As anyone who struggles with their weight knows, dropping pounds can be incredibly difficult. Even if you are regularly working out, you may still find it hard to get to a healthy weight. This can be incredibly frustrating – and may even convince you that trying to lose weight is hopeless.
In reality, there are many reasons why you may be stuck at your current weight. Our bodies and our metabolisms are complicated. Working out is often not enough to lose weight – you have to address all of the issues that may be affecting your body, like food, sleep, hydration, and stress.
At Ideal You, we help people lose weight quickly in a way that is both safe and sustainable. Below, we have outlined some of the reasons why you may not be dropping pounds even if you’re working out – and offer you a better alternative.
Reason One: You’re Doing Too Much Cardio
Doing cardiovascular exercise is great for our bodies. It can increase endurance, improve mood, prevent chronic disease, and benefit heart health. Yet like anything else, too much of a good thing can be a problem.
Many of us do cardio, such as running, biking, or spending time on the elliptical, when we want to lose weight. While cardio can help us lose weight initially by improving our metabolisms, the effects don’t last. In fact, doing too much cardio can actually sabotage your weight loss efforts as your body may lose muscle mass – which can slow down your metabolism.
Strength workouts, like lifting weights, help to build muscle. When you add muscle mass, your weight may go up – but the added muscle will help you burn fat and ultimately get closer to your goal size. So if you find yourself working out daily without seeing a change on the scale, you may need to reconfigure your workouts.
Reason Two: You’re Eating Too Much
You’ve probably heard someone say that they’ll need to exercise a certain amount in order to “earn” a certain treat – or perhaps you’ve even said something like this yourself! It isn’t unusual for people to talk about how many calories they’ll need to burn in order to eat a particular food. While this may help some people achieve balance, for others, it can lead to overeating.
Exercise is good for your body, but it isn’t a free pass to eat as much as you want. Too many of us fall into a trap of thinking that because we spent an hour on the treadmill in the morning, we can have fries at lunch or a big bowl of ice cream after dinner. The math simply doesn’t add up for most of us.
Losing weight is complicated, and involves more than just “calories in, calories out.” If you are using your workouts as a way to justify overeating, then you may find yourself in a weight loss plateau – or even gaining weight.
Reason Three: You Aren’t Giving Your Body Time to Recover
It may seem counterintuitive, but taking time to rest between workouts can actually improve your body’s ability to lose weight. If you aren’t giving your body time to recover, you may actually be sabotaging your weight loss efforts.
According to scientists, because of the way that our bodies burn fat, recovery between exercise sessions is a vital part of any weight loss program. After we exercise, our bodies burn energy for muscle cell recovery and to replace glycogen within muscles. In other words, our metabolism actually rises after we exercise as our body uses excess fat and calories to recover.
When we work out too much, it can reduce our body’s ability to lose weight. If you are struggling to lose weight through exercise, one factor could be that you aren’t giving yourself enough time to recover between sessions.
Reason Four: Your Metabolism Has Slowed Down
When we initially start a weight loss plan, it is often easy to drop pounds quickly as our body reacts to reduced calories and increased exercise. Through this process, our metabolism may slow down due to muscle loss and other factors. This means that even if you keep doing exactly what you initially did to lose weight, you may not lose any weight.
Our bodies are complex. When we just do one thing – like exercise – it may help us lose weight in the short-term. But over time, our bodies adapt and change, which can make it harder to drop pounds.
Instead of focusing on just one thing, like exercise, it is important to take a comprehensive approach to weight loss. Any number of things can impact the way that our bodies burn calories, from sleep to stress to hydration. Addressing all of these issues can help to ensure that you don’t get stuck in a weight loss plateau.
A Better Option for Weight Loss
Exercise is an important component of a healthy lifestyle, but it isn’t the be-all, end-all for losing weight. By itself, exercise may not be enough to help you lose weight. Doing too much or the wrong kind of exercise can actually inhibit your weight loss.
There are alternatives that can help you lose weight in a safe, sustainable way. The Ideal You program works to improve your metabolism, without the need for daily workouts, so that your body burns fat instead of storing it. On Ideal You, you’ll eat real food and take all natural supplements to help you reach your goal weight.
Millions of Americans have tried – and failed – to lose weight through diet and exercise. Ideal You is different. It addresses the imbalances caused by food, lack of sleep, and dehydration that may prompt our bodies to hold onto weight. The Ideal You program helps you lose weight safely, and keep the weight off.
To understand why exercise alone isn’t effective for weight loss, it is important to understand the fuels that our bodies use: fat and glycogen (the storage form of glucose). We require oxygen to burn fat, while our bodies can burn glycogen without oxygen. When we work out, our bodies start by burning glycogen before moving into a fat burning stage. If our workouts are too short or if we become out of breath, the body may continue to rely on glycogen rather than burning fat.
With Ideal You, your body is trained to burn fat instead of sugar or carbohydrates – without exercise. As a result, your weight loss happens much more quickly, and without a feeling of deprivation.
By creating a comprehensive plan to address all aspects of weight loss, you can achieve your ideal weight without strenuous exercise.
Want to Lose Weight? We Are Here to Help.
For most people, losing weight is not easy. If you find yourself exercising hard and still carrying excess weight, the problem isn’t you – it is your weight loss program.
Ideal You doesn’t involve shakes, bars, or frozen meals. We offer a healthy, sustainable approach to weight loss using a well-rounded system with multiple components to help you get to where you want to be. Ideal You can help you lose 20+ lbs. In just 40 days! To learn more or to schedule a free consultation with Ideal You Weight Loss, reach out to us today at 888-488-7258 or book your free consult online.
Sources:
- https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/01.CIR.0000048890.59383.8D
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2885974/
- https://www.huffpost.com/entry/4-indicators-that-youre-doing-too-much-cardio_b_9321966
- https://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/physiologgfatloss.html
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/weight-loss-plateau/art-20044615
- https://www.active.com/articles/how-the-body-burns-fuel-during-exercise
