Diet and exercise can not be separated when you aim for a long term healthy weight loss. There are weight loss programs that don’t including exercise in the process such as Grapefruit Diet or Cabbage Soup Diet, but usually those programs only aim for a fast short term weight loss. If you do have planned to start a long term healthy weight loss program, which obviously will include exercise, there are a few things you should know beforehand:

1. Sweating is not an indicator; there are people who use sweat to measure their exercise; “if you are sweating then you already have a good exercise”. You shouldn’t use this indicator, sweating is only your body’s way to cooling itself and it doesn’t mean that you have burned enough calories. Stick to your target or schedule when exercising.

2. Do not ignore weight training; there are various ways to burn calories by exercising, including weight training and cardiovascular exercise. While cardiovascular exercise such as jogging or biking are usually thought as the best ways to burn calories, you should not completely ignore weight training. Remember that a person with more muscles burns more calories throughout the day.

3. Weight training does not make women bulky; there are women who afraid of being bulky and thus avoid weight training. This is just another exercise myth; most women do not have enough testosterone to become bulky. If your body really becomes bigger fast, you might want to eat less, reduce the weight you lift, and increase the repetition.

4. Put a limit in your exercise schedule; when you perform an exercise session, you will damage your muscle a bit. This damaged muscle will repaired by your body with enough rest and nutrients, but if you have a tight exercise schedule such as every morning and evening your body can’t keep up with the reparation. Recommended healthy exercise only consist of 3-4 sessions a week.

5. If you are not used to exercising, do a low intensity cardio; advanced method such as High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is a good way to obtain fast weight loss, but it can be hard for you since it combine high intensity with lower intensity training, thus put much stress in your body and make it harder to regulate appetite. Low intensity exercise such as walking or light jogging is indeed can’t burn much calories, but it will burn more fat for fuel and it put less stress in your body, make it easier to regulate appetite.

6. Begin your exercise by walking; if you are one of the sedentary people you may find it hard to begin with all the advanced exercise such as weight training or the HIIT; some people even have difficulties with jogging as a start since they didn’t used to any physical activities. Walking is a way to workout at steady and consistent pace; this is important when you want to burn fat effectively, and you can do it while doing other activities as well such as shopping or chatting. Get used to this exercise and try to increase the duration before you move to the more advanced exercise.

7. Fill your stomach before start your exercise; foods are required to provide energy for your muscle in order to make it work efficiently, so starting an exercise with empty stomach is a bad idea. If it is a morning exercise, eat small meal such as toast, oatmeal, or fruits one to three hours before exercise.

8. Create a target for your exercise; when you are doing the same exercise over and over again, your body will get used to the activities and make it less effective. Create a target by checking your progress and measure your heartbeat. If it is outside of your targeted zone, increase the level a bit.

A healthy long term weight loss can only be obtained with a combination of good diet and exercise. Select your weight loss program wisely, make sure it is including a good portion of healthy exercise.