Maintaining a calorie-wise diet is critical to losing weight, but exercise burns calories, and also can increase your metabolic rate so you burn more calories even when you're relaxing. To shed 1 lb. of fat by exercising, you must burn 3,500 calories. The amount of exercise required to lose 1 lb. depends on what kind of exercise you do. The three major types of exercise are strength, flexibility and cardio, or aerobic, exercise. Additional factors include your weight and the intensity of your workout.
Flexibility Exercise
Flexibility exercise enhances range of movement, improves joint health and reduces risk of injury. Flexibility exercises such as stretching and yoga can reduce risk of injury in young people, and increase mobility in older folks. Of the three major types of exercise, flexibility burns the fewest calories. A 150-lb. person burns 179 calories doing 60 minutes of stretching, estimates Bodybuilding.com. If you do an hour of flexibility training per day, it takes about 20 days to burn off 1 lb. of weight.
Strength Training
Strength training burns more calories than flexibility exercise. Strength training enhances muscle tone and strength, and also increases your lean muscle, which in turn boosts your metabolic rate so you burn more calories in whatever activity you do. When you have more lean muscle, you even burn more calories while you sleep. A 150-lb. person burns 214 calories doing one hour of light- to moderate-intensity weight lifting, and burns 429 calories expending vigorous effort. It takes 8 to 16 hours of strength training to lose 1 lb., depending on the intensity of the workout. A 200-lb. person burns 286 calories in a 60-minute, light to moderate weightlifting workout and 572 calories in a vigorous workout, and must perform 6 to 12 hours to lose 1 lb. of weight.
Cardio
Cardio exercises such as biking, swimming, walking or running work your large, lower body muscles, causing your heart rate and breathing rate to increase in order to supply the oxygen and fuel your muscles need for exertion. The additional work done by your heart and diaphragm enhances cardiovascular and respiratory fitness, but also burns additional calories. You should do at least 30 minutes of cardio exercise at a moderately intense level on most days of the week to get the full cardiovascular and calorie burn benefits, advises MayoClinic.com. The American College of Sports Medicine advises that some people need to do 60 to 90 minutes of cardio to lose weight.
A 150-lb. person working out at a moderately intense pace on a stationary bike burns 500 calories per hour, and 750 calories per hour at a vigorous pace, taking 5 to 7 hours to lose 1 lb. A 200-lb. person riding a stationary bike at a moderately intense level for 60 minutes burns 667 calories, and he burns 1,000 calories in a vigorous workout, losing 1 lb. in 3.5 to 5.2 hours of working out. Similarly, working out at a moderate intensity, the 150-lb. person can lose 1 lb. in 15 hours of walking or 5 hours of running at 6 mph.
Diet
Exercise helps you lose weight only if you exercise good judgment at the dinner table. Exercise can make you feel hungrier and can also make you more vulnerable to food cravings, according to the August, 2009 edition of "Time." A few sodas or a fast food meal will reload all the calories you sweated off in the gym.
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