The Best Sports For Losing Weight

Not all sports are suitable for burning excess body fat particularly quickly and effectively

Which sports are best suited to melting bacon rolls particularly effectively? What do you have to pay attention to when choosing a sport? Are all sports suitable for overweight people? It is not always easy to make the right decision!

Sports for the obese

Overweight people who would like to lose weight through exercise are often over-motivated in choosing the right sport.

Unfortunately, choosing the wrong kind of sport quickly leads to giving up too much or to dealing with additional health risks, for example for the joints, with sport, which is in itself health-promoting.

Sports for overweight people should therefore always be gentle on the joints , i.e. especially not overuse the joints of the lower extremities, which have to carry the weight.

This includes knees, hips and feet. The basic requirement is always the right high-quality footwear to minimize the risk of injury and prevent consequential damage such as heel spurs or plantar fasciitis.

Today we suggest sports that you can do gently, even if you are overweight, in order to lose weight:

To go biking

As simple as it sounds, cycling is a very effective sport for losing fat! If you only cycle to work, to go shopping or through the park, your heart rate increases and you automatically receive moderate training in everyday life.

Cycling is particularly gentle on the joints and strengthens the quadriceps muscles. This is important to stabilize your knee and, as long as it is well trained, prevents injuries to the knee joint.

Cycling is a sport that can be wonderfully integrated into everyday life without having to pay expensive memberships or equipment. On the contrary:  if you replace your commute with a bike, you also save money that you would otherwise have invested in bus tickets or petrol!

Make sure the bike you use is designed for your weight. If in doubt, invest in harder springs and have a bicycle dealer install a chassis that corresponds to your weight.

Bicycling without suspension, especially in the “higher weight class”, can lead to damage to the wrists and back if blows from bumps hit your body unsprung.

water sports

Regardless of whether in or on the water: water sports are particularly well suited to enable overweight people to move around the joints with good fat loss!

Sports on and in the water have several advantages. On the one hand, because the water bears part of your own weight and therefore every movement is particularly gentle on the joints, on the other hand, because the water dissipates heat from your body through thermogenesis.

This loss of heat automatically increases the calorie consumption – without any additional effort! The more you are surrounded by water and the colder the water, the greater this effect.

Paddling, rowing or swimming are moderate endurance sports that allow you to burn fat well.

The advantage of paddling or rowing: you can’t just get out when you don’t feel like it anymore – at least you have to continue to the bank or pier – and defeat your weaker self!

Weight training

What many overweight people do not think about: it is their muscle engine that burns the fat! The stronger the muscle motor, the better the burn!

It is actually quite logical that a BMW with a large cubic centimeter also uses considerably more fuel than a small Fiat Panda engine!

Moderate strength training is therefore ideal for strengthening the basal metabolic rate by building muscle. The higher the basal metabolic rate, the higher the calorie requirement in everyday life – so you lose weight faster with more muscle mass in everyday movements!

Please get good advice in the gym on which muscle groups you should train in a targeted and joint-friendly manner. It’s about a gentle and sensible muscle building, which should also prevent postural damage and tension such as back or neck pain!

To run

If you are very overweight, jogging is not the right sport for you, the strain on your joints is too high!

So start walking gently to improve your condition, reduce your weight and strengthen your muscles! Walking may be decried as a “retirement sport”, but it is recommended for overweight people of all ages.

If you don’t like walking either, at least opt ​​for a high walking pace in everyday life, leave the car, get out one station earlier and run at a brisk pace – this also increases the heart rate. The longer the way, the better!

If you have your body weight under control and reduced so much that you can start jogging, you will be happy that you have already built a good foundation and condition with walking.