How to Exercise to Lose Weight

University of Kentucky researchers recently found that with enough exercise — 300 minutes or more a week — you will still lose weight and burn fat, even if you inadvertently increase your food intake. 

For their 2020 study, the researchers assigned one group of overweight people to exercise six days a week for 40 to 60 minutes (or 240 to 360 minutes a week), and another group to exercise for at least 180 minutes a week. Both groups consumed more calories as a result of the extra exertion, but those in the first group lost substantially more weight. The researchers speculated that those participants burned enough calories to offset the extra eating. 

Get your heart rate up (without overdoing it)

The basic equation to drop pounds still says you need to burn more calories than you take in, says Deborah Riebe,  a professor of kinesiology at the University of Rhode Island. If you’re walking at a comfortable pace, chances are you’re not burning many calories.  

Vigorous activities like biking, running or swimming can really crank up the calorie burn, as can hour-long cardio classes at a gym. But you can boost your calorie output no matter what type of exercise you’re doing by just picking up the pace a bit, Riebe says. “The harder you work, the more calories you burn in a short amount of time.”

One caveat? Doing too much too quickly increases your risk of soreness and fatigue, and makes it more likely that you will get discouraged and burn out, according to the American College of Sports Medicine.

So when in doubt, start slowly, advises Joseph Signorile, a professor in the department of kinesiology and sports sciences at the University of Miami, who notes that a gradual increase in intensity can also help you prevent getting sidelined by an injury. 

Include some strength training (twice a week, forever)

In addition to cardiovascular exercise, lifting weights may help you shed pounds. In a study published in June 2021, Iowa State researchers found that middle-aged adults who did muscle-strengthening exercises at least twice a week were 20 to 30 percent less likely to become obese over time. 

Why might that be? Your muscle mass drops about 3 to 8 percent per decade after the age of 30. And the loss of muscle really accelerates starting at age 50, Riebe says. Because fat burns fewer calories than muscle, this decrease in strength means your metabolism slows and you burn fewer calories on a daily basis.

When you lose weight, you risk losing even more muscle mass, Riebe says. Adding resistance training to your workout regimen can help prevent that. 

Consider high-intensity intervals (slow-to-fast walking counts)

One proven way to get more out of your workout is to do brief bursts of intense exercise followed by periods of slower, less demanding work, says Stephen J. Carter,  a cardiovascular physiologist at Indiana University. Called high-intensity interval training or HIIT, it helps you burn more fat than if you exercise at a continuous steady pace, research shows. 

Try alternating between walking for three minutes at easy pace and then at a brisk pace for 1 minute, or do similar intervals on a bike, Carter suggests. “It doesn’t need to be super high intensity. It just needs to be at a brisker pace than you can normally sustain for a long period,” he says. 

In addition to burning fat, studies indicate HIIT can help regulate insulin, increase heart function and even reverse aging at the cellular level. Some research shows that HIIT workouts also temporarily increase your resting metabolism, so you continue to burn fat after you finish.

Move more and sit less (and set timers to remind you)

Even if you exercise daily, evidence suggests that sitting for long periods increases your risk of obesity, diabetes, cancer and early death. And it certainly isn’t going to help with weight loss. “If you go to the gym and exercise for 30 minutes, that’s great, but if you spend the rest of the day sitting around, that exercise you did from caloric standpoint isn’t going to mean much,” Riebe says.  

She and other experts recommend incorporating physical activity throughout the day, whether it’s doing squats during commercial breaks of your favorite TV show, using a fitness app and setting daily step goals, or meeting a friend for a walking date instead of coffee. 

“Instead of focusing on weight loss, focus on moving more all day long, and making changes in your lifestyle that you can easily incorporate on a daily basis,” Hall says. “If you can do all those things, chances are the weight on the scale will go down.”