sweatin' to the oldies... or something similar...

Richard Simmons may be a bit... eccentric.. and a bit.. flamboyant... but he's fun! And... he had it right, you've got to sweat hard to burn a lot of calories. Sweat alone will not cause you to lose weight, there are a number of factors to consider.

1. Find your target heart rate. You need to raise your heart rate to a "cardio" or "fat burn" level in order to really start burning calories. The American Heart Association has some good tips and a chart here. You'll also find charts similar to this in your local gym.

Age	Target Heart Rate (HR) Zone (60-85%)	Predicted Maximum Heart Rate
20	120 - 170	200
25	117 - 166	195
30	114 - 162	190
35	111 - 157	185
40	108 - 153	180
45	105 - 149	175
50	102 - 145	170
55	99 - 140	165
60	96 - 136	160
65	93 - 132	155
70	90 - 128	150

2.  Cardio burns fat, lean muscle burns more fat. The combination of cardio and weight training =  a power packed punch of a calorie killer! If you're just starting out, try to do 30 minutes of cardio and then weight training. You ideally should alternate between arms, core and legs. So, if on Monday you did bicep curls, lat pull downs, tricep extensions and chest press on Tuesday you should do leg press, calf extensions, abdominal crunches, squats, etc. Sparkpeople has a great list of exercises with demonstrations, check them out.

3. Variety is not only the spice of life, it's the key to continuing to burn calories. If you walk on the treadmill at the same pace for the same amount of time 3 days a week for 3 months, sure, you'll burn some calories, but you'll also likely stop losing weight. Your body is getting stronger and more used to exercise, when that happens, it's not as difficult for you to complete that exercise. What may have had you huffin' and puffin' in week one, will let you sing or have conversations without losing your breath by week 4. For this reason, you must mix it up. Add more time on your cardio, jump to a higher level, switch to interval training on the elliptical, run at 6mph instead of 4mph, add more weights to your weight training or more repetitions.

Calorie Torching Tip: Circuit Training
Basically Circuit Training is a combination of exercises to work all muscle groups within a small time period. Each "circuit" might be made of 2 minutes of jumping rope, 2 minutes of punching bag, 2 minutes of a combination lunge and bicep curl. This causes muscle confusion, just when your body gets used to the jump rope, you move on and are now working your upper body and abs with the punching bag (if you hop around like a boxer you can also incorporate your lower body). This also helps if you are bored with some of the gym exercises but still want the benefits of working out. You could create a "circuit" of 3 to 5 exercises. Mix it up however you want. Here are some examples.