Which Home Fitness Equipment is Best for Losing Weight?

When it comes to losing weight, if you ask 50 people you may get 50 different responses.  That isn’t to say that any are right or wrong, it’s just that there are multiple factors to consider when trying losing weight. While home fitness equipment isn’t necessary it can definitely aid you in your weight loss journey.  Two of my favorite home fitness machines are the stationary exercise bike and the treadmill.  While everyone has their own tastes for what they like, these two work for me.  Before we get into the two machines let give a little background on other aspects of losing weight.

First off you are what you eat

I can’t stress this enough.  Doesn’t matter how long you are running in the gym or how many burpees you do at home in one go, what really matters is the good old equation of Calories in  Calories out.  Now I won’t get in to the nitty gritty on what to eat as far as diet is concerned, that’s for another day, however I will say while not all calories are created equal, if you are consuming less then you are using, then you are likely to be in what’s called a caloric deficit and that’s ripe for losing weight.  Every person has their own hacks or ways they save a couple of calories here and there, my personal favorite isordering a burger- or dare I say fried chicken sandwich here and there, and leaving the bottom bun off.  The top bun is usually fluffier and more satisfying and even if it’s 50 calories, that’s 50 less calories that I have to work off.  But anyhow, we won’t go into nutrition much further in this article, we will just say that what goes in should be less than what goes out.

Anaerobic vs. Aerobic exercise

The two different types of working out can be classified into Anaerobic vs. Aerobic.  Anaerobic exercises would be lifting weights or using different machines to push and pull weight.  You muscles don’t need that much oxygen because you’re lifting in sets as low as 1 (a 1 rep max) on up to 30+ for more muscle endurance training.  This form of exercise is meant to build muscle.  The goal is to lift either heavy things for lower reps or lighter things for higher reps to break down muscle tissue fibers and then after you workout during rest and recovery, eating well and nourishing your body and mind to build back those muscle fibers stronger than before.

Aerobic exercises as you guessed it would be the opposite of Anaerobic.  With aerobic exercises you are using your muscles repeatedly in succession but usually with just your body weight or a very light resistance, and the intent is to raise your heart beat level and train your cardiovascular health.  Think walking, running, biking, a long tennis rally, swimming, dancing etc.  In this type of exercise your muscles require oxygen and get that oxygen by dilating your blood vessels and pumping blood to the working muscles.  As you can imagine, doing these exercises causes you to breath heavily depending on the level of activity and what you’re going after.  One of the main benefits of this type of training is weight loss.  There are differing opinions on levels of intensity and how long to do these activities, but it’s safe to say 30 minutes is a good starting point and they can be done on up to hours at a time.

What equipment can I use for Aerobic exercises?

Home Fitness Code has multiple different options to help you with your aerobic exercising.  The first is the exercise bike with LCD display, and the second is the motorised treadmill.  

1) Exercise bike

Biking is a great exercise because of the low impact it puts on your joints.  Compared to a sport like Basketball where you are constantly jumping, pivoting, and forcefully moving your feet and body, biking is great on your joints and knees and can be done well into the twilight years of your life.  Unfortunately not everybody has the ability to jump on a bike and go for a ride outside, mainly due to inclement weather, lack of biking infrastructure, pollution, and unsafe roads or too many cars and congestion on the road. If you’re blessed with consistent sunny all year round weather like Southern California or parts of Spain, then it may be worthwhile to invest in a nice bicycle.  But if you’re like the rest of us with bouts of rain and few good biking lanes, having an indoor bicycle is a great way to get a workout in and lose weight.  

What makes Home Fitness Code exercise bike great is it’s a small profile design so it doesn’t take up too much space, it has a simple but effective LCD screen, and you can control the resistance to suit your needs.  If you were outside, your resistance would be directly related to what kind of terrain you were riding on and what kind of grades you were going up or down.  If you had a bike with gears then you can also simulate higher resistance with higher gears which will help you travel further but require more torque and energy.  So at home we can simulate this resistance to intensify our workout.  When I’m doing an at home bike workout I usually will start at the lowest setting or setting 1 for a nice 5-10 minute warm-up to get my blood flowing to my quadriceps, hamstrings, and hip flexors, and then depending on what kind of workout I’m planning on doing change the resistance accordingly.

