Are Stairs The Best Way To Lose Weight?

More than 66 percent of American adults are classified as overweight or obese, according to the American College of Sports Medicine. Losing weight requires you to change your lifestyle -- and exercise is an important component of those changes. Stairs, whether a machine or flight, can raise your heart rate and provide a high intensity, cardiovascular workout to aid weight loss.

Creating Weight Loss with Daily Activity

Weight loss occurs when cutting a moderate amount of calories from your diet and increasing physical activity. Climbing stairs or using a gym stepper might not be the best way to lose weight, but it can be a beneficial form of daily activity. When you climb a flight of stairs you are using your leg muscles to move your body weight one leg at a time. The bend of your hip, knee and ankle increases the energy your body needs to perform the activity. Using the stairs vs. the elevator or escalator is a quick way to burn extra calories and promote weight loss.

Stair Climbing Exercise

Stair climbing uses the large muscles of your lower body in a rhythmic manner to increase your heart and respiration rate. The purpose is to burn calories and improve cardiovascular fitness. With machines you can control the depth of each step, whereas with a flight of stairs the step height is regulated. Climbing a flight of stairs or using a stepper machine can be very challenging -- even intermittent stair climbing can improve your fitness and burn calories, according to the American Council on Exercise.

FITT Principle

When choosing activity to help you lose weight you want to use the FITT principle: frequency, intensity, time and type. Stair climbing is categorized as cardiovascular exercise. Cardio should be performed five to seven days per week to produce significant weight loss. Intensity should be moderate to high and sessions should last 30 to 60 minutes. The exact amount of calories you burn during each session depends on your body weight and intensity -- a 150-lb. person burns approximately 272 calories in 30 minutes, according to the American Council on Exercise.

Considerations

Stair climbing can be a great way to lose weight if it meets the necessary requirements and you enjoy it. However, it may not be appropriate if you have knee or hip issues. Stairs puts more stress on your joints than walking, so this needs to be considered before using them for exercise. Also, due to the intensity of this exercise you may only be able to do it for a few minutes at a time. Slowly increase the duration and pace as you become accustomed to the activity. Stop immediately if you feel pain, dizziness, or become light-headed.