Exercises to Lose Weight By Kevin White At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

We all want a flat stomach. Self-esteem and the way we feel about ourselves is paramount. For some reason a flat stomach is a popular cultural image today and ironically so, because the modern way of living with all fast foods, candies and donuts available is taking us very fast in the opposite direction.

To lose weight we need two things: a good diet plan and exercise. Let’s concentrate now on exercise only.

When we exercise, there are two energy sources; carbohydrates, also known as sugars, and fats. But which one actually determines a greater weight loss? And what is the right amount of exercise to start seeing results?

These are difficult questions and there are many different answers. Many believe that you have to exercise for 20-30 minutes before you start losing fat, but others say you start losing it immediately when your exercise starts. Measuring the amount of oxygen we consume while exercising can tell whether we burn fats or sugars. This can be done through measuring carbon dioxide levels.

If you raise the exercise intensity, things change, because we need a more efficient fuel that will burn more quickly, produce more energy and require less oxygen.

But there is some good news: the truth is that we are burning calories from the very beginning of our workout and when we burn calories we lose weight!

If the 20 minutes fat burning theory is wrong, and most of us don't have hours and hours of time to exercise on daily bases, we might as well make optimal use of our workout time by doing relatively high intensity exercise.

The horrible truth however is, that to burn off the calories we eat with a bowl of ice-cream with nuts and fruit and syrup on it, we would have to exercise very hard for about two hours. So if we don’t control our dietary intake, there is not going to be much benefit from exercises either.

Some more horrible facts: You need to lift weights for three hours to burn off a cheeseburger, ride a bike for one hour to burn calories from a muffin and play football for two hours to burn a couple of slices of pepperoni pizza.

This means that if you are serious about results, you need to change your eating routines. A good diet program and sticking to it is vital to stop building more fat and this is the first step you definitely need to take. It’s also important to understand that weight can only be lost from all body parts together. Excess fat is often stored around your waist area, which means that is the place where fat will burn most when you exercise, but machines and programs that claim to flatten only your stomach area are not to be trusted.

You can use virtually any exercise to lose weight, the main thing is to keep your pulse on the correct rate (usually under 150) to burn fat. The best exercise for you is the one you enjoy most; it’s easy to exercise for one day but the real challenge is maintaining it on an ongoing basis. This is exactly why it is important to choose something that you really like. You can walk, run, swim, lift weights or use a home fitness machine as long as you enjoy what you are doing.

If you are looking for a flat stomach, there are many ab rollers and suspended chairs on the market which claim to flatten your stomach in no time. However, they are not magical wonder tools and the reason you have a bulging belly is usually not because of untoned stomach muscles. This means exercising with those machines is not going to produce the desired effect. What we really need is to get rid of the fat layers which cover our abdominal muscles, so strengthening the muscles is not going to work, although there is nothing bad in that for your overall fitness. So use any exercise you like and stick to a healthy diet and results will follow.

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