If you’ve ever stopped and actually calculated the amount of calories you burn while doing aerobic activity, you’ll quickly find out that its not that much.  If you go for a moderate 30 minute run you’re probably burn 300 calories at the most.  And when you look at that compared to the 3500 calories you need to burn in order to lose one pound of fat…it doesn’t really put a smile on your face.

To make matters worse if you did that three times a week, that would be 900 calories, which would take you 3 1/2 weeks to burn one pound!

When you see that you’re probably going to think to yourself, “Screw that!  It’ll be faster and easier just to reduce my caloric intake by 1000 calories from my eating”

Yes…that’s an option but…and it’s a BIG but, if you severely reduce your calories, some of the weight you lose will be fat and muscle.  It’s also going to slow down your metabolism and when you start to eat again, you’ll gain back all the weight.  Talk about a “Lose-Lose” situation!

Now if you take your time you’re going to conserve your muscle, keep your metabolism fired up and when you combine that with aerobic exercise your muscles will develop and grow.  Other than conserving your muscles and burning calories aerobic exercise is going to help you in three other ways.

1. It’s going to help you stick to your program, and it’s also said that exercisers eat less than non-exercisers.  The theory behind that is that exercise reduces anxiety and depression which cause a lot of women to overeat.

2. The exact number of calories is not known but researchers do know that aerobic exercise bumps up your metabolism for hours..so you’ll be burning calories after your session.

3. I think this is the most important benefit of all.  Aerobic exercise will help condition your heart and lungs, allowing you to do other activities with ease.

Remember that with people who lose weight and keep it off – one common factor is that they have a regular aerobic exercise program, so get out there and get your heart pumping!