Lots of Exercise - No Weight Loss?

3 Reasons You May Not Be Losing Weight With Your Exercise Routine.

Reason 1:The type of exercise you do doesn't cut it.

There are lots of exercise choices, but not all choices are equal. Take for example, running vs. walking. Walking burns calories, but not to the extent that running will.

A 150 pound person will burn almost 800 calories at a moderate pace running. While walking, that same person will burn closer to 250 calories in an hour. So, clearly running burns more calories because it requires more work.

But, adding running to your routine may not be the answer why you exercise with no weight loss results. That's because running has little influence on the number of calories burned once you are done running.

Most people will burn approximately 70% of the calories just being alive, breathing, and "keeping the lights on." This is their metabolism at work. And, any additional boost you can give to your metabolism has a big impact on the number of calories you can burn throughout the day.

To burn more calories throughout the day, while making no other changes to your lifestyle, simply increase your metabolism. An easy way to do this is to add weight lifting to your exercise routine. Add muscle while simultaneously dropping fat, so you look skinnier and your daily metabolism rises by 40-50 calories for each pound of muscle added.

If you're exercising and not losing weight, take a two pronged approach to blast the fat. Add a bit of muscle to burn more calories through out the day and run 2-3 times a week to actively burn more calories. Using both approaches yields better results. Plus, you'll get a more athletic, slim, muscular build and benefit from being significantly healthier and stronger than if you only did one type of exercise.

Reason 2: Your diet needs work.

Because you're exercising, your diet doesn't need to be as tight as people who don't exercise. You can support eating more carbs and tolerate a little more unhealthy food. However, this is no excuse for overdoing it...You should still pay careful attention to your diet.

A simple and easy approach is to minimize your carbs. Most Americans take in a lot more carbs than they need to support their activity. This creates a problem, because if your carbs aren't going to be used by either your muscles or your liver, they will be transported to storage...That means they get stored in fat cells.

However, if you time your simple and starchy carbs so that you are eating them before your workout and within a window of 3 - 4 hours after your workout, you will see the fat start to strip off. Feel free to consume all the vegetables and low glycemic fruits you want through out the day.

Reason 3:You're over-training and eating too little.

Over training and under-eating are almost as bad as under exercising and overeating. How often do you eat? How often do you exercise? No weight loss results, if you're working hard in both of these areas, can simply mean that you are wrecking your metabolism.

Your body needs food and it needs time to recover from exercise. Without sufficient quantities of both, you will not only cling to your weight, you will also feel tired and lousy.

Be honest with yourself. If you are over doing it, slow down, eat more and rest more. It may take a week or two, but your body will start to readjust and your weight will drop.

I hope this article gives you some tools to get more from your exercise routine. I know how frustrating it can be to work hard, exercise, and not lose weight.