How Often Do You Need to Exercise?

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If you’re trying to lose weight, exercise is a big part of a successful plan.

However, many people have the misconception that they’ll have to spend hours in the gym in order to get the body they want. In most cases, that simply isn’t true.

Weight loss is generally said to be 80% what you eat.

That means, first and foremost, you need to get your diet in order.

So long as you’re eating the right stuff and not overeating, you would actually be able to lose fat without going to the gym at all.

Of course, being active is important for your overall health.

If you just want to burn fat, you can accomplish that goal through your diet alone.

But, going to the gym can help you reach your fat loss goal sooner.

And, going to the gym means you’ll also have the chance to work on your physique beyond fat loss by building muscle and toning up.

Usually, people combine losing fat with a little bit of muscle tone in order to look their best.

Whatever your goal may be, if you’re trying to figure out how often you need to exercise in order to lose weight, you should first sit down with a pen and paper and figure out the numbers.

Weight loss really is as simple as making a few calculations.

Basically, to burn one pound of fat, you need to burn 3,500 calories.

You can burn these calories by either eating less than your maintenance calories or by exercises to burn calories in order to create a deficit.

You can also do a combination of both.

Say that you need to eat 2,000 calories a day to maintain your current weight.

If you burn 500 calories through exercise, that’s enough to burn one pound of fat each week.

Alternatively, you can eat 1,500 calories each day without exercise and that will also create a 1 pound weekly deficit.

If you combine both and you eat 1,500 calories each day in addition to your 500 calorie daily workout, you’ll be burning about 2 pounds per week.

You can figure out how many calories you should be eating each day by using an online calculator.

You can also use an online calculator to estimate your calorie burn for various activities.

Use that information to determine how much you should be working out.

Is It OK to Exercise Every Day?

Are you trying to lose weight?

If you are, you’re probably paying a little more attention to your diet and physical activity as of late, but there is one thing you might never thought you’d be at risk of: over-exercising.

Many people who get excited about weight loss end up signing up for a gym membership or starting a new fitness routine.

That’s fantastic, but you have to be careful not to harm yourself.

The biggest mistake people make when trying to lose weight is getting a whim of inspiration and then going from couch potato to trying to run a marathon overnight.

This is a surefire way to not only burn yourself out fast, but potentially even injure yourself due to over-exertion, improper technique, and muscle strain.

You need to start slow and work your way up, which takes time.

So, many people will make another big mistake: being over-realistic in their workout routines.

If you are working out for a long period of time, multiple times a day, or even multiple times a week, you are at risk for potentially “over doing it”.

If your routine involves lifting heavy weights or high intensity cardio, the risk is multiplied.

Obviously, your body would benefit greatly if you have a simple workout routine, like going on a walk everyday.

However, if you plan on going to the gym 7 days a week to lift weights or workout hard, you should probably rethink that plan.

When your body exercises, you create tiny tears in your muscles fibers.

High intensity workouts, pushing yourself past your comfort zone, and lifting heavy weights results in even more tiny tears.

When your body gets the chance (like when you’re sleeping at night) it will work to repair these tiny tears, thus making your muscles stronger.

The same thing happens in your heart, where increased strength means more efficient blood flow and also more endurance overtime.

Of course, if you’re working out at a moderate or intense level, simply giving your body 8-12 hours of sleep every night isn’t enough for everything to fully repair itself.

You also need to be giving your body a rest day once a week where you take things easy.

On your rest day, you might go for a walk or participate in some other low-intensity activity.

Be sure you nourish your body on a rest day.

The point isn’t to “cheat” your diet, it’s to allow your body to restore itself so you can keep moving forward.

Is a 30 Minute Workout Enough?

Wondering if your 30-minute daily workout is truly enough to help you lose weight?

You’re not alone.

Popular workout routines tend to center around the 30-minute mark, which has led many to believe that it’s a magical number, but for some, it might not be enough.

If you’re asking whether or not 30 minutes of exercise is enough to lose weight, the answer is really going to depend on your goals, how often you’re exercising, and of course, what activity you’re participating in.

For instance, you will far outpace a person who spends 30 minutes riding a horse if you’re spending 30 minutes running on the treadmill as your daily workout.

Certain activities simply burn more calories than others, and your body composition will also impact how many calories you burn doing a specific activity.

So, to answer the question of whether or not 30 minutes is enough exercise each day, use an online calculator to estimate just how many calories you’re burning doing a particular exercise.

Let’s say you spend 30 minutes weight lifting and burn 112 calories in total.

Whether or not this is enough will depend on your goals.

If you want to lose 2 pounds a week, you’ll need a 7,000 calorie weekly deficit.

This is because your body has to burn 3,500 calories in order to burn 1 pound of fat.

Burning two pounds a week will require a 1,000 calorie daily deficit.

If you have to eat 2,000 calories to maintain your weight, you can create your 1,000 calorie deficit with a combination of exercise and dietary restriction.

If you eat 1,200 calories per day, you’ll already be at an 800 calorie deficit.

If you then weight lift for about 60 minutes, you’ll burn an additional 224 calories, putting you over your necessary deficit in order to lose 2 pounds per week.

Really, weight loss is just a numbers game.

Start by calculating how many calories you need to eat per day to maintain your current weight and then calculate how many calories you burn doing a certain activity for 30 minutes.

Based on your goals, you’ll be able to look at these numbers in order to determine if working out for 30 minutes is truly enough.

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[Revised and Updated for June 2020]