How much exercise for weight loss do I need? I want to lose weight. I am not overweight. I guess I need to tone up. I read on one of the articles on the site that for weight loss you can just do 30 minutes 3x per week of exercise. Is this true? So, obviously with my healthy eating and if I jog say 30 minutes 3x per week, would I lose weight? I am often confused on how much exercise is required for weight loss. Thanks for your help! Nicole. [via Ask Questions]

How much exercise for weight loss do you need? It depends. No, it is not necessarily true that to lose weight you only need to exercise three times a week. It is not even true that you have to exercise at all to lose weight. Huh? Let me explain.

How much exercise for weight loss do I really need? None! Or maybe you need to exercise every day. Sounds confusing? It is. So here is the deal. The reason it is not easy to answer the “How much exercise for weight loss?” question is because while regular physical activity has numerous health benefits, when it comes to weight loss, it pretty much serves only one purpose – it helps your body burn calories.

So, the answer to the “How much exercise for weight loss?” question depends on a number of individual variables such as your diet, your total daily calorie intake, and how much daily exercise (if any) you are doing now.

In other words, to lose weight, you need to find a way to either decrease your daily calorie intake using your diet or the calorie shifting method, or to increase the number of calories you burn using exercise.

The bottom line on how much exercise for weight loss one needs If you enjoy jogging and already eat healthy, try jogging for 30 minutes three times a week. If that combination does not produce desired results, you can either increase your jogging time to, say, 45 minutes or you can keep the time as is an try jogging more frequently, or you can try to decrease your calorie intake by manipulating your diet.