Your body weight can have a dramatic impact on your health. For example, an unhealthy body weight increases the likelihood of developing health conditions like heart disease, diabetes, certain types of cancer and more. It can also place unnecessary stress on your joints and can generally make you feel unhealthy. If you are ready to take control of your health and lose unwanted pounds, you may be wondering just how much exercise it takes to lose weight.
There’s a saying, that you “can’t exercise yourself out of healthy eating.” So as long as you’re on a path to healthy eating, you will be happy to know that just a moderate amount of exercise is all you will need to stay the course. No crazy routines, no “biggest loser” antics, and no elaborate equipment needed.
Why Exercise is Important to Weight Loss
Your weight is a reflection of your diet as well as your level of physical activity. Your diet will account for the number of calories that you consume as well as your intake of sugars, carbohydrates and fats. While following a healthy diet is critical to weight loss, exercise will burn additional calories. This will directly offset your caloric intake each day and will result in faster weight loss.
How Much Exercise Do You Need?
Some people think that they need to join a gym and spend hours on the treadmill or a spin bike in order to lose weight. The good news is that increasing your physical activity by any amount will be beneficial to you. The name of the game is to have your caloric intake to be less than the amount of total calories you expend in a day.
If you want to lose weight, you want your caloric burn to be higher than your caloric intake.
How to Get Started With Your Exercise Program
When you create an exercise program, you want to choose an activity that you enjoy and is easy to do. It should also be an activity that you can financially afford to continue on with and that you have time to do. For some, the best answer is to join a gym. However, keep in mind that you do not necessarily need to spend hours on a spin bike in order to burn calories. You may find it more enjoyable, more manageable with your schedule and easier on your body if you begin your exercise program with a regular walk each day. This may mean bringing your walking shoes to work and taking a walk over your lunch break. It may mean putting the leash on your dog after dinner and taking a stroll with your spouse or kids. Walking is actually a very healthy activity that is suitable for most people and that is completely free to do. Start with just a few times a week, and work your way up to a daily walk. Use a device such as a fitbit or an Iphone to track the number of steps you take and set a goal to start slowly and work up to 10,000 steps a day.
Regular exercise can provide you with many benefits. For example, it can reduce overall inflammation, tone your muscles, improve your cardiovascular health and even help you to de-stress after a long day. More than that, it can help you to lose your unwanted pounds at a faster rate. If you are ready to take charge of your health, you can get started right now by putting on your walking shoes and heading out for a stroll. It really is as easy as that and there is no better time than to start today.