Last updated
17 October 2009

Where to exercise

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Do you join a professional gym, buy a home gym, or use freely available resources?

Losing weight can only be achieved through expending more calories than you consume so that your net calorie intake is less than your daily caloric requirement...... fact!

As we have already established, there are two ways of doing this:

By consuming fewer calories through choosing the foods you eat carefully;
By increasing your activity level.

If you only concentrate on consuming fewer calories than your body needs, there is a danger that your metabolism could slow down, hence your body will burn fewer calories. To put some number on it, if your daily calorie requirement is 2300, and you reduce your consumption to 1800 calories per day, your net depletion is 500 calories per day which, in theory, would result in you losing 1lb of fat per week.

However, if your metabolism slows by say 20% (in instances where your body thinks that it is in starvation mode), your body will only actually burn around 1800 calories per day, hence you will not lose any weight. You should follow guidance on safe levels of calorie depletion to avoid this situation.

To stop your metabolism from slowing down, the best thing to do is to increase your activity levels. Introducing exercise into your life as part of a lifestyle improvement is a great way to not only maintain, but also speed up your metabolism. Going for a 30 minute jog 2 or 3 times a week would be fantastic, or undertaking four or five 15-20 minute brisk walks per week would be similarly beneficial.

Even when you lead a hectic lifestyle, you can still find time to exercise, be it at a gym, be it at home using home-gym equipment, or be it using the free to use pavements and fields around your house. To help you make up your mind about which is the best way to introduce exercise into your life, we thought we would set out the benefits of each below. Once you have decide which one suits you, why not see our simple exercise routines guide for ideas on quick and simple exercise routines that can be fitted into any daily routine - hectic or relaxed!

Joining a professional gym

Benefits

Joining a gym gives you access to a whole host of exercise equipment, resistance machines and weights. In addition to the above, most gyms will provide you with a limited access to free advice from personal trainers who will initially set you up with a suitable exercise program with follow-on periodic progress reviews.
If you don't know how to use a piece of equipment or would just like to make sure that you are performing an excise in the optimal way, gym instructors are always on hand to help.
To keep you interested as well, many gyms run lots of different exercise classes such as women's only 'bums and thighs' classes, circuit training, pilates, spinning classes etc.
Also, most gyms allow you to plug headphones into aerobic gym equipment audio boxes to enable you to watch music channels, sport, news and other shows on big television screens to help you while away your time whilst exercising.

The quality of gym often depends on how much you are prepared to pay and the location of the gym. Gyms with swimming pools and those that provide you with fresh towels each time you turn up for a session are usually able to charge a slight premium.

There are more and more gyms out there now and there is a lot of competition so prices are becoming much lower in real terms.

Drawbacks

The main drawback is having to pay a monthly membership fee. However, for a gym charging £30 per month, that is just under £1 per day which is small price to pay for a healthy body.
A further drawback is that depending on the location of your gym, the time it takes to get there eats into your personal and work time. However, this can be avoided by choosing a gym that is close to your work or home.

How to fit the gym in with your lifestyle

First of all, choose a gym that is close to your work or your home. This will make it easy to go either at lunch or before / after work.

If you have children and it is difficult to go do the gym before or after work, try going at the weekend and taking your children along with you - most gyms are very welcoming to children at the weekend!

Try and encourage a friend or partner to join the gym with you. This will not only help to keep you motivated but it is a form of a socialising as well..albeit between breaths whilst running on the treadmill! But in all seriousness, after a hard session, it is often nice to unwind in the steam room or Jacuzzi, and being at the gym with a friend or partner makes this all the better.

Home gym

Benefits

The main benefit of a home gym is ultimate flexibility. You can exercise whenever you want fitting your new regime into your lifestyle in a way that works for you.
The other significant benefit is that buying home gym equipment avoids the cost of ongoing gym membership fees. Obviously there is an initial outlay for the equipment, but taking into account the saving in membership fees for the gym and the travel costs to get there, many people find that this is a financially better option quite quickly.

Drawbacks

The main drawback is the initial outlay, but as already noted, the savings soon offset the initial cost of the equipment.
A second drawback is that the equipment that you are likely to have a home will be limited compared to the number of machines available to you at professional gym. However, most people who regularly go to a gym only use a limited amount of equipment during their exercise routines anyway!
A final drawback is space to store the equipment. This is less of an issue these days as a lot of home-gym equipment folds for easy storage. A home-office, spare bedroom, or garage can easily double as a gym for most people!

Exercising using freely available resources

Benefits

The main benefit is obviously a cost one - it costs you absolutely nothing to run around the streets near your house, or a field near your house, apart from the initial outlay for a suitable pair of trainers.
As with a home-gym, the other main benefit is ultimate flexibility. You can exercise whenever you want making excise work with your lifestyle and commitments in a way that works for you.
If you exercise with a friend, jogging around a park for instance, as well as keeping each other motivated, it can be sociable too!

Drawbacks

Lo and behold, there is a drawback?

Indeed, there is...... using the resources freely available to us such as outside space means that your exercise regime is subject to the weather. When it is raining and windy and dark, it is often difficult to motivate yourself to go and do a jog, but with enough will-power and perhaps the support of a friend / partner who can jog with you, this can be overcome.
Your ability to exercise certain parts of your body will be limited.
Also, jogging on concrete is not particularly good for your knees and joints so make sure that you invest in a good quality pair of trainers to reduce the impact and pounding on your joints.

Taking up a sport

Benefits

Sport is very good for you and it offers a distraction to doing an exercise routine at the gym.
Many sports involve teams and other people so the social interaction is also very enjoyable too.

Squash, tennis, football, cycling or volleyball are excellent choices and are very beneficial in terms of burning calories.

- 15 minutes of squash will burn 240 calories*

- 15 minutes of tennis will burn 140 calories*

- 15 minutes of football will burn 140 calories*

- 15 minutes of gentle cycling will burn 120 calories*

- 15 minutes of volleyball will burn 80 calories*

Perhaps you could join a works sports team or a local sports club. It is quite easy to find a sport that suits you.

Drawbacks

There are few drawbacks to taking up a sport. Most sports do, however, require commitment in terms of regular training, particularly if you are part of a team, so your flexibility is slightly limited.

Most sports clubs are family friendly and children are usually welcomed.

*Based on a person who weighs 12st 0lb.