How Should People Burn Calories To Lose Weight?

Burning a large number of calories can help you successfully lose weight or stay in shape and can also reduce your risk of chronic diseases. Performing cardiovascular and resistance exercises regularly will help you lose weight, maintain a healthy body weight and increase your good HDL cholesterol levels. To increase your daily calorie expenditure even more, increase your activities of daily living in addition to exercising regularly.

Basics

Burn more calories than you consume to successfully lose excess body weight. If you’re overweight, the American Dietetic Association encourages you to create a daily deficit of 500 to 1,000 calories by reducing your daily calorie intake and by burning calories through exercise to help you lose about 1 to 2 pounds per week.

Daily Activities

Increase the number of calories you burn through everyday activities. For example, take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator, park farther from the door before you enter a building, go for a walk on your lunch break, walk or bike to work instead of driving, walk the golf course instead of taking a golf cart or use a push lawnmower instead of a riding lawn mower.

Cardiovascular Activities

To burn a large number of calories and lose weight, participate in cardiovascular exercise for about one hour on most days of the week, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. According to the department, running for one hour at a pace of 5 mph can burn about 590 calories for a 154-pound person. Other cardio activities include swimming, biking and aerobic workout classes.

Resistance Exercises

Perform resistance exercises at least two days a week to decrease body fat, increase lean muscle mass and increase your body’s metabolism to help with weight loss, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Muscle burns more calories than fat even when you’re resting. The department reports that a 154-pound person can burn about 220 calories per hour lifting light weights or about 440 calories per hour lifting weights vigorously.