Wondering if your 30-minute daily workout is truly enough to help you lose weight? You’re not alone. Popular workout routines tend to center around the 30-minute mark, which has led many to believe that it’s a magical number, but for some, it might not be enough.
If you’re asking whether or not 30 minutes of exercise is enough to lose weight, the answer is really going to depend on your goals, how often you’re exercising, and of course, what activity you’re participating in.
For instance, you will far outpace a person who spends 30 minutes riding a horse if you’re spending 30 minutes running on the treadmill as your daily workout. Certain activities simply burn more calories than others, and your body composition will also impact how many calories you burn doing a specific activity.
So, to answer the question of whether or not 30 minutes is enough exercise each day, use an online calculator to estimate just how many calories you’re burning doing a particular exercise. Let’s say you spend 30 minutes weight lifting and burn 112 calories in total. Whether or not this is enough will depend on your goals.
If you want to lose 2 pounds a week, you’ll need a 7,000 calorie weekly deficit. This is because your body has to burn 3,500 calories in order to burn 1 pound of fat. Burning two pounds a week will require a 1,000 calorie daily deficit.
If you have to eat 2,000 calories to maintain your weight, you can create your 1,000 calorie deficit with a combination of exercise and dietary restriction. If you eat 1,200 calories per day, you’ll already be at an 800 calorie deficit. If you then weight lift for about 60 minutes, you’ll burn an additional 224 calories, putting you over your necessary deficit in order to lose 2 pounds per week.
Really, weight loss is just a numbers game. Start by calculating how many calories you need to eat per day to maintain your current weight and then calculate how many calories you burn doing a certain activity for 30 minutes. Based on your goals, you’ll be able to look at these numbers in order to determine if working out for 30 minutes is truly enough.