Why to start exercising for weight loss with 10 minutes a day, and what to change at an exercise plateau

In weight consultations I often hear people say they know they should exercise but have no time, or that they are just not sporty. Many have joined a gym several times and given up before the first month was out.

That is why the book I co-wrote, Eat to Succeed (published in Korean, 2026), gives the whole chapter after the 3.6.9 eating plan to movement. The book says it is not that you lack talent but that you have not yet found the exercise that suits you. Often the reason exercise did not last lies less in the exercise itself than in the setting.

If you gave up after putting up with boredom on the treadmill and other people's eyes, decide how you like to move before you choose your next exercise. The book says people prefer different ways of moving and describes four exercise types.

If you are not sure which is closest, answer the five questions in the book with whatever comes to mind first.

• Alone or togetherdo you feel easier exercising alone, or do you like exercising with others?
• Routine or varietydo you want to do the same exercise regularly, or switch between different ones?
• Indoors or outdoorsare you more comfortable at the gym or at home, or do you prefer parks, mountains and the sea?
• Goals or processdo records such as kilograms, kilometres and minutes matter most, or how you feel and how much you enjoy it?
• Intensitydo you like a hard workout that leaves you soaked in sweat, or something gentle and comfortable?

You do not have to fit one type exactly. You can be solo and explorer, or social and competitive. The book says what matters is knowing what you enjoy. The gym is not the only exercise. Walking, dancing and hiking count too.

The book also names having no time as the most common reason people do not exercise. When people think of exercise they picture a gym membership, workout clothes and an hour every day, so it feels too much before they start. Ten minutes feels doable. The 10-minute routine in the book needs no equipment and can be done at home or at work.

• Warm-up, 2 minutesmarching on the spot for 1 minute · arm circles and leg swings for 1 minute
• Main set, 7 minutessquats · push-ups (knees on the floor is fine) · plank · lunges · mountain climbers, 1 minute each with 30 seconds' rest in between. If the plank is hard, holding it for 30 seconds is enough.
• Cool-down, 1 minutestretching

Once 10 minutes feels familiar, after two weeks make each move 1 minute 30 seconds for 12 minutes in total, and after a month 2 minutes each for 15 minutes. At around two months add burpees or bridges and build up to 20 minutes. Some people get there in a month and some take six months. The book says the person to compare yourself with is not someone else but yourself yesterday.

One study compared whether short exercise really counts. In Canada in 2016, men who had not been exercising cycled three times a week for 12 weeks. One group of 9 did a 10-minute session with three 20-second all-out sprints and easy pedalling in between, and the other group of 10 cycled at a steady pace for 45 minutes. Peak oxygen uptake rose by 19% in both groups and insulin sensitivity improved to a similar degree.

This was a small study of 19 men, and it measured fitness and blood sugar markers rather than weight. The 10-minute routine in the book is not all-out cycling like this experiment either. It is not a study that shows 10 minutes of exercise leads to weight loss, but it does show that even a short session changes the body depending on intensity.

Many people do an hour of exercise in the evening and then spend the rest of the day sitting. The book introduces NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis), the energy used in all everyday movement other than exercise. Sitting, standing, walking and housework all count.

A study at the Mayo Clinic in the US measured this. In 2005, 10 lean and 10 mildly obese people who did not exercise wore devices for 10 days that recorded their posture and movement every half second. The group with obesity sat for about 2 hours longer a day, and this habit hardly changed when they lost or gained weight. The researchers calculated that if they moved as much as the lean group, they could use about 350 kcal more a day.

This study followed 20 people for 10 days, and the 350 kcal is a calculation, not measured weight loss. Still, it shows that time spent sitting matters as much as time spent exercising. Here is what the book suggests.

• Get up every 30 minutesset an alarm and move for at least 30 seconds. Going to get water or doing a light stretch is enough.
• Stairsstart with one floor and add floors as you get used to it.
• Stand while workingif you have no standing desk, use a high table or a box, and stand for just an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon.
• Park further away and squat in the ad breakspark further from where you are going, and when the TV ads come on, get up and do squats or a plank.

Gyms packed in January are often quiet by March. The book says motivation is what gets you started but a solid system is what keeps you going. With only enthusiasm and nothing to hold it up, it does not last more than a few weeks.

• When, where and how longinstead of promising to exercise more, decide on something like 10 minutes at home at 7 every morning, and link a situation to an action, such as "when I get home from work, I put on my trainers".
• Pair it with something you likekeep your favourite music or drama for when you exercise.
• Make starting easyleave your workout clothes by the bed, your trainers by the door and your mat rolled out in the living room. Instead of "exercise for 30 minutes", set "change into workout clothes" as the first step.
• Reward yourself straight awaymark the days you exercised on a calendar and note how many days in a row you have done it.

On days when the weather is bad or you are tired, you will want to skip it. For these days the book suggests a minimum workout. If 30 minutes is too much, do 10. If that is hard, do 5. If even that is too much, do just 10 squats. The point is not the amount but not breaking the chain of the habit, because once you start taking days off it soon slips away.

Set goals around the process, such as exercising five days this week, rather than something far off like losing 10 kg. It also helps to set goals that are not about weight, such as climbing one more flight of stairs or getting up on time feeling refreshed.

After two or three months of steady exercise, when your weight has dropped and your body has changed, there comes a point when the number stops going down even though you are doing the same workout. The book describes this as a natural process as the body adapts to the stimulus. This is not the time to stop exercising but to move to the next step. What to change depends on how you have been exercising so far.

Many people see resting as giving up, but the book says that sometimes rest is the answer. If you are overtrained, even a week off lets the body recover.

At a plateau, if you only look at the scale, it seems nothing has changed. But even when your weight is the same, your body fat percentage may have gone down and your muscle up, and your waist may be smaller and your clothes looser. The book says there is no need to fixate on a single number. I ask patients to check body composition, waist measurement and how their clothes fit together.

If you are still doing the same exercise and neither your weight nor your body composition has moved for several weeks, it is time to look at your diet again. Start by finding calories that slipped by unrecorded, such as dressings and drinks.