The evidence for the benefits of taking more physical weight loss exercise is so strong it’s hard to know where to begin. Perhaps the quote “If lose weight exercise plan were a drug it would be the most widely prescribed drug in the world” goes some way to convey how important it is.
Physical activity results in numerous health benefits, with or without quick weight loss. Regardless of this, studies have consistently shown that if you are serious about keeping your weight down or maintaining your existing weight then physical activity and weight loss exercise needs to be a rule that is applied full time.
Don’t panic. This doesn’t mean you have to follow a diet exercise plan constantly, but it does need to be a consistent element in your life.
The benefits of weight loss exercise include:
- less abdominal fat
- lower blood pressure
- an improved ratio of good blood fats to bad ones
- enhanced insulin action
- protection from cardiovascular diseases
Even if you are overweight or obese, a regular lose weight exercise program helps you live longer. For these reasons, experts recommend habitual physical activity as primary therapy for those who are overweight. However, I believe the challenge is on two levels:
We have an unrealistic idea of how much weight exercise we need to do for our health and for weight loss.- We need to learn to love to move so we enjoy physical lose weight exercise.
For health benefits, the Chief Medical Officer recommends 30 minutes of moderate-paced diet exercise, five or more days a week. Moderate-paced exercise is the equivalent of walking briskly enough to feel warm. For example, if you are wearing several layers, you should feel warm enough to remove a layer. The 30 minutes can be taken in one bout or broken into three shorter bouts of 10 minutes.
Studies suggest that this level of exercise helps protect against 20 known diseases including heart disease, some cancers, osteoporosis, depression and high blood pressure. This level of exercise has been cited as the equivalent to the popular 10,000 steps a day message using a pedometer.
In terms of weight loss, however, five lots of exercise for 30 minutes won’t make a huge contribution, unless it is accompanied by a restriction in your calorie intake.
For weight loss, the recommendations are to increase physical activity levels progressively to at least 150 minutes (2.5 hours) of moderate-intensity physical activity per week. Studies have shown that you will lose weight with this amount of activity, together with adapting your calorie intake.
For optimum benefit, however, try to increase this to 200-300 minutes (3.3 to 5 hours) per week or more than 2,000 kcal of energy expenditure. Broken down on a daily basis, this equates to 44-60 minutes, five days a week.
The energy expended by people who lost 25kg and kept it off for five years was 2,500 kcal per week for women and 3,300 kcal per week for men, with walking being the most popular form of lose weight exercise. This level of physical activity is very high and equates to about 60-90 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per day.
If you’re panicking about where you’re going to find time for all this weight loss exercise - don’t. You can achieve all of this with walking. Walking is the cheapest and most accessible form of exercise for the vast majority of people. When incorporated into daily living it can be a significant way to achieve the recommended amount of exercise, whether you are learning to love to move for health, to maintain your weight or to achieve weight loss.
