Top Machines For Weight Loss

This article is for those of you who want to lose weight and have decided to take the route of going to the gym alongside your diet program. Following my advice you can actually lose weight rapidly, as well as improve your fitness, general health and well being.

Before you decide which machine to go on or what exercise to do in the gym you need to know your goals and what exactly you want from the gym. This article has been designed to help somebody who is starting out trying to lose weight by joining the gym.

Firstly I need you to understand that your body naturally chooses the way it utilises energy through a number of factors, the major factor you need to know is high intensity exercise makes your body turn to faster methods of using energy, and this means sugars (carbohydrates) get utilised instead of fats. To burn fats more efficiently you need to be doing your training aerobically, (the age old test is to try and hold a conversation whilst doing your exercise, and if you find this difficult it is a good indicator that you’re probably trying too hard).
Training at a lower intensity for longer is better than training at a higher intensity for a short period of time, remember this and pace yourself in the gym for an optimum workout.
Although training in this energy zone will improve your fitness I advise against letting your heart rate rise above 160 beats per minute and to try and stay in the 140 – 160 heart rate zones. You can measure your heart rate a number of ways, some machines have built in heart rate monitors, you can purchase a heart rate monitor from a store (good ones can count calories burnt). I suggest the Polar range of heart rate monitors I personally haven’t been let down yet by this range. You can also measure your heart rate manually, but you may find this difficult whilst trying to exercise.

The machines that I propose you decide to use in the gym are as follows: -

1. The Exercise Bike – Very good for a lower body work out, easy to control your heart rate through intensity and work load.

Tip – Join a spinning class if your gym does them, you will really enjoy them, it is something new and you will burn a lot of calories doing so.

2. The Stepper/Cross Trainer – Very good for an all round body workout, works the core muscles like crazy and you burn a lot of calories in the process.

Tip – Take extra care to find a setting that is comfortable, the longer you spend on this machine the more weight you will lose.

3. The Treadmill – Yeah you guessed it, Walking and jogging are unbelievable ways to lose weight, hit the 140 – 160 heart rate zones we talked about and the pounds will just drop off.

Tip – If you find walking/jogging too monotonous and boring and feel like doing more, try adjusting the incline, not only will you burn more calories but it actually feels like your climbing a mountain!