Different Resistance

There are infinite ways to do you biking at home but for the sake of losing weight I tend to stick to 2 different methods.  One is a simple tried and true method if you have more time on your hands and after a quick warm-up, turn the resistance to about mid range or a tad below and keep a nice steady pace and maintain for 45min to an hour.  This is going to get your heart rate up and maintaining it is the goal of this method.  Generally speaking you will want to maintain your heart rate at 65%-80% of your Max heart rate.  In this zone your will be exerting effort but not so much effort that you fatigue very quickly and have to quit.  Everyone has a different threshold and you can figure out what works best for you.  

The other method I like to bike in is interval training.  Interval training consists of different amounts of resistance for different amounts of time.  If you’ve ever taken a spin class you may be familiar with how they use interval training to more or less drain the life out of you every class.  On the Home Fitness Studio bicycle my interval training workout usually goes something like this:

I will repeat these steps minus the initial warm-up for anywhere from 3 rounds to 6 rounds depending on how I’m feeling and my goals for that day.  You can play with these numbers and adjust accordingly to what works for you.  But the most important thing is you can check your heart rate on the LCD screen to see where your percentages are at.  In the low resistance the goal is usually to recover or prepare for the mid and higher resistance and you should be looking at a 30%-50% heart rate.  Having a conversation during this time should be easy.  At your mid range your heart rate should be around 50%-70% of your max heart rate and in this zone you could say a few words but wouldn’t be able to have a conversation comfortably.  And lastly the in higher resistance range your heart rate would be around 70%-100% and even saying a few words would be tough as your heart will be pumping strong to keep up with your intensity.  

Both methods will provide you with the framework to burn the most amounts of calories while being easy on the joints and knees.  If you haven’t already added biking into your weight loss routine, do it ASAP!

2) Motorised Treadmill

Now not everyone is a huge fan of biking.  Just like an old friend of mine who still to this day cannot ride a bike and refuses to learn.  For those who enjoy using their feet naturally, the motorised treadmill is perfect for you.  This is a compact treadmill mainly meant for walking and jogging.  Some treadmills are meant for running and those types will be big and bulky and found at many gyms, but this petite piece of equipment is meant for the home and those who don’t want a large profile machine.  The treadmill is great for walking while listening to earbuds or headphones and your favorite podcast, or even watching the tube.  You can set the speed from 1kmhour on up to 10kmhour.  I personally enjoy listening to podcasts as like many of us, I spend too much time on a computer. Walking in a fast paced while listening to my favorite podcasters is a great way to get my heart pumping and burn off some extra calories.  If I’m strapped for time I usually will crank it up to 8-9kmhour which is a nice light jogging pace or very fast walking pace, and run for 20-30 minutes.  Just like with the biking, walking on a treadmill is quite easy on the joints.  As long as you have some comfortable running type shoes and no strange walking form, you’re unlikely to feel any pain unless you’re clocking in long walking sessions every day.  The treadmill is great for those who want to unwind a bit but don’t really want a heavy cardio session to fatigue them out.  Some people have told us they even fit a treadmill in at their office and can get some walking in during their lunch break.

Whatever you end up doing whether it’s biking, treadmill walking, swimming, or ballet dancing, remember losing weight is about consistency, keeping tabs on your heart rate, and not forgetting that abs are made in the kitchen- so eating healthy and nourishing foods.  

If you have any weight loss stories or plans you love feel free to share with us!

3) Other Weight loss equipment

You may be asking what other weight loss equipment is out there  Two other pieces of equipment that can help you in your weight loss journey are a rowing machine and if you can find one, a Nordic skiing machine.  These two are both excellent for using your whole body in your workouts and the two have functionally almost opposite styles. 

• The rowing machine while a full body workout is a pulling motion as you would do a pull-up or seated row. 
• The Nordic skiing machine is a pushing motion almost similar to a dip with more focus on the triceps and shoulders.

I will mention with both these pieces of equipment it is vital to find a qualified coach to teach you proper form.  All too often have I seen people really pushing themselves and sweating profusely getting in a serious workout, but sadly with poor form. This is not only inefficient but can lead to injuries and other body pains when repeatedly done.  Just like with the exercise bike and motorised treadmill, your aim with these is time, resistance, and heart rate percentage compared to you max.  Whether you’re biking, running, rowing, or skiing, push yourself to get a little better each time, and most importantly enjoy the process because it’s not the destination that matters, it’s the weight loss journey.