Health & Fitness
Type of exercise that increases fitness but results in minimal weight loss?
I’m a sixteen year old girl, and I want to start exercising just to improve my general physical and mental health. But I’m slightly underweight and I don’t want to lose any more weight. I know running and jogging result in massive weight loss. Is there any exercise I can do that will improve my fitness and stamina but won’t make me lose that much weight? Please help.
That is a tough one! If you add any kind of exercise, you are going to burn more calories, so you’ll need to eat more! Add carbs (to fuel your body during exercise so you aren’t immediately burning fat), and protein (which is calorie dense and will help you maintain your muscle). Just adding a big glass of milk after exercise can help you with this.
To get your heart and lungs in shape, you don’t need to do a ton of exercise. Try 20-30 minutes 2-3 times a week. If that doesn’t feel like enough, add some walking (on hills, on a treadmill w/ an incline, or with lunges in between).
A lot of people don’t realize that when you start losing weight — a lot of what you lose is muscle (after a few initial pounds of water weight, which is no big deal). Muscle loss happens even if you’re losing that weight by exercising. So make SURE you add strength training to maintain your muscle. (It will be a lot harder to get back than fat). You can do this without equipment by googling some body weight and core exercises like squats, lunges, pushups, planks, and crunches. (You can even do JUST these kinds of strength exercises, with some jumping jacks, jogging in place, or jumping rope in between sets, and some stretches at the end, and you’ll improve your fitness in a really well rounded way. Squats and other leg exercise do a surprisingly great job of getting your heart rate up.).
Running and jogging do create a very high calorie burn, and also tend to cause you to lose muscle if you do a lot, but they are a great/fast way to get in shape. You can also try anaerobic exercises (very intense exercises you can’t maintain for very long, like jump roping or short sprints). These do burn a lot of calories and rev your metabolism (eat!!), but they don’t break down fat the same way other exercises do (like the elliptical, jogging). And they WORK your heart and lungs for great fitness and stamina in a faster time.
Good luck!
November 18, 2009 - 1:48 pm
That is a tough one! If you add any kind of exercise, you are going to burn more calories, so you’ll need to eat more! Add carbs (to fuel your body during exercise so you aren’t immediately burning fat), and protein (which is calorie dense and will help you maintain your muscle). Just adding a big glass of milk after exercise can help you with this.
To get your heart and lungs in shape, you don’t need to do a ton of exercise. Try 20-30 minutes 2-3 times a week. If that doesn’t feel like enough, add some walking (on hills, on a treadmill w/ an incline, or with lunges in between).
A lot of people don’t realize that when you start losing weight — a lot of what you lose is muscle (after a few initial pounds of water weight, which is no big deal). Muscle loss happens even if you’re losing that weight by exercising. So make SURE you add strength training to maintain your muscle. (It will be a lot harder to get back than fat). You can do this without equipment by googling some body weight and core exercises like squats, lunges, pushups, planks, and crunches. (You can even do JUST these kinds of strength exercises, with some jumping jacks, jogging in place, or jumping rope in between sets, and some stretches at the end, and you’ll improve your fitness in a really well rounded way. Squats and other leg exercise do a surprisingly great job of getting your heart rate up.).
Running and jogging do create a very high calorie burn, and also tend to cause you to lose muscle if you do a lot, but they are a great/fast way to get in shape. You can also try anaerobic exercises (very intense exercises you can’t maintain for very long, like jump roping or short sprints). These do burn a lot of calories and rev your metabolism (eat!!), but they don’t break down fat the same way other exercises do (like the elliptical, jogging). And they WORK your heart and lungs for great fitness and stamina in a faster time.
Good luck!
References :
November 18, 2009 - 2:01 pm
You might be suprised. Running and jogging build up a large amount of muscle in your legs which results is gaining muscle mass. Muscles weigh If you have no fat to burn, you can’t lose it. I would do things that build up muscle mass such as weight lifting (low weight, a lot of reps). Also, you could do classes such as yoga, and pliates to strengthen your core. Cardio is an important part of health, so I wouldn’t count it out completly.
References :