BEST Exercise Tips To Lose Weight

Today, I’m gonna give you the top 5 best exercise tips to lose weight, improve your overall health, and longevity.

You’re gonna be blown away by how simple and effective these tips are.

Make sure to read until the end because I’m gonna introduce you to a new form of exercise.

It’s a complete game changer if you’re someone who hates doing cardio and you’re not a big fan of going to the gym to lift weights either.

A lot of people aren’t doing this new form of exercise and they’re missing out.

Top 5 BEST Exercise Tips To Lose Weight

Let’s start with a low hanging fruit. This might be near the top as one of the best things you can add to your workout routine. 

If you don’t have an exercise routine, this accomplishes 90% of your exercise requirement for health.

1. Go for a walk three times a day

It can be as short as 10, 15, or 20 minutes if you have time. But even a short 10 minute walk can yield massive benefits. 

Why am I such a big advocate for this? For starters, going for a morning walk is hands down one of the best ways to set up your day for success. It re-affirms this new healthy and active lifestyle you’re living.

If you’re someone who works from home, it’s so easy to just lock yourself at home all day and not leave the house. I definitely know a few people that do that.

Did you know that if you sit for 8 hours a day, you something like a 90% chance of developing diabetes?

The benefits of morning sun exposure

There are also tremendous benefits when it comes to getting some early morning sun exposure. 

For example, it boosts your brain’s production of serotonin. Serotonin is the key hormone that stabilizes mood, feelings of well-being, and happiness. It also helps regulate sleep and digestion.

You get some much needed Vitamin D, which is actually a hormone that regulates your 20,000 genes. It also positively impacts the immune system.

Morning sun exposure also helps prevent certain cancers when done in moderation. The problem is, 42% of the US population are Vitamin D deficient.

By the way, do you what actually causes skin cancer? Regular store bought sunscreen. There was a recent recall on a popular brand because their product contained benzene which is a known carcinogen.

I used sunscreen for a grand total of zero times when I lived in Mexico for a year. I did not burn once even though I was out in the sun every day.  If you live near the equator, getting adequate sun exposure shouldn’t be an issue for you. But this is why seasonal depression is real when you live above the 45th parallel if you’re in North America.

Physically exposing your eyes to daylight first thing in the morning even just for 5 minutes also helps set your circadian rhythm. Which means you’re gonna get better sleep at night because your body is in sync with the sun. 

Important fat loss hormones like insulin and cortisol are gonna be better optimized, and you’re just gonna be a healthier and happier human being because you’re well rested.

The sun is your friend. One of my biggest takeaways from my research over the past decade is always take whatever mainstream media is promoting with a grain of salt. If a product has a commercial you probably shouldn’t buy it.

It’s been ingrained in our heads for the past few decades now that saturated fat, red meat, salt, and the sun are bad for us. 

Instead, we’re told to eat more grains, eat “heart healthy” vegetable oils, and stay away from the sun.

I’m willing to stake a lot of money and all my credibility that if you do the reverse of what I just said, your health will drastically improve.

That’s the end of my rant against conventional stupidity. Back to walking. 

You can go with a walking buddy to help keep you accountable. You can use walking as active meditation. 

Bonus points if you can go for your walk somewhere close to nature like a park, a trail, or a body of water. Extra bonus points if you really get out in the wilderness.

Being in nature helps reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. There’s also a dose-response benefit from nature bathing. The more you do it and the more out there you are, the more the benefits.

2. Experiment with new things

There are so many different ways to exercise. You can even combine different things. You can play around and treat it as fun time. 

Remember, it’s an absolute privilege to move your body.

Let me tell you my personal progression. I actually didn’t start going to the gym until I was around 19. My brother had to drag me kicking and screaming when I went for the first time. True story.

Back then, I started mostly with body building stuff. I had no idea what I was doing. Lots of curls for the girls which didn’t have a big ROI.

Then as I matured, I got into more powerlifting stuff. I started doing compound movements like back squat, deadlifts, and bench press.

When I was 25, around 2012, I started doing CrossFit. That strength and condition program allowed me to unlock my full genetic potential physically. 

Which then allowed me to transition into a full time Olympic weightlifter. I broke all the provincial records in my weight class, I reached National level status, and I did pretty well in international competition. 

The whole premise of CrossFit is constantly varied functional movements done at high intensity. It’s great because it exposed me to bunch of exercise modalities.

