Being obese is worse than smoking or drinking. In fact, the condition has been likened to aging from 30 to 50. This is because obesity puts you at risk of so many health conditions and weakens your body’s immune system making you more likely to fall sick.
But being obese is not a death sentence, in fact, you can regain your identity and health by simply eating healthy and losing that excess weight. If you’re ready to get on a treadmill to get your body back in shape, then you can follow these tips on how to exercise if you’re obese.
How To Start Exercising For Obese
Before You Begin Exercising
- Love Yourself: If you’re self-loathing or you just have a thing for making excuses, you’re most likely to give up within the first few minutes of your workouts.
For you to successfully burn off those excess calories, you’ll have to approach your workouts with a sense of self-compassion. This helps you grow and overcome failures, slip-ups or days when miss your workout. If you blame and loathe yourself because you’re overweight, you are less likely to lose that weight.
The best thing to do is to focus on the long-term benefits of being fit. By being fit, you reduce your risk of developing many health conditions, boost your immune system, and make life easier for yourself.
If you focus on short-term motivators like checking out your clothes size, waistline or your reflection in the mirror-like we see in most weight loss stories on TV, you’re also likely to lose weight, but the problem is that the result you get will only last for the short term.
- Take it one step at a time: Living a healthy lifestyle is like growing up to be an adult or learning a skill. Along the way, you make mistakes and you learn from those mistakes to become a better person or better at what you do. If you approach your weight loss journey this way you’re less likely to give up.
When you set up a diet plan or workout plan get ready to overcome the challenges or setbacks that will definitely happen. If you don’t experience any setbacks while you are on your weight loss journey, it means you gave up too early.
Just like learning a skill, living a healthy lifestyle will be extremely difficult at first, but if you persevere, you should find it easier.
How Long Should You Exercise?
According to the American Heart Associate (AHA), overweight individuals should get at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise every week, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise every week.
Depending on your determination and weight, you should be able to workout out for longer periods. You can start by exercising 30 minutes daily for 5 days a week.
Exercises To Try Out
Running
Running is one of the effective ways to lose weight for beginners. It won’t burn many calories (about 140 calories per mile), but it will help you get started.
Weight Lifting
Unlike cardio which makes you lose muscle, weight training focuses on helping you lose fat. Weight training will also help your body burn calories faster. By lifting weights, you can raise your metabolic rate for as long as 12 hours after exercising. This will help you lose weight faster than many other exercising methods.
You can try out any of the five types of weight training below;
- Total Body Circuit Training
- Push-Pull Training
- Power Lifting Training
- Explosive Dynamic Training
- Muscular Isolation Training
Remember to take things slowly at first. This will help you avoid injuries and make the results last longer.
Water Aerobics
This is one of the most recommended workout plans for obese people. Water aerobics can help you burn between 400 and 500 calories in an hour, and unlike other workouts, it doesn’t require much effort.
Stationary Cycling
In layman terms, this means cycling in one spot. This form of exercise can help you lose 200-300 calories in a 30-minute session.
Running on the treadmill
Running on the treadmill is another terrific way to lose weight. If you don’t own or want to invest in a treadmill, you can get a gym membership and make use of one of theirs.
