We lose weight by increasing the amount of physical activity that we perform each every day, and reducing the number of calories in our food. Physical activity may burn fat during exercise or enhance your body's ability to burn fat for energy throughout each day. Losing weight requires getting sufficient calories in your diet every day, while controlling your total caloric intake.
Increasing Moderate Activity
A sedentary lifestyle contributes to excessive body weight. We can lose weight by increasing moderate activity, which is continuous physical activity that brings your pulse within 50 and 70 percent of your maximum heart rate. You can calculate your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that all healthy adults younger than 60 perform at least 30 minutes of moderate activity every day. The National Federation of Personal Trainers recommends performing moderate activity for 40 to 45 minutes or longer every day to increase level of physical activity.
Boosting Metabolism
We can lose weight by boosting our metabolism. Speeding up your metabolism increases the number of calories your body burns during moderate activity. Bodybuilding.com reports that resistance exercise, such as weightlifting, can increase your metabolism for around 36 hours after each workout. Performing a full body workout with high repetitions and light weight can help you lose weight by increasing the number of fat-burning mitochondria in your muscle tissues.
Eating Less
Losing weight requires ingesting fewer calories than the amount required to maintain your weight. You can calculate the number of calories required to maintain your weight by adding your basal metabolic rate to the number of calories that you expend during physical activity and exercise. You can lose 1 lb. a week by eating 500 fewer calories than the amount required to maintain your weight, because there are approximately 3,500 calories 1lb. of fat.
Eating Enough
Ingesting sufficient daily calories is a critical element of losing weight. Body fat is essential for survival, and your body prefers burning fat for most of the low and moderate physical activity that you perform every day. Fat is also an important source of energy for neurological functions. Ingesting too few calories may trigger metabolic starvation mode, during which your body conserves as much fat as possible. The lowest recommended daily calories is 1,200 and 1,500 for women and men, respectively. FamilyDoctor.org recommends against ingesting fewer than 1,000 daily calories below the amount required to maintain your weight.
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