As much as I love and enjoy CrossFit, you always have to constantly grow and evolve. Remember, if you’re not growing, you’re dying.

To stay true to this idea of always trying different things, I’m also in a good place where I’m able to try something new, I finally took up martial arts.

I’ve been wanting to do it for a long time because I’m a big fan of the UFC. So I finally started training Muay Thai. I didn’t know I’d start training martial arts in my mid-30’s. But, I love it. 

It doesn’t feel like work. It’s more like play. My number one goal these days it to have fun. Life is too short to not have fun.

Nowadays, I do Muay Thai 4 days a week. Then, I do resistance training twice a week focusing on compound movements to maintain my muscle. 

And now, I just do 2-5 minute CrossFit style micro workouts and I started rucking to complement my training. We’ll talk about the latter specifically in a second.

I didn’t know that I’d enjoy martial arts so much that I’d actually revolve my training around it. Had I not had the mentality of always trying something new. 

So, always challenge yourself. Experiment with new things. You’ll never know what you could possibly fall in love with. Step out of your comfort zone. Everything you want is outside of it. 

3. Integrate exercise and movement into your routine

In my humble opinion, this is the key for everything to work.

The main benefit of building a consistent exercise routine, where it just turns into a habit and becomes part of your lifestyle, is it takes the weakest link out of the equation for a lot of people. 

I’m talking about motivation. Motivation is garbage.

Don’t get me wrong, motivation is great to get people started. The problem is, it’s fleeting.

It’s always easy to do things when you’re motivated. But what do you do when the going gets hard and you’re not motivated anymore? 

And, it’s not a matter of if you’re gonna be de-motivated. It’s a matter of when. This is coming from coaching thousands of people by proxy for a decade. That’s why I’m not a big fan of factoring in motivation to the equation.

Whereas discipline and consistency by following the right system, which is what I get all my coaching clients to develop, is reliable.

The key to success is developing behaviours where you still do the work even when you’re not motivated. That’s when the real journey starts.

This is why bad workouts are so much more valuable than good workouts. Having a bad workout means you still showed up regardless of how you feel.

If you can get yourself to a point where you don’t think. You just do. That’s when you start achieving life changing results.

You’re not on this rollercoaster ride of starting and stopping time and time again because you tied everything to motivation. That’s why New Years Resolutions fail 92% of the time.

How to turn exercise into a lifestyle

1. Set realistic expectations

You need to make peace that it’s gonna take time. You’re not gonna get it all in one day. You’re most likely gonna suck at first. That’s okay. I mentioned in a previous video that I couldn’t do a single pull up to save my life when I went to the gym for the first time.

2. Put it on your calendar

We can be so flaky when it comes to showing up for ourselves. If you have a doctor’s appointment, you show up to that appointment. Right? Treat your workouts the same way. Don’t ghost yourself.

3. Do the MED

If “life” happens, have a back up plan. Then have a back up plan to your back up plan. Even if it’s just 1 minute of something like air squats and push ups. Because one minute is better than none. 

It’s all about not breaking the habit. And I’m gonna show you the MED in just a second here. 

4. Follow some sort of program

This is a common mistake that I see a lot of people make. They go to the gym and they just do whatever. That was me when I started.

As always, there are levels. The fact that you showed up to the gym is a great first step. But if you’re just doing random stuff, you’re not gonna get very far. 

Eventually, you’ll get frustrated because of your lack of results. Then, you’ll quit. You need to maximize the time you’re there. 

The bigger problem with not following any sort of programming is that’s when people just tend to spend 99% of their time in the cardio machine area because it’s easy. 

This is when you see people go like this for hours on the elliptical machine without really accomplishing much. That’s why you see the same people at the gym basically every day but they look the same.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with doing cardio. There’s a time and place for it. 

But if that’s all you’re doing, you’re gonna be severely disappointment with your results. Or, lack thereof.

It could even start working against you if you get into chronic cardio patterns. 

It’s when you just stick to your favourite cardio machine or cardio based group fitness class. You go too hard and too frequently with insufficient rest while counting calories burned on the screen.

You don’t want to do that. It’s now been scientifically proven that calories burned from exercise does not translate to fat burned in your body.

It’s important to be consistent. But here’s the key. Consistency only works if you’re doing the right thing. 

If you’re consistently doing the wrong thing, it doesn’t matter that you’re the most consistent human being on the planet. It won’t work.

