You are constantly walking, you are exercising hard, and yet your weight is still the same. Is this familiar? Stagnating of your weight can disappoint you and kill your motivation. But do not even think to quit from active life, and don’t even think that it doesn’t bring you any good. Maybe the problem is some bad habit of yours.
[alert style=”white”]Maybe you workout with empty stomach.[/alert] Do you regularly skip meals before starting a physical activity? It’s time to stop this habit. If you exercise on an empty stomach you are not doing a favour for yourself. Your body spends a lot of energy while you exercise, and if you haven’t given it some food, the easiest way for it to feed itself is to draw from its own muscles. So it gets contradictory because building more muscles is the reason you exercise at the first place. That’s way, you need to eat something, 1.5-2 hours before working out. It is recommended to have some fruit with that meal, or something else sweet, but light.
[alert style=”white”] Maybe you reward yourself for the hard workout.[/alert]
“I exercised for an hour, so I earned two pieces of cake” – maybe in your head, exercise justifies the extra calorie intake, but don’t be surprised when the weight scale does not show the desired numbers. A lot of women allow themselves delicious treats, because they are convinced that the workout will burn those new calories. But often their plan falls apart and their weight goes up. Why? Because physical activity do not burn as many calories as you imagine, but significantly less. On the other hand, sweets have a lot more calories than you thought, and there goes your exercise. For example, one hour aerobics burns about 450 calories and quarter pound of chocolate has about 500 calories.
[alert style=”white”] Maybe you eat too little.[/alert] Yes, it is true that if you want to lose weight you should eat fewer calories than you burn, but too small amount of calories can be a serious obstacle to the reduction of weight. The human body has built up its own defence mechanism to survive in extreme conditions. When you enter too little calories, it slows the metabolism and begins to store fat because our body “thinks” that starvation will continue. So, at some point, despite the hard exercise you won’t lose a pound. Generally, female human body should not eat less than 1,200 calories per day.
[alert style=”white”] Maybe your workout becomes routine.[/alert]
It’s great when you convert your workout into a habit, but not when the exercises become routine that you do effortlessly. Repeating the same patterns of exercise is not a good strategy for weight loss because the body gets used to the exercises and begin to burn fewer calories every next time.. To lose weight and to have a maximum effect of exercise, you need to constantly change the exercises and increase their intensity, the sequence and rest between series.
[alert style=”white”] Maybe the weight is too small.[/alert] Training with weights builds your muscles and exactly muscles are the one that speed up your metabolism, which leads to burning more calories. Working out with light weight won’t increase your muscle mass. Choose a weight that will tire your muscles after 12 repetitions. Once you feel comfortable to make 15 repetitions with one weight, increase the weight a little. Of course, you should not feel strong sharp pain, but minor muscle pain is normal.
[alert style=”white”] Maybe you don’t sleep enough (7-8 hours).[/alert] Perhaps shortening the time for sleep is your way to insert exercise in your busy day. That doesn’t mean it is the right thing to do. Lack of sleep can reduce the benefits of exercise for your body and maybe even have the opposite effect than desired. In order for your muscles to operate at full capacity, you need to give them the necessary rest. Lack of sleep reduces your energy, slows down your metabolism, and it does not support your weight loss efforts.
[alert style=”white”]Maybe you have a health problem.[/alert] If you do everything that is recommended for weight loss and still notice that the weight increase instead of decreasing, you should consult a specialist. There might be some medical condition that affects your weight. You can also gain weight due to certain medications you receive. In any case, it is necessary to consult with an expert.
[alert style=”white”] Maybe you expect results too soon.[/alert] If you expect to reduce your weight significantly in the first 1-2 weeks since you’ve started exercising, you can only disappoint yourself. To see the benefits of exercising should have at least 2-4 weeks behind you. The amount of weight loss is an individual phenomenon, and patience is the key to your success.
ALSO VERY IMPORTANT
What if you don’t need to lose weight? If you exercise, but the number of pounds on the scale does not change, maybe your body is trying to tell you that your weight is ideal for the height of your body. The more closer to normal weight, the harder it will be able to further reduce the number of pounds. Also, remember that weight does not always reflect the results of exercise. Many people measure their progress on the scale, but sometimes it can show the same numbers while your appearance changes for the better. To get a true picture of the progress of the exercise, besides the weight, measure the volume of certain parts of the body. For example it is possible that you weight the same but your waist lost a few inches.
