You've probably heard that aerobic exercise is very important for weight loss. Well it is. But do you know why?

The main benefit is that aerobic exercise burns fat directly while you exercise. So each step you take is burning off calories. If that isn't enough incentive for you to embrace aerobic exercise, here's a few more:

• It provides you with a way to maintain a calorie deficit eating plan without dropping your metabolism rate. If you go on a diet and drastically reduce the calories you eat everyday, your body adjusts and slows down how quickly burn calories. You can reverse this trend by doing aerobic exercise.
• It's the secret weapon to fat loss missed by many of the fad diets. And the reason why 95% of all diets fail. It's because they don't include exercise.
• It ensures you have a healthier cardio system, with your heart, lungs and circulatory system working more efficiently, with less stress.
• It actually allows you to maintain muscle more easily because as your circulatory system improves, nutrients, oxygen and blood travel more easily to the recovering muscles, and are better able to repair and re-grow them
• Allows you to handle greater stress because it does wonders for your immune system and heart.
• Helps you to digest and eliminate waste better. As you move constantly, breathing heavily, lymphatic flow inside your body increases. This means you are more easily able to eliminate toxins from your body.
• Helps you to fall asleep quicker, sleep deeper and awake less often during the night.
• As with weight training, because this is physical exercise, it helps you to de-stress, and helps reduce tension and fatigue
• Gives you more energy by experiencing the release of endorphins (commonly called a "runner's high").
• Makes you more toned, fit and improves your outward appearance

So you see, aerobic exercise is even better than you thought was for you. And it should be a central part of any weight loss program you decide to take on.

Now that you know that aerobic exercise is a must in any weight loss campaign, you might be wondering, "what is the best type of aerobic exercise?". To find out, just click that link and read our article on the cardio exercise that is right for you.

Of course, if you are serious about losing weight, you need a holistic exercise program that includes both aerobic and anaerobic exercises (click here to check out the benefits of anaerobic exercise).

So what sort of program do I recommend?

As far as exercise programs go for long lasting weight loss, I recommend two programs.

Tom Venuto's "Burn The Fat" ebook is the first recommendation because apart from containing a great section on exercise (he's a natural bodybuilder and personal trainer), he also has the best overall book on weight loss - from the many I've reviewed.

If you're only interested in the exercise section, then I believe Craig Ballantyne's "Turbulence Training" is best for you. His nutrition package may not be as comprehensive as Tom's book, but his exercise section is just killer. It is the best one I've seen that's targeted for weight loss. He even covers bodyweight exercises in his course (which is using your own bodyweight to simulate weight training without the weights).