How much exercise is too much?

The health benefits of exercise are far-reaching, from preventing cardiovascular disease, cancer and dementia to helping you achieve or maintain weight loss. But you may be wondering: once you have hit your weight-loss goal, how much daily exercise do you need to keep that weight off?

Basic guidelines: Most national and international guidelines recommend getting at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise every week.
This can translate into 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise five times per week. And research has borne out the health benefits of a daily 30-minute walk: in the Nurses’ Health Study, for instance, those who walked briskly or otherwise achieved moderate-intensity exercise for at least 30 minutes every day had a low risk of sudden cardiac death during 26 years of follow up.

Maintaining weight loss: Note that the guidelines above are for a minimum of what everyone who is physically able should be doing on a regular basis, regardless of weight or body mass index (BMI). However, to maintain weight loss, not only is daily physical activity a must, but most experts recommend at least 45 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise every day just to keep the pounds from creeping back on.

Furthermore, studies have shown that greater amounts of daily exercise (of 45 minutes or longer) increase the magnitude of weight loss and weight maintenance.
Keep in mind, though, that exercise alone will not be sufficient for maintaining weight loss if healthy dietary changes are also not made and kept. In an editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in April 2015, researchers argued that exercise alone— no matter how good it is for preventing cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and even dementia — is not enough to treat or prevent obesity, or to overcome the damage done by a bad diet.

Take-home message: The take-home message here is clear: exercise and diet go hand in hand. All-around good health cannot be maintained if one is present without the other. To keep off the weight, stick to the good dietary changes that got you there, and keep up your exercise every single day for at least 45 minutes, if not longer.

Source: www.obesity.about.com