Do you feel overwhelmed when it comes to exercise? Because there are so many conflicting ideas for fitness and health out there it’s enough to make you crazy! I’m constantly getting questions from women like: How much should you exercise? How often should you weight train? How long should you exercise for? What can I do instead of exercise?
It makes so much sense that exercise feels complicated — but it really doesn’t have to be.
Let me lay out all the details for you, from how often you should exercise to ways to make exercise more fun and create consistency…so you can make this the year you finally get in shape and take control of your health.
What Type Of Exercise Is Best To Lose Weight?
It’s so easy to get confused about exercise when you have people shouting, “Building muscle is the only thing that matters!” and “Cardio is what you need if you want to lose weight!”
My take: they’re both equally important.
A fitness routine without one or the other is a fitness routine that’s incomplete.
Now. Don’t get me wrong. Does that mean you have to run for hours on end and lift heavy weights every single day to see results? No.
But if you want to lower blood pressure and lose belly fat, it’s best to combine both cardio and resistance training.
One of my favorite ways to do that? High-Intensity Interval Training — or HIIT for short. This is a type of workout that challenges your muscles and gives you a cardio workout at the same time. Plus, because it’s intense, you don’t have to exercise for hours on end to benefit. I outline a great 16-minute HIIT workout in my book, Keto Green 16.
But, HIIT isn’t for everyone. And one of my most important exercise tips for weight loss is this: find an exercise you like to do. Don’t keep trying to power through a workout that you absolutely dread every day. You’ll quit and never go back to working out — and that’s the last thing I want to happen!
How Often Should You Exercise?
So, we’ve clarified that you should shoot for a mix of cardio and resistance training to see the best results for your health. But how many minutes should you exercise a day?
First, ideally, you should get in a base level of movement every day.
That doesn’t necessarily mean you need to do an intense workout every single day. But if you’re extremely sedentary for your job — you should make a concerted effort to meet a minimum step goal or challenge yourself to take a break and do a few minutes of exercise every hour to help counteract the effects of sitting for so long every day.
Once you’ve covered your base movement for the day, how long should you exercise each day?
Ideally, to maintain your health and your weight, you should shoot for: (1)
150-300 minutes of moderate exercise per week (think walking or weight lifting)
Or
75-150 minutes of vigorous exercise per week (things like running or biking)
Now, these guidelines were created in 2018. More recent research suggests that exercising over and above these recommendations can lead to significantly better health outcomes. (2)
That means if you’re able to double or triple these suggestions, you’d be even better off.
But, if you’re not exercising at all right now, don’t feel compelled to jump right into doubling the recommendations. Again, you’ll quit and it will take you a long time to get back into exercising. Start small and cement the habit. Then, slowly work your way up to doing more.
How Much Should You Exercise A Day To Lose Weight?
Now, when we’re talking about the frequency of exercise, it’s important to note that these recommendations above are what’s suggested to maintain your health and your weight. If you want to lose weight, it’s ideal to focus on tightening up your diet and your exercise routine.
Ideas For Fitness: How To Create An Exercise Plan
Now that we know what kind of exercise to do and how often to do it, let’s create an exercise plan.
My advice? Start small and aim for the minimum amount of exercise you should shoot for each week: 150 minutes of moderate exercise. I’ll stress this again: it is so much better to start small and work your way up to bigger fitness goals.
Adjust your exercise plan to fit where you’re at right now. Don’t try to start with 300 minutes of vigorous exercise if you’re currently working out only once in a blue moon.
So, 150 minutes of moderate exercise weekly looks like this:
Monday: Walk for 30 minutes
Tuesday: Lift weights for 30 minutes
Wednesday: Walk for 30 minutes
Thursday: Lift weights for 30 minutes
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Walk for 30 minutes
Sunday: Rest
These are ideas for exercise at home. All you would need is a pair of hand weights that feel heavy enough to be quite challenging after you’ve completed about 10-12 reps of an exercise. With a simple pair of dumbbells, you can work out your biceps, triceps, shoulders, and even your legs. If you feel like you need instruction, you can always head to the gym. But you can certainly exercise effectively at home, too.
How To Remain Consistent With Exercise
One of the biggest challenges with exercise is remaining consistent. Things go great for a week or two — and then life happens. You get sick, your kid gets sick, you have company for a few days. So you drop your fitness routine for a minute and find it really hard to get back on the wagon.
If you want to know how to keep a consistent workout schedule, I have a few tips to create consistency:
- Schedule your workout. Put it into your calendar every day so you have to dismiss that reminder if you don’t do it.
- Build in accountability. When you workout with others, they will notice when you’re not there to exercise. Put yourself in a situation where someone will text you when you’ve lost your will to commit to an exercise plan.
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Make a physical checklist. Put up an old-fashioned wall calendar and put an X over the days you’ve accomplished your workout goal. It feels really good to see a bunch of Xs in a row and it will help you maintain your momentum.
- Use technology. Your Apple Watch, Fitbit, or your phone can serve as little motivators, encouraging you to close those rings throughout the day. Again, it feels really nice to have a visual showing how much you’ve accomplished for the week and it makes you want to keep going.
What If I Don’t Have The Energy To Workout?
Does all this talk of exercise make you feel tired?
I get it.
One of the biggest challenges to starting a fitness routine is finding the time and energy to actually get it done, right?
Especially if you’re a perimenopausal or menopausal woman.
After all, when you’re working all day, taking care of the kids and grandkids, plus battling poor sleep, hot flashes, and changing hormones — everything feels like a challenge, doesn’t it?
Unfortunately, one of the side effects of living like this (even for a short period of time) is that your adrenals become crushed under the weight of all this stress…and that makes you feel like you have even less energy.
It becomes a cycle of exhaustion that’s incredibly difficult to break out of.
And that’s where Mighty Maca® Plus comes in.
It’s a blend of the healthiest foods on the planet and adrenal-supportive herbs. It’s that extra helping hand and energy boost you need to break out of your exercise rut — and get your groove back.
Because when you support your adrenals the right way, you also encourage your body’s own production of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Seriously, your adrenals really are that critical for your hormonal health, and giving them the nutrients they need can be the difference between suffering and thriving throughout menopause.
Mighty Maca® Plus has helped thousands of women find their long-lost energy to workout and feel like themselves again. Click here to see why it’s so incredible for yourself.
My Best Ideas For Fitness: Your Diet Speeds Up Weight Loss
Have you ever heard the saying ‘you can’t out-train a bad diet’? Well, it’s the truth. If you’re working out consistently and seeing poor results, it’s probably because you’re not eating quality food.
If you’re body’s constantly battling inflammation brought about by low-quality carbs and sugar, it can’t effectively heal and shed weight.
That’s one of my favorite things about Mighty Maca® Plus. It helps boost your alkalinity and get your body back into balance with just one scoop. If you do just one thing to support your fitness routine, your hormones, and lose weight — it should be Mighty Maca® Plus.
Best of luck with your fitness goals!
