Easy Exercises To Help Lose 15-20 Pounds In A Month Or Two

The easiest exercises to help you lose 15 to 20 pounds in a month or two are called "moderate-intensity" activities, such as walking, hiking, yard work, dancing, bicycling (at a speed of less than 10 miles per hour), weight lifting and stretching. The key for weight loss is to use these activities to employ large muscle groups in sustained, rhythmic movements that elevate your heart rate and burn calories. According to experts at the University of Massachusetts, to lose a pound, you need to burn up 3,500 more calories than you consume.

Walk Your Way to Weight Loss

You can walk anytime and anywhere---even inside if you have a treadmill. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a 154-lb person walking at 3.5 miles per hour burns about 300 calories an hour. Since you need to burn 3,500 calories to lose a pound, you can easily calculate that you will need to walk about 12 hours a week to lose a pound a week---provided you don't consume more calories than you currently are. If you want to lose more than a pound a week---and experts from the University of Maryland Medical Center recommend losing no more than two pounds a week; you will have to walk more or walk faster. According to the CDC, a vigorous walk of 4.5 mph will burn nearly 500 calories an hour.

Take a Hike

Hiking, according to the CDC, burns more calories than simple walking---about 370 calories an hour. That's because hiking is usually done on trails and involves climbing hills, which will elevate your heart even more and burn more calories. If you are carrying water, which you should, and hefting a day pack or backpack, the calorie consumption will climb even higher---hastening your weight loss.

As Easy as Riding a Bike

Cycling, unlike walking or hiking, is known as a non-weight-bearing exercise, which makes it appealing to people whose feet or knees hurt while walking. Cycling at a leisurely pace of less than 10 miles per hour burns nearly 300 calories an hour. Make sure the bike or exercise bike is adjusted to your body; you want your leg to have just a slight bend in it at the bottom of the pedal stroke.

Lifting Weights

Weight training, such as lifting weights, doing push-ups or working out on a weight machine, doesn't typically provide the kind of sustained aerobic exercise that other activities provide. But it does burn calories and it does build muscle, and, as a result, it raises your metabolic rate and helps you burn more calories even when you are not exercising. The CDC says it also burns about 220 calories an hour while you are doing the actual weightlifting exercise, and weight training is recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine as a key component of any exercise program.

Stretching Out

We think of stretching as a relaxing activity, and while it doesn't necessarily elevate your heart rate, it does burn calories---about 90 for every half hour you spend doing it. It's also recommended by the American Council of Exercise as a key component of any exercise program.