How Much Daily Exercise Does It Take To Lose Weight
How Much Exercise Do You Need Every Day To Lose Weight
Weight loss is a goal that requires both a disciplined dietary approach and exercise, among other factors, to achieve and excel.
How much exercise is needed every day to achieve your weight loss goal is a common question and not one that generally has a clear answer.
Unfortunately, there is not a magic number of minutes, reps or hours needed to lose weight, rather there are a number of variables that need to be considered in order to figure out the right number.
We’ll examine the different variables that come into play when trying to determine how much exercise is needed to give you a roadmap to determining the exercise timeframe that works best for you.
Variable 1: Calories Consumed and Calorie Quality
The first principle of weight loss is that to lose weight we must achieve a caloric deficit or expend more calories than we are consuming. Thus, in order to know the amount of exercise needed to lose weight, we need to know what our daily caloric intake is, and just as importantly, what the sources are for those calories (for example, vegetables versus potato chips).
To this point, if you operate on a low-calorie diet generally speaking, it would take less exercise to lose weight and you may be fine with a moderate 3-4 day a week training plan. Conversely, if you eat excessive amounts or use tons of supplements, you’ll need to up your exercise plan and really push to get back into the caloric deficit mode.
Variable 2: Exercise Type and Intensity
The second key variable is the type of exercise, and more specifically the intensity. 20 minutes on the elliptical has a far different energy output than 20 minutes of all out sprinting. This variable can also dovetail with our first variable, in that the greater the number of calories consumed, the more energy we may have for high intensity exercise, whereas if we aren’t consuming too many calories, we may not need to exercise for an especially long time or at a high intensity per se.’
In general, exercise modalities that are more aerobic will require a longer time to see any sort of effective impact on weight loss. Jogging, biking, the elliptical or other options would all require a significant amount of time, potentially hours over the course of a week, to see a meaningful impact.
Conversely, anaerobic activities such as sprinting, resistance training or interval training methods will be more effective in a short amount of time, yet their intensity level is much higher and thus they have a certain level of pre-requisite fitness to achieve their full potential and results.
Variable 3: What is the Weight Loss Goal? How much time do we have to achieve it?
The third variable is arguably the most important, what is the weight loss goal? Much like our car ride or travel plans are determined by our destination, our exercise plan and weight loss journey will be dictated by the goal we have set.
If the goal is to lose 5 pounds in two months, that is a fairly modest and achievable goal for most and would not require much additional exercise. If you were a sedentary person prior to your goal you would only need to exercise 20-30 minutes a day for 3-4 days a week to achieve this goal.
Conversely, if you goal is to lose 30 pounds in two months, the equation is radically different, and it would take an extreme amount of exercise, multiple hours every day at high intensity to achieve that same goal.
Putting it All Together: Finding the Right Number
Now that we have examined the variables, we can think about how to more effectively answer the question of how much exercise we need per day to lose weight. If you have a low caloric intake generally speaking, are planning on utilizing low intensity aerobic exercise and have a modest goal than you might be ok with 30-45 minutes of aerobic exercise a day.
However, if you love to eat, love to lift weights and also have an ambitious goal for weight loss, you’re going to have to spend hours per day working out to reach those goals.
The ultimate recommendation would be to accurately assess your starting point as compared to your goal, look at how much time you have to reach that goal, and then make a plan accordingly to reach it rather than rely on a standard number or cookie-cutter approach that doesn’t apply to every person.
4 Excellent Reasons To Get Fit
4 Excellent Reasons To Get Fit
People have a hundred and one reasons why they don’t start working on get fitter today – most of which are not valid, including not having enough time, a common excuse.
Everyone can find the time to exercise and eat right. It is just the motivation to get moving has to be greater than the excuses not to.
If the not enough time issue is holding you back just start out with some form of exercise and tell yourself you will do it for 5 minutes. That 5 minutes will progress to 10 minutes, 30 minutes and so on as you begin to feel and see the benefits of your exercise plan.
Your long term goal should be to exercise for 30-45 minutes at least three times per week including some cardio getting your heart rate up to 70 percent of maximum predicted.
Your maximum predicted heart rate is calculated by subtracting your age from 220, then multiplying by 0.70
So for someone 50 years of age, the maximum predicted heart rate would be 220-50= 170 x 0.70= 119
A typical scenario is a visit to the doctor reveals some health related issue that triggers something in your brain to get your act together and start doing what it takes to get fit and live a longer healthier life.
You will also experience the following benefits from your get fit program:
Lose weight
To lose one pound of weight in a week, you have to burn 3,500 more calories than you eat in that week. Most people get in trouble with their weight because they are eating far too many calories for the number of calories they burn.
Excess calories are stored as fat.
If you break that 3,500 calories per week down into a daily amount – 500 calories – it is more manageable. Eat 250 fewer calories per day and burn off 250 more calories by doing some exercise. Skip the latte in the morning or the can of pop loaded with sugar and you probably reduced your calorie count by at least 250.
Walk at 3.5 mph for an hour and you burn 298 calories. There is your 500 + calorie deficit with just those two small changes.
Following the above diet and fitness plan will help you lose a pound a week, but you will also have more energy, get toned and boost your self esteem.
Strengthen your bones
As you age, you start to lose bone density at the rate of 10% by age 50 and if sedentary, another 10% each 10 years thereafter. By including some weight training into your exercise program, you can help slow bone loss as you grow older. Weight bearing activities help in the remodeling of bone. Consider having your vitamin D level checked and taking supplemental vitamin D and calcium.
Women should be taking 1000-1500 milligrams of supplemental calcium per day.
If your bone density test reveals the development of osteopenia (thinning) or osteoporosis your doctor may recommend you take medication to help your bone harden.
Tone up muscles
With toned muscles, not only will you look better, but your balance will be better and you’ll maintain flexibility in your joints. Weight training can help build muscle which will then help you burn more calories even at rest. And if you burn more calories, you’ll have an easier time maintaining your weight.
Stronger muscles will help stabilize your joints and decrease your risk of falling especially as you age.
Reduce your risk for certain diseases
Your risk to develop heart disease, Type II diabetes and some types of cancers, including colon and breast, increases significantly if you are overweight and out of shape.
As your Body Mass Index increases, so does your risk of a heart attack or stroke due to narrowed or blocked arteries.
Narrowing of the arteries in your heart causes the heart to work harder and over time may weaken your heart muscle. The weakening of your heart can lead to congestive heart failure with fluid backing up into your lungs.
If your heart has to work harder to pump blood through narrowed passages, it increases your blood pressure, which will increase your risk of stroke, eye disease and kidney problems.
If you already have Type II diabetes and you are overweight, the effects of diabetes will diminish (or in many cases go away entirely) if you lose weight. At the very least you’ll have to take less medication and possibly get off medication all together.
Start taking action to get fit, today. Putting it off until you feel up to it or motivated may be too late.