Obese people who want to lose weight should be very careful in choosing workout routines as this may cause injuries for them. It is also important to consult first their doctor if they are cleared to do strenuous exercises and there are no other health concerns so as to avoid complications. Once you are given the go signal, a visit to the gym is the next best thing to do. Don’t perform exercises without supervision of a professional even if you are doing simple exercises or you just want to follow exercises from an instructional video. Remember that you have a different condition which should be taken into consideration.

Some health professionals are divided on the type of workout that should be given to an obese person. Some would suggest starting from simple exercises and focusing more on cardio workouts. However, some trainers prefer using strength training and interval training workouts. Too much cardio workouts will lead to injuries and may not be effective in shredding excess fats in the body.

The reason behind the use of strength training is to prepare the muscle to be able to handle the repeated stress of cardio training. The use of multi-muscle exercises in supersets pairs and the use of modified interval training are combined to achieve better results. According to Craig Ballantyne who have designed many fat loss training regimen, the use of this technique is effective to obese men and women even to those people who are having sedentary lifestyles. “This is a much better approach than telling an obese person to go and run for 30-60 minutes per day,” he said.

Ballantyne designed a strength training and interval training system working with men and women from 14-75. With his experience, several obese people have availed of this training with weight range from 225 lbs for women and 300 lbs for men. However, he emphasized that these people should have a prior approval from their doctor.

In his training program, he starts with exercises lying on the ground. This is composed of 90% of the workouts for the first phase. Most people are surprised on the difficulty of the lying exercises but Ballantyne said that it is the perfect blend of safety and intensity for overweight, inactive people.

But the fat loss program is not only about exercises. It should be coupled with proper diet. He said that beginners need to understand that nutrition is the key to fat loss in the first couple of weeks when they are getting back into exercise. Obese people will get positive results if they follow a nutritious meal plan. Eating less of processed foods and sugar is also a great help. Ballantyne said that they need to choose an exercise program that will build them up for future training sessions…and that’s what strength training and interval training workouts do.

So if you want to lose fat by going to the gym, the strength training and interval training can be a good option. Ask your gym instructor about it to be sure that you will be able to perform all the exercises up to the last phase of the fat loss training program.

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