Physical activity in any form of moderate intensity is recommended as an adjunct to any weight loss plan. Even as the role of nutrition is much bigger than the role of exercise in weight loss, it contributes towards creating the caloric deficit.
Exercise is a much more effective tool for weight maintenance after weight loss than causing the actual weight loss.
I recommend looking at exercise as a way of staying healthy and maintaining weight and somewhat help with weight loss. What that means is even the patients who are not obese or overweight, they need physical activity to stay healthy and reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, insulin resistance, cancers, NASH.
If you are looking for serious weight loss, you most return on investment is on focusing on your diet as we discussed in previous post.
So how long you need to be physically active for ?
Per CDC guidance, each week adults need 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity and 2 days of muscle strengthening activity to stay healthy.
Alternately, same benefits can be achieved by 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise and 2 days of muscle strengthening activity.
For weight loss, 150-300 minutes of moderate intensity activity is the recommendation with increased benefits with longer duration. This equals to 1 hour, 5 days a week.
Start small!
Rome wasn’t built ina day, neither can anyone’s habit. So starting small and staying on it is the key. If you can manage to walk just 10 minutes a day, then starting there and slowly building on it is the best way to build exercise habit. Eventually small changes add up pretty quickly, and help build lasting habits with bigger health gains.
Any activity is better than nothing
Don’t let the fear of not being able to do enough, prevent you from getting any at all. Something is better than nothing. This is one place where trying to achieve the recommended activity goal in perfect way every day, could become deterrent to doing any at all, if we have all or none approach.
Consistency of doing something even a few minutes a day is way more important than the perfect 1 week of 300 minutes of exercise but not doing any exercise on an ongoing basis.
Moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity means you’re working hard enough to raise your heart rate and break a sweat. The intensity of activity is such that you’ll be able to talk, but not sing the words to your favorite song.
Some examples include:
- Walking briskly
- Water aerobics
- Riding indoor or outdooor bike
- Playing tennis – doubles game
- Pushing a lawn mower
Vigorous-intensity aerobic activity means you’re working and breathing hard and fast, and your hear rate goes up signficantly. If you’re being active at a vigorous level, you won’t be able to say more than a few words without pausing for a breath.
Some examples of this include:
- Jogging or running
- Swimming laps
- Riding a bike fast or on hills
- Playing singles tennis
- Playing basketball
When you work with us, we guide you and hold your hand each step of the way to help you make these choices by not only educating about it, but by real life problem -solving to help you accomplish your goals. We, at AllWell Clinic are committed to your weight loss success with evidence based strategies and MD’s advice.