Q: It seems to me that playing sports would be a superior way to lose fat.When one is using a treadmill or a stationary bicycle the physical movements are always the same and one is always using the exact same muscles. but when one plays a sport there are a lot of different movements like stop and go,twisting and turning,bending,accelerating and deceleration.Plus its a lot more fun!

A: I agree, sports are superior to vanilla cardio such as long-distance running, biking, treadmill, etc. They do involve more muscles and many sports require high-intensity efforts similar to heavy weight-training which is extremely beneficial for fat loss. However with few exceptions (football, rugby, wrestling, some martial arts) sports are still mainly aerobic activities. Aerobic activity is absolutely great for you health-wise and it will make you lose WEIGHT, but it is not the optimal FAT (not just weight!) burner like weight training or other forms of anaerobic activity.

So I'm not putting down sports in any way. As I said in the last Q&A, by all means continue playing them because they're great for you, fun, and will help you lose some fat! But to really maximize fat loss, do some heavy whole-body weight training in addition to sports (especially if the sports you play are not those anaerobic heavy ones like football). Heavy whole-body weight training, especially the 'big' exercises like squats, deadlifts, and bench presses will also help your sports performance as well! And the other side of successful fat loss is, of course, having a good diet and making sure that the weight loss is gradual.