How to Lose Weight Playing Games with Kids

Losing weight requires more than just dieting. Exercise plays a vital role in losing weight and keeping it off. Unfortunately, exercise routines get redundant and our motivation for losing weight wanes. Playing games with kids, whether they’re your own kids or the neighbor’s kids, fights exercise boredom and helps speed up weight loss because exercising becomes fun. The extra family time is an added bonus.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Sports equipment
• Jump rope
• Sidewalk chalk
• Bike

Outside Games

1. Get the neighborhood kids together for any sports game. Basketball, football, soccer and baseball all involve a lot of running, which quickly burns calories and helps you lose weight.

2. Challenge your daughter to a jump rope competition. Jumping rope burns more calories than running if done at a steady pace for at least 15 minutes.

3. Gather up your preschooler and her friends for a fun game of hopscotch. Mix up your workout, and their fun, with different sized hopscotch boards, and add your own symbols that mean spin around, touch your toes, do a jumping jack or squat down.

4. Go for a bike ride with the whole family. Pulling a covered baby buggy behind you adds weight and makes you exercise harder.

5. Spend a day at the park being more than an observer. You can’t lose weight sitting on a bench so throw a ball, have slide races, climb trees, swing high and get a few pull-ups in on the monkey bars.

6. Swim laps and have races with your kids in the summer. Create timed races with diving sticks and play water games such as Marco Polo and Jailbreak. Increase the cardio and strength training swimming provides by going to the beach and body surfing.

7. Plan outside games on weekends when your kids have friends sleep over. Play games such as Red Rover, Hide and Seek, Freeze Tag, Water Balloon Races, Mother May I?, Red Light, Green Light and Leapfrog.

Inside Games

8. Dance your pants off to your kid’s favorite songs. Bust out some old school moves and let your kids teach you some new stuff.

9. Wrestle your son on the floor and come up with a reward for the first person who pins the other person. Kids wrestle their heart out if they know they can get out of their chores, earn a dollar, go for ice cream or buy some candy if they win.

10. Take your kids skating. In-line skates are available for rent at skating rinks and they give your legs a tough workout. You’ll work muscles skating, and keeping yourself upright, that you haven’t used in a long time.

11. Lose weight with an inside version of Hide and Seek. Modify this so you speed walk, instead of run, for home base.

Tips & Warnings

• Enjoy winter activities that help you lose weight such as sledding, skiing and snowboarding with your kids. And don't forget the good old fashion snowball fight.