Great Myth – Exercise

Now don’t freak out when you see the word exercise. Do you ever wonder why you see people at the gym that are on the treadmill for 45 minutes and lifting weights but you never notice them losing weight?  Well, there is a good reason for that. The common myth is that if you are exercising you should lose weight. I used to fall into that category too. It used to drive me absolutely bonkers. In fact, when you first start lifting weights you actually gain weight which is even worse…AHHHH! But I would do cardio and light lifting like clockwork but I wasn’t getting anywhere. It’s true that your body does change but you don’t get smaller which is what we are looking for. Here is the reason, even if you work out like crazy that day you probably only burned about 500 calories. And that is on the high end. So even if you are working out like crazy but still eating 3000-4000 calories a day guess what…you are not going to lose weight. In fact, you can still gain weight even though you are exercising! Okay, so what is my point, right? My point is that you can exercise in small doses and feel great as long as you are keeping your calories in check. Now, if you love the gym and like to work out hard I am by no means telling you to stop. But you just need to find a good balance between how many calories you can eat and still have the energy to exercise. For instance, if I am only eating 1200 calories per day then I am definitely not going to have the strength to go through a tough workout. So maybe I adjust and add 500 calories to my 1200 calorie schedule to make sure I have the strength. However, for those of us that really don’t like the gym, you could do a little cardio for about 10 minutes and it will do a world of good in addition to watching your calories. A quick example would be maybe running in place, jumping jacks, push-ups and sit ups, or burpees. Find a few things that you like and do one for a minute, rest for maybe 20 seconds or so and then another one for another minute. Don’t kill yourself doing these, just get your heartrate up a little for 10 minutes or so. Remember you are already losing weight by watching your calories, this is just a bonus, and you will be surprised how just a little exercise will make you feel.