Are you constantly exercising and not seeing any weight loss? This happens more often than not. The bottom line is that you need to burn more calories than you eat. This is called a negative caloric intake. This is the only way to lose weight. Diet is the most important aspect of losing weight. Cardiovascular training is a close second and then weight training.
Cardiovascular training increases your heart rate and metabolism, which allows the body to burn more calories for an extended amount of time. Weight training will increase your muscle strength and endurance, but will not enhance the weight loss process all that much. In order to lose a pound of fat, you need to burn 3500 calories. So, if you eat 1500 calories a day, which totals 10,500 calories a week, you need to burn 14,000 calories to lose a pound.
I know this sounds like a lot, but you burn calories throughout the entire day. This is why you need to stay active as much as possible during the day. Try to avoid sitting for long periods of time. Even a short five minute walk will do wonders during the work day or other lazy days. I also recommend doing cardio after weight training for two reasons. One, doing cardio first will fatigue your muscles and limit weight training. Two, by doing weight training first, you lower your blood sugar which allows you to burn fat immediately after you start your cardio training session.
5 Tips for Weight Loss
1. Burn more calories than you eat
2. Exercise three to five times a week for at least sixty minutes
3. Hit cardio after weights
4. Stay active all day
5. Watch portion sizes and fat consumption
Wow!!!
I can’t believe how much I disagree with this article…and normally, I love your articles (I subscribe to the RSS feed)
“This is called a negative caloric intake. This is the only way to lose weight ”
Running a caloric deficit is definitely NOT the only way to lose weight – Improving insulin sensitivity through dietary changes is a much more efficient way for people used to eating a standard Western diet
– For menopausal women, restoring the hormone profile to pre-menopausal through bio-identical hormones has a huge effect on central adiposity
-And don’t forget effective exercise techniques like HIIT training. While not as effective as my previous examples, the weight loss can still be significant
“Cardiovascular training increases your heart rate and metabolism, which allows the body to burn more calories for an extended amount of time”
Unless you are an elite level cardio athlete, aerobic training is incredibly ineffective for fat loss. Metabolism quickly reverts back to normal soon after the exercise is finished. The intensity level is much too low to force any longer term metabolic increase. Once again, I would prefer a higher intensity HIIT style workout to increase the duration of a metabolic spike. As well, long duration cardio training is quite often muscle wasting – therefore causing a reduction in metabolism
And I won’t even go into the “every pound of fat is 3500 calories” statement. The science on that theory is way out of date.
I don’t mean to be an ass, but I expect better from you guys.
Thank you for your comment and opinion.
DR
What the heck are you talking about? Aerobic training is incredibly ineffective for fat loss unless your an elite level cardio athlete??? What a way to discourage people. And long duration cardio training is muscle wasting??? Sense when???? What a load of crapola! I swear it’s something different every week that counteracts the previous weeks! What will they be saying next week……I’d rather get advise from a chimpanzee.