Weight Loss: How Long Should I Workout?

I get asked many question about FITNESS, HEALTH and WORKOUTS whenever I meet my friends. Thus I’ll try my best to respond to all of your frequently asked questions.

First question always is how long should a girl workout in a day to lose weight?

When I reply, 10 minutes, they take a long pause, trying to figure out why I would lie to them. In the back of their heads they would be like, ‘Lost all that jiggly flab in 10 minutes! Such a “OMG, I-WAS-BORN-THIS-WAY-FREAK”’

No dude, I wasn’t born this way, I had to work for it, every single day. Yes dude, 10 minutes do matter when you are persistent and you do it right. What these people completely ignore is the time phase. I achieved my goal after one year of this routine. And then I started to get all those ladies reaching me for a fitness advice.

There are some other factors that might come in your way.

I used to exercise for at least 10 to 15 minutes a day when I had a very hectic routine back in university days. Now that I don’t have to walk miles from my home to the bus stop, or face other travelling-traumas, those 10 minutes stopped their magic. Instead I started to put on weight despite the exercise.

Sometimes chores around the house aren’t going to be as hectic as your usual routine. Or when it’s lesser workload phase, like Ramadan has passed, so did both Eids of this year. Either way people who are used to of hectic routines try to find comfort in whatever break they manage to get. Trust me; the thought of exercise is the last thing to occur to you in a high paced routine. Then we get accustomed to those little rest breaks that we start to take free time for granted. Of course this gradually leads you to an unhealthy lifestyle, even if you are not a complete coach-potato yet.

Hence my answer to the same question now, is one hour a day! It sounds like a lot when you say it like that, but it’s not. Although try to do less cardio and more HIIT (high intensity interval training). I know I know, cardio is important, but we don’t want you to do straight 30 minutes of cardio on day one and pass out. 

Also HIIT helps you lose weight even when you are sleeping, watching TV or whatever. 

Allow your body time to recover, build and prepare.

Go slow, but keep going.