Healthy Exercise
by Steve Richards on October 5, 2008
 Anyone you talk to will tell you that exercise is healthy. I also agree, however, I wouldn’t say that it is absolutely necessary for weight loss. Let me explain what I mean. If you already have an active lifestyle then half the weight loss battle is already won. In my mom’s case she did have an active lifestyle because she started working later in life. When I had my mom to use my bite diet technique she lost 10 pounds in about 2 weeks without doing any extra exercise. The reason this worked is because just being active all day is exercise. You don’t need to do anything special. Your body already burns calories if you have a busy work day. My mom didn’t believe me at first, so to prove my point I asked her if she was tired each day after work. She said that she was usually exhausted. I said that meant that she had used up a lot of energy - burning calories. The reason that she would not normally lose any weight is because she ate enough food to allow her body to hold onto the weight.
I am definitely a big fan of exercise. I am an outdoor adventure kind of person. I believe that exercise can be very helpful to improve overall health. I think that people that like to do different forms of exercise should go ahead and do it because it always helps you to be healthier. However, for people that don’t like to exercise I don’t think they should force themselves to exercise because they can become discouraged and give up on everything if they don’t see results fast enough. I feel that it is far more important to focus on proper eating habits to see results for weight loss. My mom had a friend that walked 2 miles a day for 3 months and didn’t lose a single pound. She couldn’t believe it, but I wasn’t surprised at all. That just confirmed what I believe about weight loss. Exercise can definitely help, but I feel it is most helpful at the second stage of weigth loss - after you have already started to lose weight. That’s when exercise can keep the process going and even speed things up.
I also want to mention some more good things to know about exercise. The first thing to know is that exercise can cause you to build muscle because your body is under strain from the exercise. Muscle weighs more than fat. That means that you can start exercising and then check your weight on a scale and find out you weigh more! That would be very discouraging! I have always told my mom to stay away from scales because they can give you a reading which can be misleading. It may not truly reflect progress you have had. A much better thing to do is use a tape measure to measure your weight loss in inches. You can also notice how loose your clothing starts to fit. My mom often noticed that, and that made her happy and helped keep her motivated. Another thing to know is that exercise can be very, very helpful for other medical conditions common with being overweight such as diabetes and high blood pressure. My mom had both. For high blood pressure I recommend simply going walking every day. It is low impact and aerobic, which means it is good for the heart. For diabetes walking or any other kind of exercise is helpful because it can help with cell insulin resistance. As I mentioned exercise can also build up muscle which burns more energy; this can help to keep sugar levels down, even when you are at rest.
Here are my favorite exercises for losing weight:
Walking
Swimming
Sports
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