Exercise is one of the most commonly spoken of methods for losing weight. So much so, that most people regard the concept of exercise for weight loss as being 100% correct and never questioning the mantra whatsoever. In this article, I'll give you the lowdown on this subject and explain the most effective type of exercise for losing the most amount of weight in the shortest amount of time.

Why Exercise Works

To lose weight, you need a calorific deficit i.e. you need to expend more energy than you take in as food.

Take, for example, an overweight man who expends around 3,000 calories per day but eats around 4,000. He is continuing to put on weight every week because he is eating 1,000 to many calories.

He may reach a point where he also expends 4,000 calories a day simply because he is carrying so much more extra weight. At this point, his weight will become stable, assuming that he is still eating 4,000 calories worth of food daily. Or he may eat even more food and his weight will continue to go up.

To lose weight, you need to be eating fewer calories. Often, a 500 calorie deficit is recommended as it generally allows people to lose about a pound of weight per week. In the above case, the man should eat around 2,500 calories per day to lose weight.

All that matters is the difference between calories in and calories out.

If you eat the same amount of food as before but do exercise, then the balance is shifted. You will lose weight as long as you can burn more than you eat.

Why You Don't Need Exercise

The mantra that is chanted by so-called "weight loss experts" is "diet and exercise". There is no doubt that both of these can help you to lose weight. But many people fail to understand the reasons and so they actually end up gaining weight.

A friend of mine started to eat better quality food and to exercise more often. But his efforts were nullified because after doing a huge workout, he would come home and eat three plates of food! He was burning more calories but he was also eating more of them too and gained weight as a result.

The only thing you need to lose weight is a calorific deficit. You can achieve this through diet alone. You don't need to do exercise but it does help. The danger of exercise that you need to be aware of is that it makes many people abort their weight loss attempts. It seems like too much effort to lose weight. If you fear this, then just rely on diet alone.

The Best Exercise For Weight Loss

Not all exercises are equal. All raise the metabolism and keep it raised for a period (when you continue to sweat even when you are no longer exercising) but some are better at this than others.

The best exercise for losing weight is high intensity interval training. It involves running and sprinting alternately. The reason it works so well is because the body adapts to most forms of exercise by going into "energy saving" mode. HIIT and team sports work well because the body is constantly reacting to changes in your activity. It can react but it does so very inefficiently. As a result, you burn more energy and you continue to burn it for much longer with HIIT and other highly variable forms of exercise such as team sports.