Physical Fitness Workouts & Activity
to Control Weight
Exercise to Lose Weight
Exercise to Lose Weight and Maintain Health
Official Guidelines
- The Surgeon General has publicized the
fact that overweight and lack of physical activity is bad for health.
The Surgeon General recommends moderate activity of about 150 calories
per day or 1000 calories per week.
- The American College of Sports Medicine
(ACSM) suggest all adults should engage in 30 minutes or more of moderately
intense physical activity daily. This level of activity corresponds
to about 200 calories expended a day.
- Other authorities suggest the least
amount of activity for optimal physical health is an energy (calorie)
expenditure of about 1500-2000 calories a week via moderately intense
activities. Additional health benefits come with increased intensity.
- Most experts suggest moderately intense
aerobic activity needs to be performed most days of the week to bring
about significant fat loss. Some sources recommend brisk walking progressing
to 45 minutes or more daily. Other authorities recommend working up
to 60-90 minutes of daily physical activity for weight loss.
Exercise to Lose Weight - Our Recommendation
For best weight loss and long-term weight
maintenance, combine Cardio-Aerobic Exercise with Weight/Strength
Training.
In a nutshell, aerobic exercises
help to burn extra calories and develop some muscles. Weight training
builds muscle mass to raise your metabolic rate, which helps to maintain
weight loss in the long-term.
Exercise to Lose Weight and Maintain Health
Cardiovascular Fitness
- Cardiovascular fitness is based on maximizing
oxygen intake. This is best achieved through physical activity involving
large muscle groups over prolonged period of time. These activities
are rhythmic and aerobic in nature (e.g. walking, running, hiking, stair
climbing, swimming cycling, rowing, dancing, skating, cross country
skiing, rope jumping, etc.). (ACSM 1995).
- Cardiovascular fitness improvement is
dependent upon frequency, duration, intensity of exercise. An increase
in oxygen intake may range from 5 to 30% depending on these factors.
Intensity of exercise is the dominant factor. Weight/strength/resistance
training does not significantly increase oxygen intake. (ACSM 1995).
Exercise to Lose Weight
With a typical exercise program, it is
usual to maintain weight yet lose fat and gain muscle. This gain in lean
muscle tissue results in a lower body fat percentage and a higher metabolic
rate, which is good for weight control. Lean muscle tissue is much more
metabolically active than fat tissue. One pound of muscle can burn 30
to 50 calories a day, while one pound of fat burns only 3 calories a day.
That said, in order to achieve significant
reduction in body fat, regular moderately intensive exercise needs to
be combined with a healthy balanced diet. In addition, fat loss is most
efficient when aerobic exercise is combined with anaerobic exercise, like
weight/strength training.
Exercise to Lose Weight - Calories Burned
Although exercise may burn relatively few
calories, a negative energy balance of as little as 200 calories a day
can result in weight loss over time.
For example: by brisk walking for one hour
(300 calories burned), instead of watching TV (80 calories burned) you
burn an extra 220 calories. Over the course of a year, this is the equivalent
of 23 pounds of body weight. What's more, in clinical tests, when moderate
exercise is performed food intake either remains the same or decreases.
At the same time, weight will gradually decrease.
Exercise to Lose Weight - No Spot Reduction
of Fat
Contrary to what some weight loss and exercise
products state, there is no such thing as spot reduction. Fat is lost
throughout the body in a pattern dependent upon genetics, gender, hormones
and age. In other words, although a negative calorie deficit (more calories
burned than consumed) will always cause fat loss, the precise location
of such fat loss is decided by the body and no exercise or diet routines
can influence this process.
Although fat may be lost throughout the
body, the midsection (in men and some women) and hips and thighs (in women
and few men) is typically the final body area to become lean.
Spot exercises, like sit-ups, crunches,
hip raises, leg raises, hip adduction, hip abduction, etc. can only develop
the muscles adjacent to the fat. They cannot burn fat from the area exercised.
Sources include: American College of Sports
Medicine, (1995) Principles of Exercise Prescription, William & Wilkins,
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