How to Lose Five Pounds of Body Fat: Lose 5 Pounds Easy Each Month – Part III: Best Exercises to Lose Weight

Eating healthy and having realistic expectations about weight loss are obviously very important. Exercising is also equally important. You don’t have to exercise every single day to lose five pounds a month, but some exercise is definitely necessary and very beneficial.

This is the last section, Part III of my series on How to Lose 5 Pounds a Month. Part I: Slow Weight Loss and Part II: Healthy Eating 

Losing five pounds a month is not that hard. In fact, when you follow a healthy eating strategy and pair it with moderate exercise – it becomes almost too easy! 

If you currently exercise and want to lose five pounds a month, evaluate the situation – how much do you exercise – at least 3x a week for 30 minutes at a time? That’s a great start. If you're not seeing the results you want, try upping it to 45 minutes 3x a week, or 30 minutes 4x a week.

If you don’t currently exercise, that’s ok! It’s really easy to start and get into a healthy pattern of exercising at minimum, 3x a week. Start off at just 15 minutes a day on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, it doesn’t have to be anything intense. You’re not training for a marathon – you’re just working towards a healthier lifestyle and losing a small amount of five pounds every month.

Find something that you enjoy. Even if it’s just walking around the mall, you’re moving and burning calories. That’s better than nothing. Swimming, dancing, playing the Wii - you're moving and that's very beneficial!

Cardio is very important for weight loss, so I’d recommended trying to do 15-30 minutes a day, three times a week. Don’t overdo it! Ease your way into a routine. Otherwise, you’ll end up with sore muscles and will be more likely to give up.

Once you’ve gotten used to doing cardio (which is absolutely necessary to burn fat and calories), you’ll need to do some really basic toning exercises. The arms is a good place to start, you can go here for an article I wrote on how to lose arm fat. It features some free, toning videos at the end – they are very easy to do!

I believe that it is possible to lose weight without paying a dime (there are so many free resources online, these days!) but, sometimes videos and other tools can be worth it.

Here are my two favorite videos that I use all the time. Again, totally not necessary (you can find tons of free exercise videos on YouTube and other places online with a google search).

Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred

The premise of this video is that you should do her exercises once every day. I think that is ridiculous. When I first started, I could barely do 3x a week! It is a REALLY intense workout, even for people that are used to moderate to heavy exercise. It actually has three workouts on the DVD, beginner, intermediate and advanced. Once you feel that the beginner workout isn’t enough for you anymore, you can move on to the next level. The idea is that you can eventually build up to doing all three in a row. I have been doing this video 2-3 times a week for a few months and certainly can’t do all three in a row! I’m lucky if I can do the intermediate one. The beginner exercise is pretty challenging.

Anyways, it is a challenging video, but it produces REALLY awesome results, even if you can only do the beginner 2-3x a week. And, if you can get past that level, there are plenty of more exercises to do. For me, just doing the beginner workout is totally worth it and I love the DVD.

Winsor Pilates

The next DVD I use (well actually several form the series) is Winsor Pilates. They can be very expensive brand new. I begged my mother for a set of them several years ago but absolutely love them all and still use them to this day. Therefore, they were worth it. Purchase them on eBay or used on Amazon to get great prices. I love the 20 Minute Workout. It’s very relaxing and the results are truly incredible. Everything in your body is worked on, in just 20 minutes. It’s not hard and you’ll look forward to it. Pilates is very easy (especially with Marie Winsor’s beginner series) and is such an incredible form of exercise. It's very beneficial because you will learn some essential deep breathing skills that help burn extra calories, not to mention relax you!

That’s the end of my three part series on How to Lose 5 Pounds a Month! Hope you learned at least one new thing to help you with your healthy weight loss and lifestyle.