Have you ever wondered why you have been working out in the gym and yet you have not lost much weight? In fact, you may have gained some weight.

The problem is compensation.

  • You get hungry after the exercise and eat more on the days you work out
  • You think you have worked hard enough and deserve a reward. So, you stop by Starbucks and have a muffin. While you have burned of 200-300 calories in the gym, half a muffin neutralizes it.
  • You tend to move a lot less than usual after you got home because your muscle is aching.

Doctors encourage even the oldest people to exercise, as there are many advantages:

  • Enhance heart health
  • Prevent diseases
  • Improve mental health and thinking ability

The problem is not the exercise itself, but the way we’ve come to define it. Frequent low-level physical activities throughout the day may work better than occasional bout of exercise.

For weight lost, fat burning exercise is more important. Aerobic exercises such as running, cycling, swimming, burns fat during the exercise. But the fat burning stops when the exercise stops.

Anaerobic exercises such as weight training, circuit training, high impact high intensity training, and burns 9 times more fat. The fat burning continues 3-14 hrs after the exercise stops. So, you can be burning fat while sleeping!

For weight lost to be effective, fat burning exercise must be accompanied by a low-fat, low caloric diet. For more information on how to lose weight check out my earlier post.

In short, get active and move more. For those of you who have no time to exercise, take the stairs instead of the escalator. Park your car further away from your destination.  If you are taking the bus, alight one bus stop earlier and walk the rest of the way.

What are you doing to move more? Share with me.

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