Losing weight comes down to a calories-in versus calories-out equation. Your resting metabolic rate refers to the calories you burn at rest. Your body size and amount of muscle determine your resting metabolic rate. Increasing the number of calories you burn through physical activity helps to shift the equation in your favor, as long as you burn more calories than you consume. Your calorie intake affects the number of calories you need to burn each day.
Burning Calories
Aerobic exercise refers to activities performed "with oxygen." Exercises such as bicycling, swimming and brisk walking performed steadily raise your heart rate and help burn fat. Aim to increase your aerobic exercise to at least 30 minutes a day. Increasing activity by adding more movement to your daily life helps you to burn more calories. Raking, sweeping, climbing stairs, gardening, using a hand mower, cleaning house and weeding burn calories.
Intensity
How hard you work affects how many calories you burn. Exercising at 60 to 80 percent of your maximum heart rate is the target heart rate range for aerobic exercise, notes the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Subtracting your age from 220 gives you your maximum heart rate. The heavier you are, the more calories you burn during exercise. A 150 lb. person burns an estimated 246 calories an hour performing light housework and 198 calories an hour walking at 2 mph. Vigorous exercise burns more calories. Aerobic dancing burns 546 calories an hour and jogging 6 mph burns 654.
Daily Goal
The most effective way to lose weight is to reduce the calories you take in each day and burn more calories through activity. You have to burn 500 more calories than you consume daily to burn off 1 lb. of fat per week, or 1,000 calories daily to lose 2 lbs. a week. This keeps you in the healthy range for safe, long-term weight loss. If you cut 500 calories a day from your diet and burn 500 calories a day, you're on track to lose 2 lb. a week.
Tips
Adding more vigorous activities to your weekly exercise routine allows you to burn more calories for the time you spend. Varying your exercise helps to keep exercise enjoyable. Longer and more intense exercise sessions provide variety. Increasing the number of calories you burn helps break through weight-loss plateaus. Setting up regular times to exercise helps to make working out part of your routine.
Consult your doctor about any medical concerns before starting an exercise program.
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