How to Exercise Effectively During Weight Loss: The Key to Success
Exercising during weight loss is a crucial factor if you are looking to achieve healthy and sustainable weight loss. It is important to note that weight loss can involve not only the loss of fat, but also of lean body mass, such as muscle, organ tissue, and bone mass. In this installment of our weight loss series, we will discuss why exercising during this time is vital and how to best approach it.
Why You Should Exercise During Weight Loss
Managing your weight loss, both through nutritional optimization as exercise, is crucial to minimize the loss of lean body mass. In particular, exercise plays a vital role in maintaining muscle mass. When you actively use your muscles, you signal to your body to preserve them. This promotes muscle protein synthesis and minimizes muscle protein breakdown, giving you a better chance of maintaining muscle during your weight loss.
In short, exercise during weight loss is key to a healthier weight loss journey. Not only does it give you more energy for your daily activities, it also helps improve your mood and overall well-being.
Which Type of Training Should You Choose?
When considering exercise for fat loss, many people think of low-intensity, high-intensity cardio sessions. While these types of exercises can help you burn more calories and create a calorie deficit, they are not optimal for maintaining lean body mass.
Strength training is one of the best ways to maintain muscle mass while losing weight. However, this doesn’t mean you should avoid cardio completely. It’s best to combine resistance training and cardio for a balanced workout program.
The goal of resistance training is to train each muscle group once every 72-96 hours. This gives your muscles the necessary stimulus for growth and maintenance.
Training intensity
During weight loss, you are in a calorie deficit, which can lead to reduced recovery after exercise. However, this does not mean you cannot train hard. It is important to manage the intensity of your training.
Training at moderately high intensity can help you avoid suboptimal recovery. This can be achieved by working with moderately heavy weights, not reaching muscle failure during sets, and not overdoing it.
Maintaining a good training intensity ensures that you provide sufficient stimulus for muscle growth, while leaving enough energy for recovery.
Training frequency
Muscle growth and recovery are not instantaneous. It is essential to plan sufficient time between training the same muscle groups. In general, you should allow about 48-96 hours of recovery time before training the same muscles again. This will ensure optimal recovery and improve performance.
Training volume
In addition to intensity and frequency, you need to think about training volume. For the average athlete, 5+ challenging work sets per muscle group per training session is ideal. This means training each muscle group twice per week. A generally acceptable training volume is between 10-20 work sets per muscle group per week. Beginners start at the lower end of that range and gradually build up as they progress.
The Best Time for Training
Although total fat loss is not greatly affected by the time of day you exercise, the timing of your workout can make a difference in your performance. In general, people perform better when they have more energy available for exercise. A good time to exercise is in the afternoon, when you’ve already eaten a few meals and your serotonin levels (which keep you awake and energized) are at their peak.
In summary, incorporating strength training into your weight loss program is essential for maintaining muscle mass. Ensure proper training intensity, frequency, volume, and scheduling for sustainable results. Be consistent, and combine training with a healthy diet for the best results in your weight loss journey.
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