You can burn one pound of fat without ever leaving home.
One pound is equal to 3,500 calories, according to MayoClinic.com. To lose one pound, you must therefore create a 3,500 calorie deficit. This is easiest to accomplish by simultaneously reducing your calorie intake while increasing your activity level, but it can also be accomplished by simply burning more calories while continuing to consume your regular number of calories. There are many activities you can do to burn one pound of fat at home. Burn 250 to 500 calories a day depending on your fitness level to lose one-half to one pound of fat per week.
Instructions
1. Schedule each day to provide at least one hour that you can devote to exercise. The actual time required for you to burn an additional 250 calories per day varies depending on the activity you choose. However, many at-home exercise routines burn 250 calories or more per hour, so this is a good starting point.
2. Warm up at the start of every exercise session. This increases blood flow to the muscles, lessening the chance of a workout injury. Spend at least five minutes stretching all your major muscles groups and performing light aerobic activities to slowly raise your heart rate, sparkpeople.com says.
3. Use whatever exercise equipment you have available in your home and that you enjoy using. Step aerobics, bicycling, walking and using an elliptical trainer are effective exercises, and each one burns at least 250 calories per hour---even walking. High-intensity options that can be done at home include jumping rope, spinning or interval training, shapefit.com says.
4. Complete your workout with a cool-down of 10 to 15 minutes. Do lower-intensity activities that use the same muscles you just finished working out. Including stretching as part of your cool-down routine also might help prevent muscle soreness, sparkpeople.com says.
5. Add more exercise to your daily activities to burn more calories even when not actively engaged in a workout. Look for opportunities for physical movement such as walking to the store, taking the stairs instead of the elevator and cleaning your car at home in the driveway instead of driving through a car wash. Trade 30 minutes of watching television for household chores every day to burn even more calories. Small changes add up quickly over the course of a week or more, the National Institutes of Health says.
6. Continue your new routine for at least one week---preferably two---to see a loss of one pound of fat. Complete your exercise schedule for several weeks if you want to lose more than one pound of fat. Aim for slow and steady weight loss of no more than two pounds per week to ensure that you are losing fat and not muscle.
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