Don\'t get me wrong, the best exercise you can do to support your weight control diet is aerobic. Walking is the exercise of choice for the vast majority of people who successfully lose weight and keep it off. There is something about the convenience and ease of walking that allows us to fit it into a daily routine without too much disruption to our lives. People really are built to walk, so get on out there. Rain or shine, you should walk four to six days a week for between 45 minutes and 1 hour per day to lose weight and gain fitness.



You don\'t need any instruction or expensive equipment or training, just time and the will to keep putting one foot briskly in front of the other. Nothing could be easier in helping you to lose weight and get fit.





However, once your wobbly bits stabilise somewhat, you can enhance your figure through gaining more defined muscle tone. It is exciting and uplifting (physically as well as mentally) to see the results of a bit of resistance training. If you go about it the right way, you will see figure moulding changes in six weeks and definite improvements to your body within three months.



As with your aerobic exercise, you need to go for a form of resistance training that you can do easily and learn to love and therefore look forward to with anticipation rather than dread or you will never carry through with your good intentions.



I recommend going to the gym to get some weight training under your belt. The gym has a great variety of machines to suit your needs and your inclinations. You have qualified trainers who can put together an individual program tailored to whether you want to build definitive muscle mass, or get really lean or anything in between. Your gym program fits you, it\'s not for anyone else. I like the focus of a gym program; it helps me to establish and attain realistic goals.



You only need to undertake resistance training once or twice per week if you go about it the right way. This means you would do a whole body workout on each gym visit. If you get really carried away with the gym, you can go several times a week and divide your visits into focusing on different major body parts to avoid overworking a particular muscle group. But for toning up, once or twice per week is ample. Each visit should take you just under 1 hour after you\'ve built up to 3 sets of 10 repetitions of each of 8-10 exercises.



Have a look at my website if you want some hints on common mistakes most people make in the gym and how to avoid them. I\'ve also written some tips on how to maximise your workout session.



Couple once or twice per week in the gym with four to five times per week walking, leaving one regular planned rest day per week and you have an exercise program that will see you not only stripping off fat but also attaining a heightened level of fitness.