If you want to lose one pound each week, you need to create a 3,calorie deficit, which means you need to burn 3, more calories than you consume in one week. To maximize your time spent exercising, consider choosing physical activities that burn the most amount of calories in the least amount of time.
This typically involves using the large muscles of your lower body at a moderate or vigorous intensity. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention CDC , a pound person can burn anywhere between and calories in 30 minutes doing cardiovascular exercise. Here are some different methods of cardio and the number of calories you can burn in 30 minutes:. To lose one pound, you need to burn 3, calories more than what your body needs. If your goal is to lose one to two pounds a week, you need a deficit of 1, calories per day.
Performing the same workout every day leads to a plateau, a point at which the exercise loses effectiveness. Alternatively, hitting it too hard can lead to burnout. To do this, make sure to include both moderate-intensity and high-intensity cardiovascular exercise in your overall fitness routine. For example, perform 30 to 45 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio exercise, such as walking or swimming, three days a week. Up the intensity for the other two days — five days total — and perform vigorous workouts such as running or cycling.
If you choose to do high-intensity-interval training , you can reduce the total amount of time. For example, do sprints alternating with jogging intervals on the treadmill for 20 to 30 minutes. Your body uses different muscle groups for each type of workout. It makes sense to include a variety of exercises in your overall fitness routine. Combining cardiovascular exercise and weight training makes the most sense for maximum weight loss.
To do this, consider performing cardio exercise most days of the week and strength training exercise at least two days each week. For your cardio, include at least two to three different methods of aerobic exercise. For example, run one day, swim another day, cycle the next day, and choose two different fitness classes to do for the other two days.
For extra benefits, consider taking a fitness class that also includes strength training, which will increase the number of calories you burn during the activity and after your workout. In addition to physical activity, losing weight also requires changing your diet. If you're able to do more, that's even better.
The Physical Activity Guidelines specify that you can derive more health benefits by boosting your workout time from minutes a week to But the most important thing is that you do something. To learn more about the benefits of cardio exercise as well as many options for taking part in cardio, read Cardio Exercise from Harvard Medical School.
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Get helpful tips and guidance for everything from fighting inflammation to finding the best diets for weight loss Stay on top of latest health news from Harvard Medical School. Recent Blog Articles. Health news headlines can be deceiving. Why is topical vitamin C important for skin health? Insider spoke to personal trainer and fitness research director for RunRepeat , Nicholas Rizzo, about how often you should do cardio, from beginners to more advanced, as well as the benefits gained from regular cardio exercise.
It doesn't take much to gain the benefits from cardio. For example, even just ten minutes of running per week may provide a mood boost. But, to meet the recommended amount of weekly exercise, you'll need more than just 10 minutes of running per week.
For beginners, it might be best to do this activity in short bursts. In fact, the DHHS says that adding more than minutes of activity to your week can result in greater benefits for your brain, cancer prevention, and heart health. But first, you need to build the habit. It's simple, but the hardest part is just doing it consistently," says Rizzo.
If you don't like walking or running, "consider other options like rowing machines, cycling, swimming, calisthenics , and plyometrics. The most important thing is to find a cardio activity you enjoy. Once you've built up to about 25 minutes of fast-paced walking, or other activity, per day, you've reached the minimum recommendation.
Then, once you've built the habit and you're consistently exercising, you can then take steps to progress even farther. One way to step up your workouts is to start by measuring them with a difficulty scale. One being very light intensity — like a mph walk — and 10 being extremely intense — like a full out sprint. When you're ready to step it up, start by increasing the intensity by 10 percent per week, or one notch on the difficulty scale.
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