How To Lose Weight Quickly: Exercise Plan 1

There are two exercise plans that can be used in our "How To Lose Weight Quickly" article series. The first, which is the one you are reading, requires no weights or added equipment...All you need is a pair of running shoes and a place to run.

If you don't like running, this exercise program can be done on just about any piece of exercise equipment. You can use a treadmill, an elliptical, a stair stepper, or a bike. It really doesn't matter what you choose, as long as you can work hard on the piece of equipment.

An example of a poor piece of equipment is one I used to own. It was a rowing machine that used water as resistance. The problem with this piece of equipment, for this weight loss program, is that it was impossible to work at a high level of intensity. No matter how hard I wanted to work, the machine could not provide enough resistance to get my heart rate close to the levels in needed to be.

Exercising to lose weight quickly

On this program, your workouts will alternate between a hard day, which is more intense but shorter in duration, and an easy day, which is less intense and longer in duration. The reason for the hard/easy day rotation is because each workout has a different effect on the body.

The longer, easy workout will put you in the 'fat burning zone". That's the zone where you body primarily uses fat as fuel. The shorter duration, higher intensity workout will burn more calories than the easy day, but those calories will come from both carbohydrates and fat.

Should I exercise in the "fat burning zone" to lose weight fast?

Now, many people might ask,"Why don't I just spend all the time in the 'fat burning zone', if my goal is to burn fat?" The reason is that the "fat burning zone", as it's been called, isn't necessary optimal for buring fat.

It's referred to the fat burning zone only because fat is the primary source of enery used when exercising...But that only gives us a partial picture of the true caloric demands of the exercise.

Higher intensity exercise has a greater metabolic effect and uses more calories through out the day. Over the longer term, this creates a leaner body. In fact, one study (Tremblay) showed that high intensity training produced 9X the fat loss of low intensity training.

Those are some pretty significant results. However, the problem with high intensity training is that it can burn you out. And, it can cause you to overtrain, if done to excess. This will limit your ability to lose weight. So, in this program, we will utilize both high intensity and low intensity exercises to lose weight.

This will ensure that you're burning a significant amount of calories, while getting enough recovery from the high intensity work. It's the optimal strategy for losing weight fast.

The Exercise Plan For Shedding Weight Fast

Let's assume that your week starts on Monday. Here is what you workout schedule will look like:

• Monday - Hard intensity workout A
• Tuesday - Low intensity workout
• Wednesday - Hard intensity workout B
• Thursday - Low intensity workout
• Friday - Hard intensity workout A
• Saturday - Low intensity workout
• Sunday - Rest

In order to lose weight quickly, you must go hard on your intense workout days. You may feel a little lazy or be tempted to hold back, but don't.The intensity of your workout has a direct bearing on successfully losing weight.

When your heart is pumping hard, and you feel like quitting, just remember. it's a short workout, you'll be done soon. Most days, you'll be out of the gym in a half an hour. Anyone can challenge themselves for just 30 minutes.

One way to gauge your intensity, and keep yourself from cheating, is to wear a heart rate monitor. The heart rate monitor will keep you honest, because it gives you a unbiased view into how hard you're working.

Throughout this article, I'll refer to percentages of your maximum heart rate. You can estimate this by how hard you percieve you are working, but I still suggest you use a heart rate monitor.

Hard intensity workout A Run at 75% of your maximum heart rate for 2:00 minutes. Then, increase your speed so that you run at around 85% of your maximum heart rate for 2:00 minutes. Then, repeat...For the first week, repeat this 4 times. Each subsequent week, add one more repetition until you get to seven reps.

Hard intensity workout B Run at 70% of your maximum heart rate for 2:00 minutes. Then increase your speed so that you are run at around 90% of your maximum heart rate for 1:00 minute. Repeat this 6 times the first week, for a total of 18 minutes. Add one more rep each week until you get to a total of 9 repetitions.

Low intensity workout Run at 60-65% of your maximum heart rate for 30 minutes. Add 5 minutes each week until you get to a total of 50 minutes. During the low intensity workout, it might feel like you are going too slow. Don't worry about it, watch your heart rate and stay in the 60-65% zone.

Many people feel like this is too slow, and some even have to walk to keep their heart rate in the targeted range...Don't worry about how slow you go, just pay attention to your heart rate.

This low intensity day will be good for your recovery and it will help burn some extra calories too. Also, don't forget about your diet. If you really want to lose weight quickly, you will need to watch what you eat. Go to our article on how to diet for fast weight loss.