I'm working out and eating well, so why am I not seeing the results?
You’ve been hitting the gym or fitness classes regularly yet you’re not seeing the results you want - the weight is not shifting or it did initially but now seems to have stopped. Here are three things that you might be doing that will be preventing you from getting into those beloved skinny jeans.
You change your exercise programme too much (or too little)
So getting in shape isn’t an immediate thing and it needs some amount of dedication. Unfortunately many people get bored after doing the same routine a couple of weeks and change it up far too soon. The first few sessions are where your body is making all the neurological changes that help your body master the movement. So by changing exercises too quickly, you’re just going to confuse your muscles and they’re just not going to work correctly and efficiently enough. Likewise if you stick with the same programme for too long, what results you see initially, will stall when your muscles stop feeling the challenge and plateau.
What should I do? Stick to a programme for a few sessions, then gradually change the variables – add more weight, more reps, longer time etc – rather than completely changing the exercises.
You’re not in the fat burning zone
If you’re doing low intensity activity, then you need to work out for a long time to see the fat loss. Doing higher intensity means the body burns more calories and continues to burn them after your workout (the afterburn effect). And by high intensity I don’t just mean doing explosive jumping and leaping moves. Anything that gets the heart rate up is good and lifting weights will give you a similar effect.
What should I do? Vary your workouts. They don’t all need to be high intensity and I’m certainly not saying there’s no value in going out for a long run/swim, but try and add in one or two strenuous workouts a week to see the results.
You’re eating the results
You have to do a LOT of exercise to cancel out, say a chocolate bar, so using the ‘I’ve earnt it’ statement is a misnomer. Exercisers tend to eat more calories after their workout than they actually burnt off, so ruining the effort they’ve just put in.
What should I do? Try and resist the temptation to overeat. Your body does need the protein to repair the muscles so opt for something healthy like chicken breast, eggs, nuts/seeds.
There are of course other things that could be preventing you from getting the results you want, but try these first off! Let me know how you get on.
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