When I was young, I wasn't very physically active. When I got older and decided it was time to lose weight, working out didn't excite me too much as an option to achieve that goal. I was always under the impression that controlling my weight was all about the food I ate. I asked the question, "Why do I have to exercise to reduce fat?" But as I began studying about health and fitness, I started understanding the importance of exercising. Now as an avid fitness enthusiast, I can answer that question with ease.

There are plenty of scientific theories and difficult to pronounce terms that I could use but let's just keep it simple because heck, some of this stuff can still confuse me if I let it.

There are two reasons to exercise to reduce fat. That is because there are two kinds of fat. There is the fat on the inside that you can't technically see and then there is that fat on the outside that you can see. Let me explain what I mean by that.

Exercising to reduce the fat on the inside is where you add or build muscle to help increase your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). (I know, sorry, that's a technical term.) In layman's terms that means that how many calories the body needs while at rest to keep it going. Plus, because exercising requires the body to use more energy, more calories are burned to provide that energy. Many of those calories come from stored fat in your body. Now that's definitely a good thing and great reason to work out but there is also another reason.

There is that fat on the outside that you do see as well that working out can help get rid of. This is simply the appearance of fat. In many cases this is where someone would probably see cellulite or point to the flabby areas of their body. See, someone overweight can drop several pounds. However if they just lose that weight but do nothing to strengthen or build muscle, then that person is just a thinner version of the former self. There would be no shape to their body, no form. Exercise to develop the muscles in those areas help give your body the shapely figure that those in the fitness magazines have. It also helps to get rid of the appearance of cellulite and flab.

So these are the reasons to exercise to reduce fat. With exercise you not only get rid of the fat on the inside but you get rid of the appearance of fat on the outside too and I don't know about you but if that gives me the shapely body of my dreams...then I'm all for it. And I'll see you at the gym!