Tips to help you reach your exercise and weight loss goals

Need to lose weight? Cutting back on calories consumed while bumping up total activity level is the most effective method.

Wolfing down a candy bar takes a mere minute or two; walking off those calories would take most people about 40 minutes. To lose a single pound, you need to burn approximately 3,500 calories. Doing so through activity alone could easily take a few weeks of regular, moderate exercise. On the other hand, consuming 500 fewer calories a day will result in the loss of a pound a week. For that reason, dieting alone seems as though it would be a fast path to weight loss.

But regular exercise offers certain benefits beyond calorie burning. It slightly increases your resting energy expenditure— that is, the rate at which you burn calories even when the workout is over and you are at rest. And pounds lost through boosting your activity level consist almost entirely of fat. Plus, some studies suggest exercise preferentially targets abdominal fat, which plays a role in hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.

Counting calories: What it takes to burn a pound of fat

•	It takes roughly 3,500 additional calories spent in physical activity to burn a pound of fat.
•	Walking or jogging uses up roughly 100 calories per mile. (Note: Your actual calorie expenditure depends on a number of factors, including your weight and pace.)
•	You'll shed approximately a pound of fat for every 35 miles you walk, assuming your levels of food intake and other physical activity remain the same.
•	If you walk briskly (at a pace of 4 mph) for half an hour on five out of seven days, you'll log 10 miles a week. At the end of three-and-a-half weeks, it's possible to lose 1 pound even if the number of calories you consume stays the same.
•	If you also cut back on the amount of food you eat by a few hundred calories a day, you can hasten the pace of your weight loss.

For easy exercises that will achieve results, purchase Exercise - A Program You Can Live With from Harvard Medical School.