Regardless of all the fad diets and programs that claim to burn off fat and excess pounds quickly and easily, losing weight requires effort. A healthy diet combined with a regular exercise program can help you achieve your weight loss goals. While many activities help burn calories, aerobic exercise can have a noticeable impact on your weight.
Weight Loss
Calories are units that measure the amount of energy in food. Once eaten, your body converts calories to physical energy or stores them as fat. Losing weight requires burning more calories than you eat. You can do this by cutting back on your regular caloric intake and increasing your level of activity, encouraging your body to burn additional calories. Since 1 lb. of fat equals about 3,500 calories, eliminating 500 calories per day from your diet and burning an additional 500 calories per day can help you lose about 2 lbs. each week.
Aerobics
Aerobic exercise is a continuously maintained rhythmic activity that uses your large muscle groups. A variety of sports, fun activities and formal exercises can help make your heart and lungs work hard, making your body burn more calories than while you rest.
Considerations
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases recommends getting at least 150 minutes per week of activities performed at a moderate intensity or 75 minutes per week of vigorous activities. Spread out your workout sessions over the week, rather than doing all your aerobics in one session. Sessions that last at least 10 minutes at a time count toward your weekly goals.
Methods
Participating in formal aerobics classes can help ensure you perform your minimum amount of workouts each week, however, many activities and physical hobbies can help fulfill your weight loss goals. Aerobic activities include bicycling, cross-country skiing, jumping rope, running, swimming, skating and fitness walking. These activities help your body burn calories and make your heart and lungs work hard. While the exact amount of calories you burn depends on your size and the intensity of your aerobic workout, workouts that require more physical effort and speed tend to burn more calories. For instance, a 200-lb. man burns about 637 calories per hour during a high-impact aerobics class, while burning about 910 calories an hour jumping rope.
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