Losing Weight with Exercise

You’ve probably heard that the key to losing weight is to burn more calories through physical activity than you consume in the foods you eat. But how much exercise do you need to lose weight? What type of exercising should you do? Find out how to exercise in order to lose weight.

What type of exercise do you need to lose weight?

Your fitness routine should include aerobic exercise and strength training. Aerobic exercise involves moving large major muscle groups, like your arms or legs, until your breathing and heart rate increase. Some common examples of aerobic exercise include walking, running, swimming, and cycling.

Strength training, as the name suggests, involves working your muscles so that they become bigger and stronger. You’ll burn calories during your strength training workouts, but it also helps you medical weight loss build lean muscle mass, which raises your metabolic rate. Strength training can involve lifting weights or using resistance bands to work your muscles. You might also use your own body weight loss programs for strength training with exercises like push-ups, sit-ups, or lunges.

How much exercise do you need?

In order to lose 1 pound of fat, you need to create a 3,500-calorie deficit between what you consume and what you burn. How many calories you burn during exercise will vary depending on your body size and the intensity of your exercise. A medium-sized adult would need to walk about 30 miles to burn 3,500 calories, or just over 4 miles per day to lose one pound per week.

It’s recommended that most adults get 2 1/2 hours of aerobic exercise per week, with each workout lasting at least ten minutes. You should aim to do strength training at least twice per week. Remember that these are recommendations, but you should focus on safely building on your current activity level.