The Best Way to Get Lean

For many people who go on a weight control diet, the change in eating habits is not enough.

To attain full benefit from eating well and losing excess kilograms, a sensible diet needs to be supported by the best type of exercise to lose fat and lean up.

The best exercise to begin with is walking. Why walking?

1. Walking requires no special training or coaching
2. Walking is easy to incorporate into our daily routine
3. Apart from a supportive pair of shoes, walking requires no special or expensive equipment

Yes, walking is easy, convenient and cost free. Apart from these obvious advantages, walking takes you out of yourself.

Walking is therapeutic. You can literally leave your troubles behind you as you walk, so that you will feel a definite mood lift due to this exercise. I have heard it said of walking that one foot is your head and the other your heart - you can walk your worries away everyday.

OK, so you are going to walk. Walk for at least 30 minutes a day. 40 or 50 is better. Some people say you should start with an easy 10 minutes and work your time up, but I think it is better to start with the amount of time you are willing to give this exercise, whether you are at your fattest or your fittest. This gives you a perspective of spending a worthwhile amount of time on the activity. You will get quicker as you get fitter, so you will go further in your time allowance as the weeks and months go by.

Remember that during the first 20 minutes of any exercise, your body can support the energy expended without breaking into your fat reserves - anything over 20 minutes makes an impact on your fat deposits.

This is the best incentive I've ever had for walking for longer periods of time.

Once you have made walking a part of your lifestyle, probably 4-6 months along the track, you need to add in some resistance training to gain some lean muscle definition. If you start out with a gym program when you are at your biggest and least fit, it will take a lot longer to get lean, because you are building lean muscle underneath your fat deposits. It is best to walk a considerable amount of fat off first, and then go for the muscle toning at the gym.

A basic gym program will do the trick. Start a full body workout carefully and slowly once a week for the first 2 weeks while maintaining your walking, then start to replace a couple of walks with full body gym workouts. You should be doing a 40-50 minute gym program 3 times a week; long sets with light weight for body tone rather than muscle bulk. Complement this with a brisk 50-60 minute walk 3 times a week, with one rest day.

The combination of a dedicated brisk walking program and a lightly weighted full body workout alternating over 6 days a week will ensure that you get the fit and lean look you really want. And it gives you one whole day for a good rest.

weight-control-diet-advice.com
Rosie Peters gives straightforward, common sense advice, encouragement and tips for weight loss, sensible diet and lifelong fitness. Sometimes it's not what you want to hear, but it's what you need to know.