I’ve been told that I need to accumulate activity to lose weight, what does that mean?
Consider that to lose one pound of fat is equal to burning 3500 calories. Generally, 1 hour of aerobic exercise ( running, biking, elliptical) uses no more than 300-400 calories.
This is not to suggest that for every pound you want to lose you must perform 10 continuous hours of aerobic exercise. Too much aerobic activity makes inroads into recovery ability, making the production of extra muscle tissue more difficult.
Now consider this: fat only needs 2 calories per day to sustain itself in your body whereas muscle needs 37.5! The proof is in the low-fat pudding! Reduce your calories in (250 - 500/day) and increase calorie expenditure by building muscle to improve your metabolism, which helps burn fat AT REST! This does not necessarily mean accumulating more and more exercise in volume but developing an ongoing tolerance to increased efforts during exercise so that the intensity is greater thus allowing for muscle growth. Build muscle, increase strength and let your body do the rest - AT REST!
You must decide what is important and reasonable in your weight loss quest. The idea of accumulating activity to lose weight is suggesting more and longer bouts of exercise, and could be misunderstood….accumulate until what point? How many miles or steps could you sustain week after week. The initial weight (water) loss will usually dupe the participant to expect the same results ongoing. But this is not sustainable or practical and could be very discouraging once the numbers on the scale stagnate, and you are one tired person! Weight loss should be consistently gradual.