You need to follow some sort of programming. If you wanna work with me…

5. Don’t just revolve your workouts at the gym

For the longest time, I would workout for an hour, or however long I’m at the gym. But for the rest of the day, I would turn into a couch potato. 

That is the definition of active couch potato syndrome. If that sounds like you, you are still living a mostly sedentary lifestyle. 

I hate to break it to you. But you’re not even burning that many calories when you’re working out. 

And again, nothing shuts down your fat burning metabolism faster than prolonged periods where you’re completely sedentary. It also comes with a boatload of negative side effects.

You want to aim for at least one hour of movement outside of your workout. It’s just as crucial to your success. This is called Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT). The more NEAT you do, the healthier you’ll be.

Which brings us full circle to my first tip. The best way to increase your NEAT is to integrate walking more into your lifestyle.

For every hour that you’re not moving, you need to move for 5 minutes.

Doing that will drastically reduce your risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. 

Walking helps with digestion and blood glucose control if you go for a walk after a meal. It alleviates anxiety and depression. It also up regulates your fat burning metabolism. 

If those benefits were packaged, it would be a multi billion dollar pill. I’m giving it to you for free. This one’s on me.

How do you become more active? Integrate movement into your routine. Take the stairs, stand instead of sitting while taking transit, work using a stand up desk, take designated movement breaks, walk while you’re talking on the phone, walk your dog, if you don’t have a dog, walk your neighbours dog. Get creative.

Walk as if your life depends on it. Because, it kinda does. 

6. BEST Exercise Tips To Lose Weight: Get into rucking 

I saved the best for last.

If you’ve never heard of rucking before, it’s walking with a weighted backpack. It’s actually the foundation of Special Forces training. 

If it’s good enough for the military’s elite, it should be good enough for common folk you and I.

Rucking as a form of exercise is quite unique. Because it requires strength, endurance, and character, and builds it, too. 

It’s great cardio for those who hate cardio, like me. At the same time, it’s a great way to add some resistance training to your routine without really adding that much more to your plate. 

Especially if you’re not a big fan of going to the gym, or you’re currently not doing any form of resistance training. This could be a complete game changer for you. It could very well be the answer you’ve been looking for.

This is coming from a guy who goes to the gym every day and is a former competitive exerciser. I’m telling you, you don’t have to go to the gym to lose weight and get fit. It’s unnecessary. I’m not making friends with gym owners when I say that, but it’s true. 

These days, I’m all about giving everyone a fighting chance by removing as many barriers as possible. I’m on your side. I firmly believe in the KISS principle.

Redefining the MED of exercise

Think about rucking as movement with a purpose. It burns more calories than walking & builds strength at the same time. 

You can call it Active Resistance Training. Meaning it’s part active cardio and part strength resistance ruck training. It’s the best of both worlds. 

It’s basically walking on steroids. We’re taking the MED of exercise to the next level.

Which then translates to permanent metabolic gains from stronger muscles and bones. At a fraction of the cost to your knees because you’re not running. 

It also improves your posture, especially if you spend a lot of time sitting, because the weighted back pack pulls your shoulders back.

It’s a new habit that I picked up from listening to a book called Comfort Crisis and it’s been a great addition to my exercise routine.

How do you get started? Just wear a backpack with weights inside it. If you have weight plates or a dumbbell, great. 

If not, it’s not a big deal. You can get an empty laundry detergent container, fill it with water, and throw it in a backpack. There’s your DIY rucksack. I just saved you $200. 

If you can’t find either, carry a piece of rock with you. Get creative.

Now, how much weight should you carry? According to goruck.com, when in doubt, start with 20 pounds. But if you’re new, just start with 10 or 15 pounds. Then, just walk. It’s as simple as that.

How long should you walk for? As long as you want. It’s kinda hard to overdo it. 

You’re gonna be shocked by how effective rucking is as a form of active resistance training. You can do it any time and anywhere regardless of your fitness level. It’s also highly scaleable. You can increase the weight and distance. 

Personally, it’s become one of my new favourite forms of activity. 

Even if you’re already fit, you’ll still get tremendous benefits from rucking because it’s gonna increase your baseline fitness level. 

If you’re completely brand new, you’re gonna be pleasantly surprised by the level of fitness you can achieve just by rucking. Talk about redefining the MED of exercise.

As always, if this was helpful, share it with a friend who could benefit from it as well!

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