The Best Way To Exercise To Lose Weight

Exercise is necessary for good health and weight control, and with two-thirds of the American population overweight or obese, losing weight is a priority for many people. The 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommends you do aerobic exercise most days of the week and strength-training two days a week. An exercise regimen consisting of both types of exercise is ideal, but it's aerobic exercise that's best for losing weight.

Step 1

Burn calories and build endurance with aerobic, or cardio, exercise. Build a regimen that includes at least 150 minutes a week of cardio, but get maximum benefit with 300 minutes a week -- an hour a day for five days. A cardio workout consists of any activity that rhythmically moves your arms and legs for a sustained period. Run, walk, bike, play tennis, shoot hoops or jump rope. Any activities that raise your heart rate and increase breathing count as cardio exercise.

Step 2

Exercise your muscles with strength, or resistance, training. Build a regimen that includes two days a week of strength training. Lift weights, use resistance bands or do calisthenics such as pushups that use your body weight for resistance. Garden, carry groceries or find other activities that make your muscles do more work than usual. Strength training builds muscular fitness and bone strength. It also helps you maintain muscle mass while you're losing weight. Maintaining muscle burns more calories than fat, but because muscle weighs more than fat, you will likely not lose weight with strength training alone.

Step 3

Combine exercise with diet. Create a calorie deficit sufficient for weight loss. To drop a safe 1 to 2 lbs. a week, your deficit needs to be 500 to 1,000 calories per day. But you can use cardio exercise to supplement the decrease in calories. By burning calories with 30 to 60 minutes of a day of aerobic activity, you may only need to decrease your food intake by 500 to 700 per day instead of 1,000.

Step 4

Maintain weight loss by making aerobic exercise a permanent part of your routine. In a study of 34,079 women consuming regular diets, 4,540 of them who had a BMI of less than 25 at the beginning of the study had gained less than 5 lbs. at the study's end 13 years later. The study, reported in the March 2010 "Journal of the American Medical Association," found that those women who had maintained their weight over 13 years, averaged 60 minutes of moderate-intensity activity every day. Sustain your weight loss with a regular regimen of aerobic exercise and strength training.

Tips and Warnings

Take it easy if you have not exercised for a while. Build endurance and strength training gradually.
Do not cut calories drastically. Women should not go below 1,200 per day and men not below 1,500 per day unless under the care of a physician.