Your weight is determined by the number of calories you eat each day minus what your body uses. Kicking up your calorie burn with regular exercise can help you peel off pounds.

Most people can lose weight; keeping it off is another story, and one that’s less likely to have a happy ending.

However, in the battle of the bulge, there’s a secret weapon you can use to your advantage: exercise.

“When you diet without exercising, you lose both muscle and fat, which is counterproductive because muscle loss lowers your basal metabolic rate—the number of calories your body uses at rest,” says Cedric Bryant, Ph.D., chief science officer of the American Council on Exercise in San Diego. “Exercise not only elevates your metabolism while you’re exercising, it can keep it elevated after you’re done, depending on how long and how hard you work out.”

For effective weight loss, most people need to exercise for about 60 minutes most days of the week. The good news is, according to Bryant, it doesn’t have to be all at once.

“You can take two brisk 30-minute walks a day and still get the calorie-burning benefits,” he explains.

Plus, you don’t have to work out at a killer pace, either.

“If you can pass the talk test—meaning you can have a conversation with someone without becoming short of breath while exercising—you’re working at the right intensity,” Bryant adds.

He also recommends you:

• Do both aerobics and weight training.

  “It’s important to do a cardio workout most days—walking, running, riding a bike, whatever gets your heart rate pumping,” says Bryant. “But for optimum weight loss and muscle toning, you need to supplement that with a 20- to 30-minute strength-training workout two or three times a week.”

• Be consistent. Some exercise is always better than no exercise, so if you can’t do your usual workout but can walk around the neighborhood for 20 minutes, go ahead and do it.

  “Consistency is the biggest problem for most people,” Bryant explains. “Initially it’s not how long you exercise but how often. Getting out and getting going has to become a habit you can stick with for it to make a difference.”

• Be realistic. It’s crucial to establish an appropriate weight-loss goal that’s attainable and realistic. For example, if you’re middle-aged, it’s unlikely you can get down to a lower weight than you’ve ever been before. An attainable goal for most people is to lose 10 percent of their body weight.
• Set minitargets to get you to your goal. If you want to lose 20 pounds, for instance, try to lose 1 to 1.5 pounds a week, which averages out to about 5 pounds a month.
• Walk, don’t ride. Adding more everyday physical activity also can be an important part of your weight-loss plan. Taking the stairs in the mall instead of the escalator, parking in the last row of the parking lot at work and the grocery store, or walking over to speak with a coworker instead of sending an e-mail can help add another 10 to 20 minutes of walking to your day.
• Avoid crash diets or two- or three-hour workouts. Such drastic measures may work for a while but are not healthy over time and are not sustainable, which leads you back to where you started.

  “Instead, keep a slow and steady pace when you exercise that you can literally maintain for the rest of your life,” Bryant counsels.

  In so doing, you’ll find you’ve made a lifestyle change that not only helps you maintain a healthy weight, but also lowers your health risks.

“Above all, don’t get discouraged,” Bryant advises. “Instead, take the long view and stick with making healthy food and activity choices every day, and you’ll succeed.”

Barbara Floria spoke with Cedric Bryant, Ph.D., chief science officer of the American Council on Exercise in San Diego. For more information, visit www.acefitness.org.

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