3 Top Activities Which Contribute To A Healthy Lifestyle And Weight Loss

The Main Activities Which Contribute To A Healthy Lifestyle

Most people think that the activities which contribute to a healthy lifestyle are all about exercising to lose excess weight. And while that is an admirable start, it shouldn’t be a primary goal.  A goal from exercising that would serve them better overall (and one where they will lose weight in the process) should be living a healthy lifestyle.

There are 3 main activities which contribute to a healthy lifestyle. They are strength training, cardio exercise and eating a nutritious and balanced diet.

The Top 3 Activities Which Contribute To A Healthy Lifestyle

1. Strength Training

The first of our activities that contribute to a healthy lifestyle is strength training. Strength training not only builds muscle but helps to strengthen your bones, tendons and ligaments. This is not about building muscle mass but more of a firming and toning your muscles.

As a result of having more muscle, you’ll burn more calories even when resting. Three pounds of additional muscle burns an additional 120 calories per day. But the calorie burn is only part of the results. Because of the additional muscle you will look leaner and with that leaner look, you will feel better about yourself.

Free Report: Top 5 Exercise Mistakes
 
2. Cardio Training

Cardio exercises provide you with a variety of benefits. These include a healthy heart, increased energy, improved muscle tone and better sleep, just to name a few. There are a number of cardio exercises that burn a respectable number of calories from a 30-minute workout.

This starts from walking at a steady pace for half an hour that will burn burn almost 180 calories. This increases to high intensity step aerobics that can burn upto 400 calories in the same time period. Doing other cardio exercises for 30 minutes like cycling, swimming, tennis, running and rowing burn calories in amounts somewhere in-between.

3. Eating A Healthy Diet

You have probably heard the old saying “You can out-exercise a bad diet.” It’s true and this is why what you eat is one of the important activities which contribute to a healthy lifestyle. No matter how much you exercise, if you eat unhealthy, you won’t lose weight.

A healthy diet should be low in saturated fat, sugar and salt, yet have some unsaturated fat as the body needs some fat to be healthy. A good diet consists mainly of fresh vegetables and fruits, nuts and seeds, whole grains, lean meats and fish. Many vegetables are very low in calories and your body burns more calories processing them than they have in them in the first place.

Most of us know to lose a pound of weight per week, we have to burn 3,500 more calories than we take in. That breaks down into 500 calories per day. By adding muscle through strength training, burning calories through cardio and watching what we eat, a 500-calories-per-day reduction is easy to achieve.

Activities Which Contribute To A Healthy Lifestyle

Living a healthy lifestyle reduces the risk for many of the unhealthy lifestyle-related diseases including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and a shortened life span. With a combination of strength and cardio training and a healthy diet, losing weight will come naturally.

However, there are certain mistakes that are easy to make which can keep you from losing weight and even cause you to gain weight! Download this free checklist that reveals 5 exercise mistakes which slow down your weight loss, and you’ll soon be able to hit your target weight much quicker