The Most Important Exercise for Fat Loss 61/84

You've probably seen me post before about how exercise really doesn't play a huge part in fat loss. Actually, it plays almost no part at all. This is due to a variety of factors including the fact that your body may actually slow your metabolism down after exercise to make up for the calories you burn.

Does this mean you should stop working out? Of course not! Exercise has innumerable benefits for your health and longevity that makes it an extremely important part of your life. But from the perspective of fat loss, what you do for an hour in the gym every day doesn't make much of a difference. In reality, what you do the other 23 hours of the day make much more of an impact on your waistline.

From an exercise perspective, daily activity makes a world of difference more for fat loss that other exercise. Basically, it you workout hard for an hour then sit in a chair or lay on your coach the rest of the day, you're never going to be as fit as you can be. Obviously, nutrition is still the most important factor for weight loss, but being active as often as you can will help.

This is one (of many) reasons why desk jobs or so bad for people's health. Things like standing work stations can help with this, but even standing for hours on end is still being sedentary. The best option for people in an office setting would be to move around as much as you are allowed. Sometimes sit, sometimes stand, and get up and walk around as often as you can. When you have a break, try to be active and go for a walk instead of finding somewhere else to sit.

Also, get ahead of the game by being active before and after work as much as possible. Walk often, play sports, and move often in your house. The more you can move around the better.

As weird as it may seem to say, the arbitrary goal of getting 10,000 steps in a day isn't really that bad of an idea. The number doesn't have any real reason behind it but it can still be something to strive for. I've worked with people who only get half of that each day and for those people, making better every day lifestyle choices is just, if not more, important that exercise choices.

Moral of the story, move around as much as you can and try to be sitting and standing still as little as possible. Combine this with good nutritional choices and a well structured workout plan and you'll live a long and healthy life