Exercise, Weight Loss, and Water
A Great Trio

As much as we'd all like to have some magic pill that would help us lose weight, science just hasn't advanced that far yet. And no matter who testifies that those grapefruit pills or that herbal remedy will melt away the fat overnight, that's all so much pie-in-the-sky. And for heaven's sake, how will wrapping yourself in the equivalent of cling wrap or aluminum foil help you lose weight?

If you believe that, you might as well just hand the miracle cure gurus your PIN and debit card, because they're just after your money anyway. No, the only way to effectively lose weight is to eat healthy, exercise, and drink lots of water.

How's that again?

For most people, we're told, water retention is one of the worst culprits when it comes to weight gain. Water retention can boost a person's weight significantly in just a few days, and even cause bloating and discomfort. However, weight gained this way is temporary, and is easily regulated by frequent and healthy water consumption.

For health reasons, you need to drink 6-8 glasses of water a day in any case; otherwise your body may become dehydrated, causing a whole host of problems you're better off avoiding. Daily exercise will also help you lose your temporary water weight, since it forces the excess out in the form of sweat. In fact, once you start exercising you may lose as much as 10 pounds or so in a few days, all due to water loss. Sweating also takes out waste products you don't need clogging up your cells -- so by all means get to sweating, but do it through healthy exercise! Naturally, when exercising, you should drink plenty of cool water to help keep you going.

Running and elliptical exercise

Diet and water are great, but exercise is the most important factor if you really want to lose your membership in the Couch Potato Club. Exercise will almost certainly result in weight loss, as long as you remember not to overeat and you keep your system flushed with plenty of water. The best exercise is, of course, that which gets the entire body involved; treadmills and elliptical trainers of all types are excellent ways to do this.

Although treadmills tend to focus on the lower half of the body, the best treadmills force you to get your upper body involved as well.

Elliptical exercise machines get your arms, legs, hips, back, and joints all involved in a single workout. Even if you're not sure what an elliptical machine is, you've probably seen one: they're those funny looking machines that look like some hybrid of stationary bike and ski machine.

Also called cross-trainers, ellipticals let you enjoy the same workout that a cross-country skier gets, complete with the forward/reverse motion that helps tone all your muscles and joints, back and front. Fitness machine manufacturers were quick to respond to the scientific findings, a few years back, that pointed toward elliptical exercise as the very best type of exercise for general weight-loss and toning: for that reason, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of different elliptical exercise machines available -- probably more than there are treadmill models.

Fortunately, you can get a good elliptical or treadmill to fit almost any budget. So what are you waiting for? Get your exercise machine, drink that water, and lose that weight!

Published with permission (FCDMInc)