The best exercises to lose weight: the ones you will do

01The short answer

02The MET, in two sentences

The Compendium of Physical Activities, updated in 2024, gives each observed activity a MET value: a multiple of resting expenditure. One MET is about one kilocalorie per kilogram of body weight per hour; the Compendium's website gives the formula the calculator uses: METs × 3.5 × weight in kilograms ÷ 200, per minute.

These values were set for adults aged 19 to 59; the Compendium has a separate scale for people 60 and over, with no karate or Zumba®. They describe an activity as observed, not your session: a beginner class looks more like the 5.3 of slower practice than the 10.3 of a moderate pace.

03The calculator

Choose an activity, its duration and your weight. The result gives the session's expenditure, and the share added on top of what you would have spent at rest.

04The table

The calculator's values, with their 2024 Compendium codes. The Compendium does have a “boot camp” entry (02008, 5.0 METs), but it describes a military-style course; neither Joanie's station-based Bootcamp nor Strong Nation™ has an entry of its own. The “intervals” and “circuit” rows give reference points without being those classes.

05Choosing: what matters more than the number

The Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines call for at least 150 minutes a week of moderate-to-vigorous activity, plus muscle strengthening twice a week; for weight loss, the American College of Sports Medicine associates more than 250 minutes a week with clinically significant weight loss. In other words, the recommendations are counted in minutes per week: the best activity is the one that helps you reach them.

Three questions help you choose: do I like it enough to come back? Does it fit in my week? Do I learn something? And strength training does not speed up weight loss, according to the ACSM, but it increases muscle mass: a class that includes it does two things at once.

06Joanie's classes: three ways to move

Joanie Roussy's women's classes, at noon on weekdays, cover three formats: Strong Nation™, 45 minutes of high intensity to music, with no equipment; Bootcamp, a circuit of stations with and without equipment, for all fitness levels; Zumba®, cardio through dance. No experience is needed. See the women's classes.

Adult karate, which is mixed, is also open to everyone from 14: it mixes aerobic work, technique and body-weight strengthening, and adult beginner classes explain how the start goes.

07Walking, running, riding around the island

For days without class, Le Sud-Ouest has the Lachine Canal multi-use path, at the edge of Griffintown; Verdun has its riverside path (piste des Berges) along the St. Lawrence; Nuns' Island has the Samuel-De Champlain Bridge path to Brossard, open all year. The calculator does the math for walking, running or cycling. The dojo is at 550 chemin du Golf, suite 010: the schedule and directions.

Sources

1. 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities — pacompendium.com/
2. Obesity Canada, Canadian Adult Obesity Clinical Practice Guidelines, chapter “Physical Activity in Obesity Management” (2020) — obesitycanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Physical-Activity-in-Obesity-Management.pdf
3. CSEP, Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines (2020) — csepguidelines.ca/
4. Donnelly et al., American College of Sports Medicine position stand, Med Sci Sports Exerc 41(2) (2009) — doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181949333

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