I want to lose weight around my middle.
For the record: you cannot spot reduce. That is, you can't just force your body to lose fat in one specific spot. For example, doing hundreds of sit-ups will not make you lose fat from the stomach. All you can do is create the appropriate conditions for weight loss - see the
fat loss sticky for a guide - and your body will decide where the weight comes from. Generally, you'll lose weight evenly all over, but most people have trouble spots that hang onto more fat than others (typically stomach + love handles for men, butt + thighs for women). There is nothing you can do about it other than continuing to lower your body fat percentage and eventually the trouble spots will slim down too.
And I know a lot is diet. I'm working on that. But this is why I need something at home, too. So when I'm home and tempted to eat, I can just do something else instead.
Try not to shrug away diet as something that just happens to be important for weight loss. It's
essential. Diet is far and away the most important priority for weight loss. Exercise is important for overall health and a great tool for
maintaining weight loss, but diet really should be your primary concern. I highly recommend following the advice in the
fat loss sticky.
As for exercise, as far losing weight is concerned, it only has two purposes:
1. Increasing caloric expenditure. From this perspective,
any exercise you enjoy and can do consistently will help you lose weight. Go for a walk, a run, ride your bike, run stadiums, jump rope, go swimming, play sports, and so on.
2. Maintaining lean body mass. Many people who manage to lose weight end up losing not just fat, but lots of muscle as well. This is extremely counter-productive: you end up lowering your metabolism (making further weight loss harder), you end up weaker & less healthy, and despite all the weight loss, your body fat percentage isn't all that much lower (you end up "skinny fat"). The best tool to prevent this is weight training. Heavy lifting for the entire body - squats, deadlifts, bench press, OH press, etc - is the absolute best stimulus to convince your body to maintain muscle mass. In fact, if you are new to weight training, you might even see beginner gains and grow muscle and lose fat at the same time. For this, the equipment you'd need would typically include a power rack, barbell, weights and a bench. If you already do plenty of weight training at the gym, one option is to supplement it at home with all sorts of bodyweight exercises, such as squats, lunges, pistols, step-ups, push-ups, handstand push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, muscle-ups, etc.
Facebook
Twitter