Whats the best workout?

I wanna say salsa dancing, ice dancing, running and/or sex.

 

If your abdominal muscles are covered in fat, then no amount of sit-ups that you do to strengthen them will change anything. You have to focus on cardiovascular exercises, such as running, to burn calories. You can also focus on changing your diet.

 

Yeah, aerobic/cardiovascular is the way to go. My jogging has significantly shrunk my gut and thighs (still working on the butt, though).

Lex

 

just remeber, anyone who tells you can spot-burn fat is a lier. it is impossible to burn fat on one part of the body.

fat is burned overall, so if you want to lose fat, you have to remeber that burning fat is not about sit-ups or push ups, it is about getting your heart rate to a zone where it will burn the fat as a quick form of energy, as that is why you store fat.

 

Does walking count? Or does it have to be jogging? Like if I walk several times around the park near my home, will that help if I do it daily? And then eventually move up to jogging when I feel I can handle it.

 

Walking is considered a workout only if you're considered morbidly obese. It won't get your heart rate up enough or put any kind of reasonable strain on your legs unless you're moving/holding up a huuuuuuge amount of weight. If you're just overweight, you could do a long walk carrying a backpack or vest full of weights and that would prob give you a decent workout.

In general, to lose belly fat, yeah, lots of cardio just like everyone's saying.

 

when you do cardio to lose fat, don't push yourself too hard. in order to burn fat, your body needs oxygen, it's a chemical thing i guess. so what you want to do is find a good steady pace where you're heart rate is increased, but you're not heaving because you're out of breath--and that pace could be anywhere from a jog as slow as walking pace, or for an olympian, a run almost like a sprint.

you'll know it's the right pace because you can pretty much sustain that for miles. when i first discovered it, i ran 7 miles and only noticed i was tired after stopping. (that's probably a little extreme, i found out i like running, but that's the gist)

 

It's much easier to eliminate 100 calories from your diet than it is to burn 100 calories of cardio. At least in my opinion...but if you want to get leaner, I'd say lift weights. Cardio helps burn calories, but it can eat up muscle as well as fat.

 

Yeah I just was concerned because I'm a bit overweight (like BMI is 25.85-26.25, it fluxes) and I find even jogging gets me winded because I generally don't work out so would it be normal to get winded quickly when I start doing my runs? :S

 

I would consider walking to be good for strengthening muscles if you do it for long enough distances with a good pace.

however, weight loss happens best when you get your body into a range of activity where your heart beat elevates. My cardio teacher says that most everyone can tell if they are in the range because they feel the effort, but dont feel they are over exerting themselves. When you feel like you are pushing yourself, but not like you are going to collapse from the effort to continuing to work, then you are usually close to, though most often in the range that is effective for burning fat to use as energy.

jogging would be better, because it elevates the heart a bit more than walking. you want to ease into it. I would recommend going to a local school's track, because tracks tend to have a regular length, and usually the coach can tell you exactly how much distance would be if you circumnavicated the interior lane. By doing a track, you can gauge how much you have travelled, and can say set a goal to maintain a steady pace for 4 revolutions one day, and maybe every few weeks add another lap around till you get to 8, or something like that. That way, you build on your effort while your body strengthens its cardio vascular system to allow better oxygen flow through your body when you exert effort.

also, build muscle. you dont have to go all bodybuilder for it, but the more muscle you have, the more fat you can burn. muscle stores energy in its own way, and as you enter your fat burning range, having more muscle means you have more muscular energy stored, which means you can effectively excercise longer in the fat burning range to burn through more, if I remeber my highschool and collage health and fitness clases correctly.

for me, right now, I am getting the musculature to what I want, with just a few areas I want to put more work on. once I get there, I am going to be more aggresive about doing fat burning workouts. I am going to walk to the campus's track to run three times a week this summer. Want to lose some fat and get down to 8% bodyfat, and see how I look. I am being vain, and want abs...

 

>>>Yeah I just was concerned because I'm a bit overweight (like BMI is 25.85-26.25, it fluxes) and I find even jogging gets me winded because I generally don't work out so would it be normal to get winded quickly when I start doing my runs?

It's not surprising if you haven't run before. You might look into the "couch to 5K" method. A couple of my friends are having some success with it.

http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

Lex