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How Intense Are Your Workouts?

Your workout intensity affects how many calories you burn and how much weight you can lose.

There are three different intensity levels that most of us use — low, moderate and high intensity. Low intensity activity includes daily activities like walking the dog or walking through the grocery store. This type of intensity can increase your heart rate but your breathing remains relatively normal.

Activities that fall in this category can be done for long periods of time, but calories burned will be small. Even though these activities will not burn a lot of calories, being active throughout the day is highly recommended. A sedentary lifestyle is now considered a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, certain cancers and heart disease.

Most health experts will recommend moderate activity for improved health and weight loss. Moderately intense activity will feel like you are working, but not so hard that you would need to quit after a few moments of exertion.

Breathing can be deep, but you should not be gasping for breath. Below are the American College of Sports Medicine guidelines for how much moderate intensity exercise it takes to meet these goals.

  • For modest weight loss, work out at a moderate intensity between 150 and 250 minutes per week.
  • To see clinically significant weight loss, at least 250 minutes of moderate intensity activity is required per week.
  • If you are combining diet and exercise to lose weight, work out at moderate intensity between 150 to 250 minutes per week.
  • To prevent weight gain after weight loss, exercise at moderate intensity at least 250 minutes per week.

With moderately intense activity, you can maintain your calorie burning session for a longer period of time. It will also improve cardiorespiratory endurance, reduce stress, improve heart health and boost your metabolism. This last one — metabolism — is important. Metabolism is the process by which food is broken down for the body to use as fuel. The higher your metabolism, the more calories you burn. We all want that.

Lastly, there is high intensity activity. These workout sessions can only be maintained for a short period of time. Because these workout sessions are so hard, you will need recovery during the session and in the days that follow.

High intensity exercise will make you breathe very deeply and feel on the verge of gasping for breath. You will feel that you can only maintain this intensity for a few minutes. Because of this, it is usually programmed into interval workouts, which are short bursts of high-intensity activity with moderate-intensity activity.

If you are exercising to lose weight, this will do the trick. Experts have found that people who participate in high-intensity interval workouts are more successful at losing weight and burning fat. These workouts will burn a lot of calories in a short amount of time.

But be careful with this: You are at more risk of injury if you do not allow recovery periods, have health issues or have been sedentary. Check with your doctor before trying this to be safe.

A combination of all three types of intensity will work well. Plan for one to two high-intensity workouts during the week. Follow the next day with low-intensity workouts. Yoga and stretching are great low intensity workouts. Fill in the rest with moderate intensity workouts.

Finally, remember to refuel your body with protein, complex carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables. Your body will need these healthy foods to be able to carry out these workouts. Always remember to listen to your body to make sure you are not doing too much and make your workout time fun.

For more tips on how to live a happier and healthier life, visit GetHealthyLiveWell.org.

Get Healthy, Live Well




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