Physical Activity and Exercise

Physical Activity and Exercise

Physical activity and exercise are other crucial components for improving body composition.

They not only increase the calories you use, but they are also necessary for optimal muscle growth.

Since body composition can be improved by decreasing fat mass or increasing muscle mass, this is an important point.

Your muscles need to be challenged by exercise, particularly weight training, to grow and get stronger (18Trusted Source).

However, many types of exercise can potentially help with fat loss (19Trusted Source).

The American College of Sports Medicine states that 150–250 minutes of exercise per week may lead to a small amount of weight loss (20Trusted Source).

If you exercise 5 days per week, this comes out to 30–50 minutes per day, though they recommend 250 minutes per week or more to promote significant weight loss (20Trusted Source).

While these recommendations focus on body weight, it is important to remember that some forms of exercise will build muscle while you are losing fat.

This is another example of why thinking about your body composition, rather than just body weight, is a good idea.