Ten Most Frequently Asked Questions About Weight Loss - part 3

3. How much exercise should I do?

Provided you're not consuming too many calories, any amount of exercise may help. About five hours of weekly exercise may bring the biggest weight loss for obese adults who are also watching their intake of fat and calories.

To maximize weight loss and minimize weight regain, it appears that overweight individuals should supplement dietary changes with approximately 300 minutes of exercise each week, which is twice the amount recommended for health for the general public.

Remember that we lose weight if we burn more calories than we take in. Normal maintenance activities like muscle repair and regular physiology and simple walking uses about 15 calories per pound. Someone who does not move around much all day might only needs about 13 calories per pound and someone who moves all day might use 17 or more calories per pound.

Every mile walked or run burns 100 calories more or less. Another way to look at it is every half hour of brisk activity burns about 300 or so calories, depending on how much you weigh now and how vigorous the activity is.

If you increase your activity by 500 calories a day and do not increase your eating, you will lose 3500 calories a week, the equivalent of 1 pound. Alternatively, if you reduce your eating by 250 calories per day and increase your activity by 250 calories, it's still a net loss of 500 calories per day or 1 pound per week.

The gym is not always the answer to exercise. You can do a lot of calorie-burning activities inside your house, like dancing, cleaning, or even gardening. But if you want to make sure that you burn this amount of energy in a specific amount of time, a gym membership would definitely help. You may also check out calorie counter sites to know how much energy a particular activity spends

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