Regular physical activity (exercise) is just as important for our health as the foods we eat. However, we often push physical activity to one side and try to lose weight by dieting alone. Whilst in the short term, you may lose weight this way, the key to keeping weight off long term is changing your lifestyle – changing both your dietary habits and your physical activity routine. Have you managed to consider your physical activity routine and how this could help support your weight loss goals? This article will provide you with some information on physical activity, and how to integrate this into your everyday lifestyle.
What are the benefits of exercise?
Put simply, the evidence tells us that people who do regular physical activity live longer. However, there are lots of other benefits to regular exercise, including:
Fitting exercise into your current routine
Rather than rushing out to buy a gym membership, and starting a vigorous training routine, think about what forms of physical activity are sustainable for you. Think about the sort of activities you would still be able to keep up in five years’ time, and consider those changes. The best sort of changes are those that fit into your daily routine. Here are a few examples of activities that can burn extra calories without too much extra effort:
What counts?
Anything is better than sitting down! However, to benefit your health, you need to be doing at least ‘moderate’ physical activity – something that increases your heart rate, makes you breathe faster, and makes you feel warmer. Or put another way, activities where you can still talk but would struggle to sing the words to a song! You should do at least 30 minutes five times a week, but lots of shorter 5 minute bouts throughout the day all count too as they can be added up.
Whilst exercise is not just about calories burned, it’s sometimes useful to think of activities in terms of the number of calories you burn – especially for those activities you might not traditionally think of as ‘exercise’, like housework and gardening. The following table may help you with your planning. They are based on calories burned for a 90kg person (if you weigh more, you will burn a little more). To help put this into context, sitting down and typing at the computer for 30 minutes only burns 45kcal.
| Activity | Length of time | Calories burned |
|---|---|---|
| Ironing clothes | 30 mins | 103 kcal |
| Dancing | 15 mins | 146 kcal |
| Vacuuming the house | 30 mins | 158 kcal |
| Walking briskly | 30 mins | 203 kcal |
| Gardening | 60 mins | 360 kcal |
What next?
Once you’ve started incorporating more exercise into your daily and weekly routine, you can consider including (or building up to doing) some more intensive exercise. For some people, this may be taking up a sport, for others joining a gym, and for others, simply doing a regular exercise DVD or online exercise video may work best. Do something you love, or set yourself a goal to do something you’ve always wanted to do. However, remember to start small and work your way up, and remember to always set yourself realistic goals.
