If you're sick of carrying around extra pounds and are ready to tone up and slim down, a daily cardio weight loss plan can set you marching toward success. Losing weight requires you to burn more calories than you consume each day, taking approximately 3,500 calories to burn off 1 lb. of fat. With an aerobic exercise plan that suits your needs, you can burn off the bulge and accomplish your weight loss goals.
Cardiovascular Exercise 101
Cardiovascular exercise is an activity that gets your heart rate consistently elevated and works your major muscle groups. Cardio exercise helps prevent heart disease, high cholesterol, diabetes, osteoporosis and a variety of other conditions, as well as helps with weight loss and weight maintenance. When you perform aerobic exercise, your body's lungs, heart and major muscle groups become stronger, and your metabolism increases, which helps you burn calories throughout the day, even long after you stop working out.
Cardio Options
When creating your cardio weight loss plan, choose an activity you enjoy and you will be more likely to stick with it. Some popular cardio exercises include walking, running, hiking, cycling, mountain biking, swimming, dancing, aerobics and team sports such as soccer, basketball and football. When choosing an activity, consider if you will need any special equipment, teammates or settings -- a pool, for instance, for swimming. You can join a gym or intramural team for support.
Calorie Calculations
After you set your weight loss goal, calculate how many calories you burn in your daily workout to help you figure out how often and long you need to exercise. You can use an online calorie calculator (see Resources) to find out how much you burn each day. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises doing 300 minutes of moderate intensity cardio each week for maximum health benefits, which is equivalent to about 43 minutes seven days a week or 60 minutes 5 days a week. You can adjust the time and intensity of your workouts to suit your weight loss goals.
Duration
One way to burn more calories in your daily cardio workout is to increase your time spent exercising. If you are 150 lbs. and normally run for 30 minutes at a10-minute mile pace, you will burn about 341 calories per workout. At this rate, it would take you a little more than 10 workouts to burn 3,500 calories, or 1 lb. of fat. If you increase your workout to 45 minutes at the same pace, you will burn about 511 calories. It would take you about seven workouts to lose 1 lb. at this rate.
Intensity
Another way to burn more calories in your daily workouts is to increase the intensity of your exercise program. Add speed, inclines or obstacles to your workouts to burn more calories. Using the aforementioned example, a 150-lb. person will burn about 341 calories per workout from running at 10-minute mile speed. If you increase your pace to an 8-1/2-minute mile for the same amount of time, you will burn about 390 calories. You can also add intensity to your workouts by adding interval training, in which you sprint for short bursts and go slow to rest between sets.
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