What are Moderate and Vigorous Physical Activity?

How to Tell If You're Exercising Hard Enough: There is a lot of research that shows moderate intensity exercise can help in the treatment and prevention of chronic diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancer. Moderate intensity exercise also improves mood, reduces stress, and enhances quality of life.

But what exactly is moderate intensity? Moderate intensity exercise makes your breathing and heart rate increase. Some people have described it as still being able to talk, but not to sing. We've put together some ways to help you make sure that you are exercising at a level high enough to achieve the best number of possible health benefits related to exercise. Listed below are some types of exercise and how far or how fast you should go to reach moderate intensity.

Is your favorite activity of moderate or vigorous intensity? See General Physical Activities Defined By Level of Intensity from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website for a listing of the intensity levels of many types of activities.

How much is enough exercise?

Step Up. Step Out! recommends you get 30 minutes of moderate exercise on 5 or more days per week. You have many choices for moderate exercise. Research shows this is the least amount we need to get health benefits. If you wanted to, you could do 20 minutes of vigorous exercise (like running) on 3 days per week instead.

If you are overweight, you could lose some weight with 30 minutes of moderate exercise, but you may find that you need to exercise longer to keep losing weight. This may be enough exercise for most people to prevent weight gain, but diet is also important. Each person is different, so don't get discouraged. Remember that exercise helps with your blood pressure, cholesterol level, insulin level, sleep, energy level, and stress reduction, regardless of your weight.