Aerobic exercise elevates your heart rate and quickens your breathing. It takes many forms -- dance-based aerobics, jogging, cycling and swimming are just a few -- but all forms of aerobic exercise share the ability to burn excess body fat. While aerobic exercise helps with weight loss, you'll get better results if you combine it with resistance exercises and diet.
Frequency
In August 2011, "The American Journal of Medicine" published a meta-analysis of a number of studies on aerobic exercise and weight loss. The researchers drew on data from 14 clinical trials and concluded that while aerobic exercise at moderate intensity over the course of months can "induce a modest reduction in weight and waist circumference in overweight and obese populations," isolated aerobic exercise was "not an effective weight loss therapy" for overweight study participants. If you want to lose weight through aerobic exercise, keep to a regular workout schedule. Choosing a type of aerobic exercise you enjoy helps you remain devoted to your program.
Intensity
The intensity of your workout affects how much weight your exercise helps you shed. When you work out, you not only burn calories during exercise, but you also continue to expend energy after you stop for a rest. This after-burn happens for minutes or hours after your workout. Putting more effort into your exercise extends that period of heightened oxygen consumption and energy burn, so aerobic exercise at a higher intensity improves your chances of losing more weight.
Duration
Another element that determines how much weight you may lose from aerobic exercise is how much time you devote to it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend getting at least 150 minutes of exercise on a weekly basis, but doubling that figure improves the health benefits of exercise. That works out to an hour of aerobic exercise a day. If you find it difficult to set aside that much time at a stretch, divide that hour into halves or quarters. You could also find ways of incorporating aerobic exercise into other activities by walking or biking to do errands, taking stairs instead of escalators and doing housework more vigorously.
Exercise and Diet
Neither exercise nor diet alone is as effective for losing excess fat as a combination of the two approaches. Your body's weight reaches its equilibrium when your calories burned match the calories you consume. To lose weight, you may burn more calories, consume fewer of them or use both of these tools to speed your weight loss. The researchers who conducted the 2011 meta-analysis on aerobic exercise and weight loss concluded that even isolated aerobic exercise "may still be an effective weight loss therapy in conjunction with diets." Find a balance between exercise and diet to keep your weight loss progressing.
References
- "The American Journal of Medicine"; Isolated Aerobic Exercise and Weight Loss: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials; Adrian Thorogood, et al.; August 2011
- Georgia State University: Aerobic Exercise
- University of New Mexico: Exercise After-Burn - Research Update; Chantal A. Vella, Ph.D., and Len Kravitz, Ph.D.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Physical Activity for Everyone - Guidelines
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