According to weight loss experts, aerobic and anaerobic exercise is one of the best predictors of your long term success at permanent weight loss.

Aerobic And Anaerobic Exercise 101

One research study that followed 32,000 people for eight years, found that those whose only risk [factor] was inactivity were more likely to die prematurely than those who had high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and a smoking habit but who got some exercise each day.

Just as it is important to eat a balanced diet, it is important to have a balanced exercise program, incorporating both aerobic and anaerobic types of exercise.

The word ”aerobic” is defined as “with oxygen”: this means your body uses oxygen to break down glucose for energy. When most people think about exercise, they think about aerobic types such as walking, jogging, dancing, tennis, and bicycling.

Aerobic exercise improves your health by:

• Building respiratory endurance
• Conditioning your heart
• Controlling your appetite
• Reducing your risk of developing certain types of cancer and other chronic diseases
• Regulating your hormones
• Lengthening your life
• Boosting your metabolic rate
• Improving energy levels
• Burning more calories.
• Increasing circulation
• Increasing excretion of waste products

Anaerobic exercise, on the other hand, with creates the energy without oxygen because the demand for energy is higher than what oxygen can provide .Therefore, the body must create the energy using other chemicals in the body.

Examples of anaerobic exercise are sprinting and weight lifting.

Anaerobic exercise improves your health by:

• Bolstering your posture, joint health, and flexibility
• Building up muscle strength which increases your metabolism
• Helping you sleep better
• Reducing your blood pressure
• Strengthening your bones
• Increasing endurance

A surprising fact is that anaerobic exercise can burn more calories than aerobic exercise (as many as seven times more in an equal time period!), Therefore, doing anaerobic exercise can be a very good use of the time you spend exercising.

http://www.doctorsexercise.com/journal/aerobic.htm

It is best to alternate days when you do an aerobic workout (such as walking or running) with days where you do an anaerobic one (such as weight training). A truly balanced exercise program will also incorporate some flexibility training such as a daily stretching routine or yoga (yoga is wonderful because it has many additional benefits beyond improving flexibility, as well).

Make it your goal to burn at least 250 calories a day with exercise. If you combine this with a decrease of 250 calories a day, it will result in 1 pound of weight loss per week!