| When you’re exercising
but not losing weight, it’s very frustrating, to say the least.
For those people just starting an exercise program, it’s extremely
important to stay motivated, and if your goal is to lose weight,
but you’re not seeing a change on the scale in the first month
or so, many people will quit. There are a number of reasons why
a person just starting an exercise program may not see a change
on the scale. For one, it doesn’t happen overnight. If you put
on an extra 20 pounds over the past year, you can’t expect to
take it off in a few weeks or even a month. The average amount
of weight lost is ½ to 1 ½ pounds per week. That averages out
to about a pound a week. However, you may not see a change for
the first month or so, and then drop two pounds on the 5th week.
Remember, it’s an average and there are a lot of variables.
Speaking of variables, the amount of water your body is currently
storing, the time of day, whether or not you have used the bathroom
before weighing yourself, the amount of sodium you have consumed
in the past few days, are just a few factors that will affect
your weight. It’s best not to get into the habit of weighing yourself
any more often than once a week because of this.
The third point worth mentioning is that the scale doesn’t take
into consideration the muscle that you may have gained in relationship
to the fat that you might have lost. Your focus should be losing
“fat” rather than losing “weight”. Ideally, you want to have as
much muscle as you can, and as little fat. The more muscle a person
has, the more efficiently their body burns fat, and the more calories
there body burns off even during rest. So isn’t it better to be
burning as many calories as possible just while sleeping? Muscle
is much denser than fat, and therefore weighs more. I like to
use the analogy of muscle being similar to iron, while fat is
like aluminum—the iron is denser an therefore weighs more.
Now, in order to add muscle which will ultimately increase your
metabolism as mentioned above, you need to be doing some type
of resistance training. That may consist of weight training with
free weights, machines, body weight exercises, or any number of
resistance methods. But this is an important part of the equation,
and fat loss is not as effective without it.
Fifth, you may not be exercising intensely enough, or for a long
enough period of time to see results as quickly as you would like.
Don’t misunderstand me, any exercise is better than none at all,
but in order to make the most of your time, you should work to
keep your heart rate up in your training zone when doing cardiovascular
exercise, and push yourself to fatigue when doing resistance training.
Now this only applies if you are healthy. You should always consult
your physician before starting an exercise program. Also, when
it comes to losing weight, which really breaks down to losing
fat, you want to increase the duration of your cardio to 30-40
minutes.
And last but not least, you should be consuming healthy, supportive
foods. If you are not feeding your body properly, you can’t expect
it to respond the way that you want. That means cutting out excessive
sugars and fats, and not overeating, while still eating enough.
Many people are under the misconception that it is better to starve
yourself in order to lose weight. While losing a pound of fat
breaks down to a 3500 calorie deficit over a week, or 50 calories
a day, it does not mean starving yourself. That will only decrease
your metabolism over time while causing you to lose valuable muscle.
So as you can see, there is no quick easy way to weight loss.
It takes time and good old-fashioned hard work. Probably the most
important ingredient in the weight loss recipe is consistency
above all else. So use good sense, seek help from a professional
when needed, and try to incorporate exercise into each day as
part of your lifestyle. If you take all the necessary steps, you’ll
see results!
©Melissa Allen, Optimum Condition. Melissa is a certified personal
trainer, Blackbelt & fitness consultant, as well as the owner
of Optimum Condition—custom fitness services and mobile personal
training. She is a self-syndicated columnist who welcomes input
from her readers, so please contact her with any questions or
comments by calling (619) 252-4993, or visit her website at www.OptimumCondition.com.
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