The American Heart Association says the average adult should engage in vigorous cardiovascular activity 75 minutes per week, or moderately vigorous cardiovascular activity for 150 minutes per week. However, these guidelines only address the minimum benchmark for heart health and overall fitness. To lose weight quickly, choose more challenging workouts and exercise more frequently.
Intense Cardiovascular Exercise
Not all cardiovascular exercises deliver the same benefits. Go for more intense, high-impact exercise to burn more calories per hour. For example, while walking burns anywhere from 180 to 400 calories an hour, depending upon your weight and your pace, jogging increases those numbers to 580 to 870 calories burned per hour. Running at a challenging pace ups these figures to 980 to 1,400 calories burned in an hour. Other intense options include jumping rope, rollerblading, climbing stairs, tae kwon do, basketball, backpacking and high-impact aerobics.
Interval Training
Interval training, in which you vary your rate of exercise from a moderate pace to short sprints, burns more calories than working out at a steady rate. Begin a 30-minute or longer workout with a warmup, increasing to a moderately challenging pace. Every five minutes, break into a high-intensity workout, either running, jumping, skipping rope or setting an exercise machine at a fast speed or an incline. Maintain the speed for 10 to 30 seconds before returning to your moderate workout level.
Pump Weights
If you grow too efficient at cardiovascular exercise, make your routine more challenging to help you burn calories at a faster clip. Pump light hand weights while race-walking, jogging or running. If you are doing intervals, slow down and do a series of biceps or triceps curls during your recovery period.
Boot Camp
Boot camp workouts provide an intense series of exercises in the tradition of circuit training, providing little to no rest time and targeting several muscle groups. Bob Greene, the trainer who developed Oprah Winfrey's boot camp program, recommends using dumbbells for resistance exercises six times per week, for 20-minute sessions. Do 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise daily. Then do two sessions per week of moves that combine cardiovascular work and strengthening moves, including squats, lateral raises, tricep dips, lunges, abdominal crunches, pushups and pullups.
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