What does exercise do to your body exactly and what type should you choose to get the most benefit?

When you exercise you give your metabolic rate a boost. That means the way your body burns calories has changed and it speeds up. This is of utmost importance if with taking up exercise you have also started a low calorie diet. If you change from high calorie diet to low calorie diet your body, not knowing what is happening, goes into starvation mode. Starvation mode means the metabolic rate slows down and body is preserving energy as it thinks it will not get enough fuel and that you are for all intents and purposes going to starve. With metabolic rate slowing down it gets more difficult to burn calories and exercise should help you burn calories more efficiently.

The overall benefits of exercise are many and varied, from feeling and looking better, to having more energy and flexibility, exercise helps you live a more active and fulfilling life.

There are 2 different types of exercise:

* Aerobic exercise (activities such as spinning, biking, stepping, fast dancing) or “with oxygen” exercise that gets the oxygen moving where it is needed and this helps to burn calories more easily
* Anaerobic exercise (activities such as strength training, walking, hiking, Pilates) or “without oxygen” exercise that while beneficial to your overall physical state does not burn the calories

As with everything it is all about the balance. If it is weight loss you are after, exercise is that tipping point between burning calories that would otherwise be stored in body as fat and the amount of food you eat, meaning you need to find a proper balance between the number of calories you take daily and the amount of exercise you do. As said on numerous occasions before that does not mean 1000 calories a day and passing in the gym from too strenuous workout. In the long run moderate to mild activity is better and healthier option.

Also it has to be taken into consideration that different exercise affects your health and parts of your body differently, so balance should be the aim here as well. Combining flexibility exercise with different resistance or weight training as well as aerobic exercise to give your metabolic rate a boost and burn those calories. Balance is needed in case you want to loose weight and keep it down, but also stay at the optimum level of health.