an antioxidant!
Try some high-fibre foods as they can help you to feel fuller for longer.
Eat less refined carbohydrates, as they can cause your blood sugar levels to rise and fall more intensely, causing increased hunger.
Include probiotics in your diet to help reduce body fat percentage
Introduce more iron to your diet as a deficiency in the nutrient can cause impaired thyroid function and other symptoms such as fatigue and headaches.
Make sure you’re getting enough sleep!

Including more exercise into your routine, eating a balanced nutritional diet and making sure you drink plenty of water and rest well can all contribute to an overall improvement in your health and a reduction in body fat percentage.

Even small changes can make a big difference! To keep an eye on your weight and make sure you're setting realistic fitness goals, check out our range of specialist gym and fitness scales at Marsden Weighing Group.