By far, the best way to lose weight is through cardio workout. Of course this should be combined with some level of dieting to achieve maximum result. It wouldn’t do anyone much good stuffing on fat building foods while trying to lose weight.
However, do you know that even your best cardio workout routine could be the very thing preventing you from losing weight? Have you tried out exercising vigorously in the past only to hit a kind of frustrating plateau where no matter how hard you try, you just can’t seem to lose anymore of those dreadful pounds? This might shock you, but your workout routine itself may be the very thing preventing you from losing further weight.
You’re about to discover something really key when it comes to how the body works and reacts to exercise and dieting so please pay attention.
Studies have shown that the way you eat determines how your body adjusts itself to storing or burning fat. The human body is essentially designed to preserve itself and so, it naturally adjusts to diet regimes in which you tend to eat less by maximizing fat storage from each meal, thereby making you store fat when in fact all you’re trying to do is lose it.
The same goes for fitness workout routines that follow a specific pattern and predictable pace. The body analyses the rate at which it burns fat and after a while, it adjusts itself by burning less fat for the same set of workout routines, notwithstanding that you do them more vigorously or more frequently. This explains why when you start out a cardio workout routine, you tend to see immediate results which, for some inexplicable reason, start to decline with the same set of routine executed at the same pace.
The following are the top reasons why most people quickly hit the weight loss ceiling in their average cardio workout routines:
1. Boredom!
If you’re not a natural runner, the chances are you will quickly get bored in doing cardio workouts of 45-60 minutes several times a week. When you lose enthusiasm, set goals from your fitness workouts will take a natural dip.
2. Fewer Calories Burned Every time You workout
As said earlier, the body adjusts quickly to predictably long or short cardio workout routines and thereby reduces the rate at which it burns fat. Running a mile when you start out on cardio workout could be pretty tasking if your body is not already conditioned to do it but the same mile would seem less rigorous when your body has been conditioned to do it regularly. This means you burn less calories for the same workout.
3. Non stimulation of your metabolism
Most slow speed cardio workouts do not stimulate the body’s resting metabolism and so, while you lose calories during your workout routine, you tend to lose nothing afterwards. This negates the long term of effect of your weight loss goals.
The Solution
The most effective solution to preventing the body from hitting a weight loss plateau is to adopt a cardio workout routine known as interval training. Interval training is just a cardio routine that alternates the use of high speed and low intensity workouts during your fitness routines. This stimulates the body metabolism and ensures that the body burns calories both during the actual process of exercising as well as afterwards.
If you’re serious about losing weight and staying fit in the long term, you definitely want to find out a whole lot more about interval training.
