Group fitness vs. Traditional exercise

mandilamadrid

Hi, I was never much for exercising but since starting college a few months ago I exercise most days a week doing group fitbess classes such as Zumba, Kickboxing, TRX, and Turbo Kick to get my cardio in. I also strength train 3 days a week. I've seen so many success stories (my goal is weight loss) achieved through running or similar solitary cardio exercise and can't help but wonder: would I be having greater success if I stopped group fitness and ran, biked, did elliptical instead? What are your thoughts?

pamfgil

What counts is what works for you. If you like the social aspect of group fitness and you can fit in with their schedule, keep going with what you are doing

cwolfman13

You should do what you like to do.

You lose weight (fat) when you consume less energy (calories) than are being expended. The exercise you choose to do or don't do is really irrelevant in that regard. Regular exercise has numerous benefits, the least of which is a big of a bump in energy expenditure...but really, your weight loss comes down to your calories coming in vs overall energy being expended. You can do any and all the exercise you want, but if you were to eat at maintenance, you'd maintain...in that regard, exercise does not directly translate to weight loss.

Again...do what you enjoy doing...regular exercise is something you should engage in now and also down the road in maintenance, so it's important to do what you like to do. I enjoy cycling and participating in cycling events...I love being on the road and thus I ride...I very much dislike group classes and they aren't my bag, so I don't do them save for the occasional spin class here and there.