School of Weight Loss

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has created guidelines for adults on what physical activity can be done to help them lose weight. The report called Be Active Your Way: A Guide For Adults shows you how to find ways to bring physical activity into your daily routine.

The guidelines are a part of the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans and it is geared for adults 18 to 64. Physical activity is defined as anything that moves your body, or exercise. The emphasis is on doing activities from working out in the yard or walking the dog to those that are considered exercise.

The point of the guide is to give you an understanding that doing anything physical will help. Activities like a brisk walk, swimming, dancing, playing sports or bicycling are some examples. Combined with strength training activities you can create an overall body workout very easily.

The booklet is made in four parts:

Part 1: Getting Started — this gives information to people who have had little or no physical activity. They explain the benefits of physical activity and address several reasons why people do not do it. They also give you guidelines for how to approach physical exercise in non-threatening ways.

Part 2: Making Physical Activity a Part of Your Life
This section was written for the individual who is already doing physical activity and wants to increase their time or the amount they do. They also give you alternatives to going out and buying equipment if you want to use weights. If you are wondering how much exercise and what type you should do each week the answer is in this section.

Part 3: Keeping It Up, Stepping It Up
The recommended guidelines for aerobic activity are 2 hours and 30 minutes a week. Of course this means to spread your activity over the course of a week. One way to do this is to increase the way that you do your workout. Instead of only doing a moderate workout, they say to do more vigorous work a couple times a week. You can also add a third day of strength training activities. You can mix up your workout routine by playing different sports, dancing or taking an aerobic class.

Part 4: Being Active For Life
This last section is more of a synopsis of the other three sections, but it also gives you an idea for keeping a chart that tells you what you are doing and why you are doing it. This is a way to remain interactive with your learning to do exercise on a daily basis.

These guidelines are the first of their kind that gives you comprehensive information based on research studies of human exercise and physical activity. It is user friendly and free so you can download your own copy to study. It gives you a variety of ideas to make physical activity more fun. A good exercise program always goes well with proper nutrition to get the most benefit for weight loss.

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