There is more to weight loss than just diet. Exercise plays a huge part in your success or failure when trying to lose weight. Exercise is important for several reasons. It gets your metabolism revved up and helps you burn more calories not only during the exercise, but for many hours afterward. It helps to build lean muscle which also burns more calories naturally. And finally it helps to give your body a better shape which is motivating in itself and often helps keep you focused on your weight loss goal.

But when just beginning many people are confused what kind of exercise they should do. Do I need to lift heavy weights? Should I join a gym? How much is enough? These are all common and easily answered questions.

Basically when you are beginning exercise as part of a weight loss and diet plan you should do whatever is comfortable for you. For many people this is something as simple as walking several times a week. Nothing complex about that and it fulfills the primary requirement at this stage which is simply to get your body moving and get it used to doing some form of exercise. That’s it, just get your body moving.

There are a lot of simple ways to doing this. Walking has already been mentioned, but what about everyday things like taking the stairs instead of elevators. Park your car at the back of the parking lot. Get out and actively play with your children or grandchildren. Leave the car at home for short trips to the store or visiting friends. All of these are easy and can actually be fun if you approach them that way. And best of all your body will start to adapt and become more active itself, it will actually look forward to activities that involve moving.

Once you’ve started moving you can begin to consider a more planned approach to training. There are basically three types of exercise you’ll want to eventually include in your training. These are aerobic exercise, resistance exercise and flexibility exercise.

Aerobic exercise gets the heart working to pump blood through the heart more quickly and with more force than normal. As blood is pumped faster, it must be oxygenated more quickly, which quickens respiration. Aerobic exercise strengthens the heart, increases metabolism, increases fat burning and boosts healthy cholesterol levels. Low impact aerobics include walking and swimming. Running, tennis and dance are high impact aerobics.

Flexibility exercise in its simplest form stretches and elongates muscles. Disciplines which incorporate stretching with breath control and meditation include yoga and t’ai chi. Greater flexibility will improve other exercise performance by giving you a greater range and freedom of motion. It can also help in your everyday life when you need to stretch for something far away, step over something and will improve your balance. The benefits of greater flexibility may go beyond the physical to the improvement of stress reduction and the promotion of a greater sense of well-being.

Resistance exercise is when you use weights or bands to place greater resistance on your muscles during common movements. It is usually called weight lifting and in fact the best form of resistance exercise is free weight lifting because it involves all of your muscles in the most natural way possible. Resistance exercise has many benefits including increased metabolism and fat burning, increased lean muscle mass, increased strength, higher bone density in older people, increased blood flow and a more shapely body.

So now that you know just get out there and start moving. Do something new and physical. Upcoming articles will focus more on the specifics of each exercise type and exercises including techniques to keep your motivation high, get more out of each workout and help you get into the best shape possible. You may want to subscribe to DietPlan 1-2-3 so you don’t miss any of the upcoming articles.