Have you stopped losing weight?

Have you ever invested plenty of time and money into exercise not to see any physical results?

I have: played hours of basketball,  done a fair bit of circuit training, spent money on exercise equipment and exercise dvds as well as followed various diets and whilst I saw some small results now the weight loss has just stopped!  Then I read this article ‘The Truth about Exercise’ in  Focus magazine (Issue 237 , January 2012), and it all made sense.

This article outlines that weight loss and exercise are not so straight foward as you may think.  So if you are exercising and not losing weight it may not entirely be your fault.

Here are some interesting facts I learned from the article and would love to share:

Fat

• A pound of fat contains more energy than a pound of dynamite, so can you even imagine how much energy you would need to do to burn fat?

Food Intake

• Most people who start new exercise programs actually eat more, with the justification that ‘oh i’ll burn it off tonight when I work out’

Weight loss just stops happening

• Have you ever started to lose weight and then stop? As you lose weight your metabolism reduces to adjust to the less weight your body is carrying.

Biology

• The ‘set point theory’ states that your body will do everything to avoid fluxuating your weight.  Think of it like this, we know that the human body has it’s own way of keeping our body temperate at 37 deg, well our body also has an internal weight sensor.
• The body naturally makes weight loss difficult.

Exercise:

• Try and be realistic: Ideally you should try to reduce your body weight by 10% and give yourself plenty of time… not 1 month… but months of persistence.
• Mix up your exercise and do not exercise at a steady pace. High intensistiy interval training is the way to go, but make sure that you increase your goals over time (bodyrock tv is great for this – remember to write down your scores to measure your improvement)
• Push yourself to exceed previous goals.  Even when your brain tells you to stop try to push a little further. A little extra push ever time will result in better overall results over time.
• Measure fitness levels but your oxygen input into the body during exercise. This is measured by VO2 Max over time. You can do this online with this simple online calculator or if you have time for something a little more complicated try this online resource.

The source of this article comes from a TV program that will soon be shown on BBC 2 called Horizon: The Truth about exercise. It is said to broadcast in January but I haven’t come across anything yet. I will do an update post as soon as I see the program. Until then learn more about the team behind the research: