You’ve been working out for months now, perhaps even years but you still don’t seem to manage to shift the excess weight – in fact, perhaps you’ve even gained weight!
What on earth are you doing wrong?
Going to the gym three times a week and doing the same old routine will eventually catch up with you and you simply stop losing weight, in fact, you are more likely to put on weight.
What are those fitness mistakes?
Read on to find out the seven fitness mistakes that cause weight gain.
1. You Don’t Eat Properly Before Working Out
If you don’t kick start your metabolism, you won’t lose weight.
The body, as you know, is a finely-tuned machine and like any machine it needs fuel to run properly.
If you don’t give it that fuel, it won’t perform.
Your metabolism won’t have anything to burn and you need to shift that metabolism so it works for you all day.
Have a good breakfast, then workout.
Choose food like eggs (a great source of protein), a slice of wholemeal toast (without butter) or porridge, which is a slow-release source of energy to keep you fuller for longer.
You should be able to burn off your breakfast but when you finish working out; your body will still continue to burn those calories.
2. You Don’t Exercise Enough
Once a week is not enough.
Your body needs to work out regularly to show real effects.
So if you’re one of those people that thinks it can workout once a week and carry on eating the same, you won’t lose any more weight and your body will get used to its routine, so you might even gain weight.
Up your exercise.
If you only do it once a week, add in a second workout and see what that does to your weight loss.
Or, if you don’t have time to exercise more, try walking up the stairs instead of taking the lift, walk to the next bus stop, perhaps stop taking the car for short journeys – anything that requires you using your legs will help factor in some extra exercise.
3. You Exercise Too Early
You might well choose to workout first thing in the morning.
That’s fine but not on an empty stomach (see point one).
However, there is some research that says that exercising later in the day can help to burn off more fat.
It is a fact that muscular strength and body temperature peak in the afternoon so you might find that at this time of day, you find it easier to do your workout routine.
This coupled with having eaten more, helps you perform better and you may even train harder.
Try changing up when you workout to see if it makes a difference in weight loss and fat burning.
4. You’re Not Doing Enough Cardio
It’s all very well going to the gym and weight-training but if you don’t combine it with enough cardio, you won’t burn fat, you’ll simply bulk up instead.
This is one of the biggest mistakes people make.
Your body needs to speed up its fat-burning and the only way you do that is by mixing up your weight training with your cardio.
Start off by warming up, then factor in at least 20 minutes of cardio (to get your heart pumping and ready to burn calories), then perform your weight training exercises.
This should help you to burn off fat rather than turning it into hard muscle.
If you want to bulk up, that’s fine, but if you don’t, then weight training alone will not help.
5. You Spend Too Long Working Out!
Ever wonder why you’re putting on weight?
After all, you work out for hours every week!
Well, this can also be a terrible mistake when it comes to adding on the pounds.
You should think about what you’re doing at the gym, yes, we can all spend hours working out but it’s quality rather than quantity.
Don’t work out for hours at the gym, instead, do it in short, effective bursts.
Actually, you only need 20 minutes of high-intensity exercise three times a week to really kick start your calorie burning.
Spending an hour in the gym doing weights and cardio without intense effort will soon catch up with you, your body gets used to it and stops burning fat effectively so instead, by carrying on eating the same diet as you always have done before, you start to put on weight.
Speak to your trainer or the person supervising at the gym and come up with a new workout to maximize your efforts.
You need to constantly challenge yourself to reap the maximum benefit.
6. You Do Cardio Three Times a Week
Perhaps you’ve read the above and you already workout three times a week, doing at least 20 minutes of cardio.
Well, there is a difference between working out and staying active!
If you’ve been running three times a week for 20 minutes at a time but you’re gaining weight, you need to exert more energy because like point 5, your body is used to what it does and you’re not challenging it enough.
Yes, you’re active, but you’re not over-exerting.
Run faster, run for longer and you will start to shift that weight you’ve gained!
7. You Don’t Weight Train
To really get fit and lose weight, you need to combine both cardio with weights.
You may well have avoided weights because you didn’t want to bulk up but actually, using the right weights with the right number of repetitions will help you to get rid of that weight gain.
Keep it light (three to eight pounds, depending on your strength) to stop gaining big muscle but increase the number of repetitions (12 to 15 at a time) and combine it with at least 20 minutes of cardio.
This is the difference your body needs; it will build lean muscle rather than bulky muscle.
3 LBS IN 3 DAYS: You won’t BELIEVE what she looks like NOW!
I was recently having lunch with my friend Rachel. You would never know it looking at her now, but a few months ago Rachel used to be more than 40 lbs overweight.
Back then, losing weight seemed like it wasn’t possible, especially when she has 2 kids, a husband, a job, errands to run…She felt like she didn’t even have time for herself.
She had decided to just settle on the body she had, continuing to cover it up with baggy clothes and never being as confident as she really wanted to be.
Rachel had pretty much given up on EVER getting the body she wanted…
That’s when I introduced her to green smoothies and how perfect they are for busy women who feel like they don’t have time to lose weight.
In fact, my good friend Drew who happens to be a Board Certified Health Coach and the one who got me hooked on green smoothies, recently wrote this great article about rapid weight loss just for busy women:
See how busy women are losing 3-8 lbs in 1 week
Turns out smoothies are the perfect weight loss secret weapon…especially for WOMEN!
No wonder why celebrities like The Housewives and The Kardashians swear by these “magical” green drinks to keep them slim all-year-round.
So fast forward to today, and Rachel is literally glowing.
She has dropped 34 pounds over the past 2 months and is bubbling with energy.
She even told me that she doesn’t wear as much makeup anymore because her skin is so much better now than it used to be. Not to mention she now fits into all those clothes she always wanted to wear!
And you know what?
Transformations like this are happening EVERY DAY to women just like you!
So that’s all for today. I love inspirational stories like Rachel’s and just wanted to share it with you.
Here is the link to Drew’s article again that explains exactly why smoothies work so well AND so fast for weight loss, especially for busy women like you:
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