If you’re ready to try healthy eating to lose weight, don’t forget about the importance of physical activity. It’s true that if you follow a healthy eating plan, you can lose weight with or without exercise. But exercise has many benefits that shouldn’t be ignored when you’re trying to lose weight and improve your health.

Healthy eating to lose weight is designed to provide you with the right balance of foods and fewer calories than you burn. So as you exercise, you are burning more calories, so you can actually eat more food and still lose weight. A "couch potato" only needs so many calories, but a very active person will need more. That means a couch potato will gain weight even though he or she is consuming fewer calories that the active person. You’ll be able to enjoy a wider variety of foods, and more frequent treats, if you’re getting some exercise. Physical activity is a good thing. Couch potato lifestyle is not such a good idea.

Another huge advantage of working out that goes coupled with healthy eating to lose weight is the way physical activity boosts metabolism. Metabolism is what burns calories, so a higher metabolism is better than a lower metabolism. 30 minutes of physical activity will mean you have burned those calories you consumed. But take into consideration that not only did you burn those extra calories while doing physical activity, but you will continue to burn more calories for the next 2-3 hours after. Kind of like a residual effect of exercise. If you are one to have a snack now and then that isn't part of your plan for healthy eating to lose weight, than this is the time to indulge. Right after your metabolism is cranked up from the physical activity.

Not all physical activity gives you the same results. There are actually things that you can do to get your metabolism cranked up faster. Any form of weight lifting or resistance training, for instance, will crank up that metabolism just fine, and a great deal too. Lean muscle tissue is more condensed that fat. It takes up less room so to speak, and it's active tissue, which means it's constantly working and burning calories. It uses energy to exist and move whereas fat tissue does not. So as you see, lean muscle burns calories at all times. Your metabolism will burn hotter with more lean muscle mass that you have. Healthy eating to lose weight with a combination of some weight training is like a double war on fat.

Aerobic exercises like walking, jogging, rowing, swimming, treadmills, bicycling and various other physical activities supercharge your metabolism, and at the same time, burn fat. If you’re planning on healthy eating to lose weight, you should do one of these exercises at least 3 to 4 times a week. You don’t have to do the same exercise. You can do something different each time to keep it interesting. Nevertheless, it's a good idea to include aerobic physical activity a portion of your fitness routine. You will also be exercising your lungs and heart, which is an important part of physical activity. The burning more fat and boosting your metabolism is actually just a bonus it seems.

Weight training should be done about 3 times a week, too. This will give you more strength and flexibility, which will make aerobic physical activity an even easier routine. This not only will tone the muscles you are already sporting, but you will be adding new muscle tissue which will in turn need more energy, and burn more calories. Exercising on a regular basis in combination with healthy eating to lose weight is the right way to get yourself in top physical condition.