Dance Away the Pounds: How to Lose 10 Pounds by Dancing

You can lose ten pounds just by adding dancing to your life. It will require careful food monitoring, picking your moves carefully, music selection, managing your time, and planning a dance routine. It's important to remember that everyone's body is different, so you might lose weight slightly faster or slightly slower than someone else. Your weight loss will also depend on how much weight you have to lose. People with a higher body mass index or BMI are more likely to lose closer to 2-3 pounds a week whereas a person with a lower BMI or of older age may only lose 1-1.5 pounds a week. Here is a way to lose 10 pounds in 1-2 months through dancing and having fun.

Food Monitoring

It's important to avoid increasing your caloric intake when you start your dancing exercise program. If you add more calories, you'll either maintain or gain weight. Your body might want more calories because you'll be increasing your metabolism. You can count calories and use measuring cups and spoons or you can just make a log of exactly what you are eating and then replicate it in the weeks following. You can also focus on food groups and food exchanges to track your calories while eying amounts instead of measuring them. An ounce of chicken, for instance, is about the size of a deck of cards.

Managing Dance Time

To lose weight by dancing, you should strive for at least 20 minutes of time with an accelerated heart-rate at least 4-5 days a week. You should start with a 5 minute warm-up and end with a 5 minute cool-down which means 30 minutes, 4-5 times a week. Rather than watching the clock, manage your time through music as described in the next section. Set an alarm for your total dancing time on your cell phone or a clock that you can then hide. It will make the time go faster.

Calorie Burning Dance Moves

The key to burning calories is to move your whole body. The best dance moves include the old standby move of a step with one foot and then bringing the other foot next to the first one and then going the opposite way. Add arm movements that go at least up to the shoulders and your heart will start pumping. You can also jog around the room. You'll be surprised how tired you get if you have your legs shoulder width apart and you just twist and alternate bending each leg with your arms doing the washing machine rotation movement at chest level. If you mix in leg lifts and knee lifts bringing your opposite elbow to the knee, you're really working your legs and abs. Then it's all about creativity and keeping moving. You can just gyrate and swing your arms like a mad person. No one needs to see you.

Music Selection

First find a free online metronome so you can determine music speeds. You can click on a certain number on the metronome and that should be the basic beat of the song. For your warm-up and cool down, you'll want music that's around 88 - 100. For your 20-minute full aerobic time, choose music that has a metronome marking between 108 - 112 for your step together dancing, and 104 for your leg lift dancing. Pick music you love that makes you feel happy.

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