How Much Exercise For Weight Loss Is Enough

Losing weight and keeping it off is one thing that many people struggle with.  Being overweight can lead to many medical conditions such as diabetes, heart failure, certain types of cancer and other chronic illnesses.  It is unhealthy to be overweight and if you are overweight then you need to take action to lose that weight - for the sake of your health.  Exercise is needed for you to successfully lose weight and maintain your new healthy weight range.

One of the first questions people ask is how much exercise for weight loss is necessary?  Many of the everyday activities that we do each day will burn calories, such as walking around, doing housework and any other physical activities.  However, these activities are not enough on their own to help you on your weight loss journey.  You need to introduce some regular exercise programs into your daily routine for good weight loss results.

To lose weight in a healthy manner a person shouldn't lose more than one or two pounds of fat per week.  If you try to lose too much weight in a short period of time it can backfire and you will often put that weight back on and usually a bit more.  When you try to lose too much at once your metabolism will also slow down because it thinks you are starving, making it even harder to lose more weight.

So slow and steady wins the race when it comes to weight loss.  To lose one pound of fat per week the body will need to burn around 4,000 calories.  This amount is over and above the usually calorie burning that happens from daily activities such as house work and walking to the mailbox.  A person needs to do enough exercise to burn 4,000 calories a week or 600 calories a day.
Now that you know how many calories you need to burn each day you need to decide what type of exercise you can do to burn those calories.

Walking is a popular exercise for overweight people to start off with as it isn't too strenuous.  When your body hasn't exercised for a long time you don't want to begin with anything too extreme.  While walking briskly the body will burn around 100 calories for each mile so you would need to walk around six miles a day to burn off 600 calories.

Half an hour of exercise every day is a good amount to start with.  Of course the type of exercise you do will determine how many calories you will burn off during that half hour.  Half an hour of low cardio exercise will help to keep you fit and healthy but it probably won't help you lose too much weight.  If you do high cardio exercise then you will burn off more calories and as such lose more weight.  If you prefer a lower cardio exercise type then you may want to consider exercising for 60 to 90 minutes per day for good weight loss results.

The amount of weight that you lose will also vary from person to person so you need to consider your starting weight.  A person that is heavier will burn off more calories than a person that is not as heavy.  When you are deciding on the type of exercise for weight loss and how much time to spend doing it, you want to remember that the exercise needs to be something that you enjoy and that you will continue to do long term.  Too many people lose motivation and give up after a couple of weeks so if you choose something you really enjoy then you are more likely to stay motivated to lose weight.