If exercise isn’t something you do a lot of or if you haven’t done any for a long time then here are some tips to help you exercise and lose weight:

• When you exercise before you eat then you lose more weight.

When we eat, food gets digested and enters our blood stream.  Over the next two to three hours this food is moved into our cells – and that includes fat!  If you exercise when you haven’t eaten for a few hours then there is not as much fat and glucose in your blood for your muscles to burn.  Your body will have to take fat out of fat cells to burn for the energy you need to exercise

• When you eat after exercise, less food will be stored as fat.

When you exercise you use up all the energy stored in the muscles and you have less in your blood than your body likes.  Your body will use the food you eat after exercise to replace the used nutrients instead of being excess food that is just stored as fat.  This means that, as you exercise, you will lose weight faster.

• Take CoQ10 as a supplement about one hour before exercising.

This simple step will help you lose about 5% more fat – it doesn’t sound like a lot but it really adds up to help you lose weight faster.  CoQ10 is a nutrient that helps your body burn the fat.  When you take at least 30mg before exercising it just makes the process of burning fat (called beta oxidation) more efficient – so you burn more fat for every minute you exercise!

• When you exercise for weight loss, you aren’t so hungry.

So exercising before breakfast, lunch or dinner means that you will not eat as much in that next meal.  You’ll still feel full but you will not have eaten more than you need.

• Exercising in the morning helps to increase your metabolism.

Your metabolism is how efficiently your body burns off fat while you do your every day activities.  So, if you exercise in the morning, you’ll burn off more fat while you work, clean the house, look after the kids, run for the bus…

• Exercise in the afternoon may help prevent injury.

If you aren’t a morning person then don’t worry – exercise in the afternoon or evening has some advantages.  You will get rid of stress that builds up during the day and, some researchers think, you will be less likely to injure yourself because your muscles will be warmed up.