How Much Exercise Do You Really Need?

By Christine Many Luff Content

You may have heard about the U.S government recommendation that healthy Americans get 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise a day. But another government report urges twice that amount. So, which plan is for you?

The answer, of course, is "it depends." We'll break that down momentarily. But first, here's some background. The 30-minutes-a-day mandate comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the hour-a-day plan from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005, published jointly by the departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture.

The CDC's recommendation is intended to help people achieve and maintain adequate fitness. The Dietary Guidelines have the same goal — as well as to help prevent gradual weight gain.
Health and fitness Regular exercise can improve overall health and decrease risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and other maladies. To reap such benefits, adults should strive for 30 minutes of activity on most days of the week. For the sedentary, the main challenges are getting started and sticking with exercise long enough to see progress.

"You can start with a few 10-minute periods in the first week and then work up to 30 minutes of continuous activity over 2 or 3 weeks," says Bill Kohl, Ph.D., lead epidemiologist and team leader of the CDC's Physical Activity and Health Unit.

And don't expect an instant transformation of your physique. It will take at least a few weeks for you to notice fat loss or muscle tone improvements. But by starting to exercise, you are laying the foundation for that betterment and taking the all-important first steps.

Exercising for weight maintenance and loss

So far, so good. Now it gets stickier. It's a safe bet that most people fear gradual weight gain. And it's an even safer wager that most of us will not find an hour a day to exercise. We don't dispute the logic in the Dietary Guidelines, but here's a more manageable piece of reality. You can lose weight with less than hour a day of exercise. But how much weight you lose depends on that annoying constant in weight management — how much you eat.

To shed fat, no matter what your exercise level, you must burn more calories than you consume. Shoot for a deficit of around 300 calories a day. That's a safe level that won't leave you gnawing at your coat sleeve or passing out from a lack of nutrition.

Article provided by: www.revolutionhealth.com