How Often You Need to Work Out (It Could Save Your Life)
With so many fitness gurus giving us their spin on what's ideal, it's hard to know how much exercise we really need to be doing every week. But now, new recommendations from the World Health Organization and the Union for International Cancer Control are making it a bit clearer.
According to the "Global Recommendations on Physical Activity for Health," we need to be doing at least 150 minutes (two and a half hours) of exercise each week.
The experts point to scientific evidence suggesting that this dose of physical activity -- say, 30 minutes of moderate effort walking about five days a week -- can reduce your risk of colon and breast cancers by 25 percent.
But is five days of walking really sufficient if you're trying to drop a few pounds?
According to exercise physiologist Fabio Comana, spokesman for the American Council on Exercise, while this recommendation is a great place to start, you need to be doing more if you're looking to lose weight.
"These guidelines will target approximately 1,000 calories a week, which is enough to improve health in most cases," says Comana. "But to lose weight you need to burn about 2,000 calories a week."
Comana recommends starting with the 150-minutes-a-week guideline and finding other small ways to increase your burn throughout the day while making smart diet choices.
"The average woman weighs 164.7 pounds. If she could stand for two hours more a day, that amounts to seven pounds a year," he says. "It adds up."
*To get the biggest benefit in the least amount of time, try these three amazing workouts.
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