Can I Lose Weight With A Treadmill Alone?

Aerobic exercise engages the major muscles in the body and it is performed in a steady motion for an extended period. A treadmill is an aerobic training machine that has a belt that moves as you run on it. If this is the only machine you have access to and you are trying to lose weight, it can be all you need, provided certain conditions are met.

Type of Exercise

As you work out, your heart rate becomes elevated to pump blood to your muscles and keep them oxygenated. This in turn causes you to burn calories. When you burn calories, you lose weight, so the treadmill alone can be used to drop pounds.

Intensity of Exercise

The intensity of your workouts plays a role in weight loss. If you just walk at a leisurely pace once in a while, you will not achieve favorable results. The key thing is to get your heart rate elevated and keep it there to promote weight loss. Exercising at a moderate pace is the best bet in this case. At a moderate pace, your heart rate will be elevated, you will be breaking a sweat, but you will also be able to talk. You can use the rate of perceived exertion scale to determine your intensity. This is a chart that runs from 0 to 10, with 10 being the most intense. A range of 3 to 5 would be considered moderate.

Amount of Time to Lose Weight

If you are going to use the treadmill alone to lose weight, it is imperative to work out long enough and regularly. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends 60 to 90 minutes of exercise five days a week for weight loss. If your schedule is too cramped to perform this amount of exercise in one session, spread your time out through two or three bouts during the day. Having a treadmill at home will make this convenient.

Muscles Worked on Treadmill

Aside from the fact that you burn calories while you exercise on the treadmill, you also recruit a number of muscles. The glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings and calves are examples. By adding muscle to your body, you will raise your resting metabolic rate. This, in turn, causes a high amount of caloric expenditure when you are at rest. Treadmills come equipped with an incline adjustment. By turning it up, you will increase the workload on your muscles. Adding even 1 lb. of muscle can increase your daily caloric output by 30 to 50 calories, according to the University of Michigan Health System.

Eating Habits

When you are trying to lose weight, you not only need to exercise, but you also have to pay attention to your diet. If you use a treadmill regularly but eat high amounts of calories, you will not lose any weight. Reducing your calories, on the other hand, will promote faster weight loss. A reduction of 500 calories a day can promote about 1 lb. of weight loss weekly. This does not take into account the calories you burn on the treadmill. An expenditure of 700 calories through five workouts a week will cause another pound of weight loss. This is because 3,500 calories is equivalent to 1 lb.