If you're starting a weight-loss regimen, there's a good chance that aerobic exercise will play a role in your workout. Many of the exercises that people think of when they think of weight-loss workouts -- walking, jogging, bicycling or doing aerobics -- fall under the umbrella of aerobic exercise.
Identification
Aerobic exercise is any exercise that requires you to move large muscle groups -- like the ones in your legs or arms -- for a long period of time. Moderate in its intensity and continuous in its duration, aerobic exercise is easy to identify because of one of its most salient effects: an increased heart rate caused by increased circulation. Most adults should get at least two and a half hours of aerobic exercise each week, according to MedlinePlus, a website from the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. But if you want to lose weight, you may need to add even more aerobic activity to your weekly fitness regimen.
Benefits
In addition to burning calories, aerobic exercise can help with a weight-loss regimen in other ways. Regular aerobic activity helps transport waste products like carbon dioxide and lactic acid from your muscles, allowing your muscles to work more efficiently. Aerobic exercise also increases your body's production of feel-good endorphins, which can motivate you to stick with your workout program. Of course, if you're trying to lose weight, one of the biggest benefits of regular aerobic exercise is that it burns calories. You need to burn 3,500 calories to lose 1 lb. of fat, according to MedlinePlus, and aerobic activity is an efficient way to do that, depending on which activity you choose. For example, a 160-lb person walking 3.5 miles in one hour can burn 277 calories, notes MayoClinic.com. That same person would burn 986 calories if he ran 8 miles.
Recommendations
If you're not in the habit of exercising every day, start with 10- to 20-minute walking sessions two or three times a week, and gradually increase the duration and intensity of your workout. If weight loss is your goal, add strength training to your workout once you've gotten into the habit of aerobic exercise. Though strength training burns fewer calories per workout session compared to aerobic exercise, it increases your metabolism so that you burn more calories all day.
Warning
Always check with your health-care provider before beginning any aerobic fitness regimen to make sure you are healthy enough for the plan you have in mind. Stop exercising, and seek medical attention immediately if you experience shortness of breath, dizziness or pain during your workout.
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