Why Exercise Alone May Not Be Enough to Lose Weight

One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding weight loss is the fact that to lose weight, all one needs to do is exercise. Often, you will hear of people running for miles daily or going to the gym and working out every day, but not seeing any weight loss.

You may have even witnessed it yourself. Seeing the same guy jogging daily at the same park for months but he ís still as fat as he was the first time you saw him. Guess what? He ís not alone. Thousands of others are just like him.

Now, of course, some exercise is better than no exercise and credit must go to them for trying. They are definitely fitter now than if they were just lazing at home on the couch. But, we are concerned with weight loss and only results matter.

That being said, based on the earlier paragraphs, we can only deduce 1 thing. Exercise alone is not enough. There is another part to weight loss. It ís called the diet.

The diet element in a weight loss program cannot be overestimated. In fact, say that successful weight loss is 70% diet and 30% exercise. In bodybuilding, there is a saying, Abs are made in the kitchen. This is very true.

What you eat will have a direct effect on your weight loss results. More so than your exercise. Let's examine why.

A typical intensive 1 hour cardio workout may burn about 400 to 500 calories. That ís an hour of hard work. Sweating, struggling and panting. Eating a big mac meal will put about 540 calories into your body. This is a meal that you can eat in 20 minutes. It ís easy and fun.

Can you see how you cancelled out an entire 1 hour workout in 20 mins. You can eat thousands of calories in a day but itís next to impossible to burn thousands of calories in a day. You could try but youíd be exhausted and burnt out within a few days.

Therefore, it is crucial to watch your diet. You exercise and training must complement your diet and not the other way around. You need to avoid the sugary foods, white bread, pasta, white rice, and other carbohydrates that are unhealthy. Consume your protein religiously and eat the required amounts of fat.

Calculate how many calories a day you need to lose weight. This can be easily done by using an online calorie calculator at http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

Once you know how many calories you need, make 20% of those calories come from carbs and the rest from protein and fats. Contrary to popular belief, eating fats does not make you fat easily. Eating carbs causes you to put on fat more easily than eating fats. So, it is a great idea to control your carbohydrates intake strictly.

Once you're following your diet plan well, eating in the right proportions, you can easily calculate how much exercise you need to do to burn fat. 1 pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories, so a daily calorie deficit of 500 will mean that you lose 1 pound of fat per week.

So, now that you are armed with this info, you can do workouts aimed at burning 3500 calories per week. Then your fat loss will definitely be achieved and you will get the body you desire and see the scales showing changes for the better. It ís just great.
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