Cardio exercises, such as walking and biking, are a significant part of any weight-loss program because they help you burn off energy, or calories. However, cardio can have limited results if you depend on it alone to get you to your weight-loss goal. Additionally, doing too much too soon can have detrimental effects on your weight-loss efforts.
Calories and Pounds
The amount of cardio you would need to do to reach your goal weight depends on factors such as how many calories you eat, what activity you are currently doing and how much you weigh to begin with. If you're a medium-sized adult, you would have to walk more than 30 miles to burn about 3,500 calories, or 1 lb. of fat, according to Medline Plus. You could burn about 1 lb. a month if you walked about one mile per day, assuming you didn't eat more calories than you burned.
Intensity Variations
The intensity of a cardio exercise also affects how many calories you burn. High-intensity exercises burn off calories at a faster rate than low to moderate-intensity exercises do. For example, in one hour you could burn off about 986 calories running if you weighed 160 lbs., but you would burn only about 277 calories walking casually for the same duration of time. However, you could burn the same amount of calories at a moderate pace if you increased the duration to go the same distance. You could also burn off calories between the two extremes if you alternated between running and walking.
Recommendations
The amount of cardio you should get each week depends on your current weight. Most adults should aim for around 2-1/2 hours of moderate-intensity cardio or one hour and 15 minutes of vigorous cardio per week, according to the American College of Sports Medicine. You would take the averages of the two exercise durations if you wanted to do a hybrid of high-intensity and moderate-intensity exercise. You may need to exercise longer each week to lose weight, but resist any temptation to lose more than about 1 to 2 lbs. each week. Dropping more than 500 to 1,000 calories per day may mean that you're dropping lean muscle as well as fat because it's difficult to burn so many fat calories in such as short period of time.
Considerations
Although cardio is an important element of weight control, adjusting your diet to consume fewer calories likely promotes weight loss more efficiently than cardio does, according to the Mayo Clinic. A healthy low-calorie diet should focus on whole grains, low fat dairy, fruits and vegetables. It should also include some lean protein from sources such as poultry and beans and limit trans fats, saturated fats, added sugars, cholesterol and sodium.
References
- Medline Plus: Exercise and Weight Loss
- Mayo Clinic: Exercise for Weight Loss
- Mayo Clinic: Weight Loss: Better to Cut Calories or Exercise More?
- Mayo Clinic: Weight Loss: Six Strategies for Success
- Mayo Clinic: Fast Weight Loss: What's Wrong with It?
- Weight-control Information Network: Weight Loss for Life
Member Comments