Best exercise to lose weight:

What type and how much exercise you need to do is important to understand.

There is a lot of misinformation around what type and how much exercise you need to do to achieve your lifestyle goals of losing weight (fat) and keeping if off.

A new study says we need to walk way more than 10,000 steps a day to get enough exercise. A new goal is to walk 15,000 steps, but this may still be off the mark in terms of what type of exercise you should do to lose weight and keep it off .

Here’s why:

There is a lot of research that shows how cardio or aerobic exercise helps us not only to lose weight, but to relieve stress, be more creative and healthier. Since one of the biggest reasons people overeat has something to do with unprocessed emotions and lack of satisfaction from life that spills over as stress, it is important to have an outlet in the form of physical exercise.

Before you embark on an exercise program you must of course consult your doctor.  It is important to start where you are and begin to increase it gradually.

Despite the proven benefits, most adults do not meet the basis minimum exercise guidelines which are 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise. If you want to lose weight, you double that to 300 minutes of moderate exercise and 150 minutes of vigorous exercise.  The problem with these numbers is that it does not explain what is moderate or vigorous. The term ‘aerobics’ was coined by Dr. Cooper in a book entitled Aerobics in 1968. He put forth the notion that there was a target heart rate to achieve in order to maximize the benefits of exercise that he called aerobic. It is recommended you start with moderate intensity.

For moderate-intensity physical activity, a person’s target heart rate should be 50 to 70% of his or her maximum heart rate. This maximum rate is based on the person’s age. An estimate of a person’s maximum age-related heart rate can be obtained by subtracting the person’s age from 220. For example, for a 50-year-old person, the estimated maximum age-related heart rate would be calculated as 220 – 50 years = 170 beats per minute (bpm). The 50% and 70% levels would be:

• 50% level: 170 x 0.50 = 85 bpm, and
• 70% level: 170 x 0.70 = 119 bpm

Thus, moderate-intensity physical activity for a 50-year-old person will require that the heart rate remains between 85 and 119 bpm during physical activity.

For vigorous-intensity physical activity, a person’s target heart rate should be 70 to 85% of his or her maximum heart rate. To calculate this range, follow the same formula as used above, except change “50 and 70%” to “70 and 85%”. For example, for a 35-year-old person, the estimated maximum age-related heart rate would be calculated as 220 – 35 years = 185 beats per minute (bpm). The 70% and 85% levels would be:

• 70% level: 185 x 0.70 = 130 bpm, (71-84) and
• 85% level: 185 x 0.85 = 157 bpm, (85-91)

Thus, vigorous-intensity physical activity for a 35-year-old person will require that the heart rate remains between 130 and 157 bpm during physical activity. You start with moderate and eventually you will do intervals where you do them side by side. If you have not exercised, it is recommended you start with moderate and then build your way up.

To track that you could obviously program this into a treadmill or elliptical at the gym or wear a heart rate monitor when you walk.  I would recommend starting with 10 to 20 minutes and working your way up. The initial goal for weight loss is to achieve the 300 minutes of moderate exercise or 150 minutes of intense exercise. If this seems daunting, just develop a plan that works for you and has you moving to a higher level than you had been doing.

Gradually increase the amount of exercise you do until you reach the target amount for weight loss and start tracking your heart rate to make sure you are exercising efficiently.  You can go to www.wareable.com and choose the heart rate monitor that is best for you.

 Next: Develop your plan to exercise:

Begin with the amount of days a week you can allocate to exercise. Ideally you want to do it daily, but that is not always possible.

Number of days divided by 300 = the amount of time you should exercise. Begin with moderate intensity.

For example, if you plan to exercise daily, you would do 40 minute sessions at the moderate intensity. If this is not possible, just identify a way to fit more exercise into your schedule so that are doing more than you were and perhaps can over time increase to the ideal amount or increase the intensity which would cut down the time. You can also factor your strength training into this which would ideally be three times a week for 25 minutes.

Write down my plan to exercise is:

Days of the week you will do aerobic exercise:

Amount of time:

Target Heart rate:

Days of week you will do strength training:

Amount of time: 25 minutes

It is possible as you begin your exercise that you will be hungrier in the beginning. This will subside as your body gets used to it and you feed your body the right fuel which will be covered in the next chapter. The important thing is to be aware of the real reason to eat and only eat when you are truly hungry. Try to space your meals out three to four hours apart. Eat when you feel hungry and stop eating when you are full. Do not eat if you do not feel it is the right reason to eat. Instead of eating, express yourself by doing the journaling.

Bottom line: You need to make exercise become your habit otherwise you will be having to use willpower and we have a limited amount of willpower to go around.