Is Exercise Effective For Weight Loss With An Ad Libitum Diet?

The most widely accepted method for weight loss is to combine a regular program of exercise with healthy dietary habits. While either diet or exercise alone can be effective for achieving weight loss, the combination of both diet and exercise will lead to quicker and long-lasting results. The ad libitum diet allows you to eat without any externally imposed limitations. With proper attention, an exercise program along with an ad libitum diet can be effective in achieving moderate weight loss.

The Role of Diet in Weight Loss

Maintaining a proper diet is an effective component of most weight loss programs. Unlike most weight loss diets which restrict some combination of portion size, calorie intake, or meal composition, the ad libitum diet allows you to eat without any such restrictions. You simply eat what you wish to satisfy your hunger. As long as you don't overindulge, an ad libitum diet, coupled with a well-designed exercise program can be an effective way for achieving weight loss.

Aerobic Exercise and Weight Loss

Aerobic exercise is a necessary component of any weight loss program. In order to loose weight, you must put yourself into a state of negative calorie balance. This means that you must burn more calories in your daily activities than you consume each day in the foods you eat. It requires burning approximately 3,500 calories to lose one pound of fat. Assuming your diet remains constant, adding 250 calories of aerobic exercise per day can result in loosing one pound every two weeks.

Resistance Exercise and Weight Loss

Increasing your rate of weight loss can be accomplished by raising your metabolic rate during those times of the day when you are not actively exercising. Since muscle is a very metabolically active tissue, much more so than fat, increasing your overall muscle mass will increase your daily metabolic rate. Resistance exercise in the form of weight training will help to increase your muscle mass and raise your overall metabolic rate. Realize, however, that as muscle mass increases, your overall weight loss may slow, even as you lose large amounts of body fat.

Exercise and Hunger Control

Recent research has provided evidence that a well-designed and vigorous exercise program can help to suppress your appetite and provide a feeling of satiety, or fullness, after a normal meal. In this way, even when eating an unmodified ad libitum diet, your tendency to overeat will be reduced by your exercise program and you may, in fact, even eat less.

Recommended Diet and Weight Loss Program

In order to achieve weight loss while following an ad libitum diet, you should engage in between 30 and 60 minutes of aerobic exercise no less than three or four times each week and, preferably, on a daily basis. During aerobic exercise, try to maintain a target heart rate of between 120 and 140 beats per minute. On alternate days and at least three times per week, add a program of resistance exercise that can involve either calisthenics or weight training. Your resistance exercises should involve the major muscle groups including arms, legs, shoulders and abdomen.