The 8 Biggest Weight Loss Mistakes You Are Making
Too Much Cardio
It\’s surprising to many people that doing too much cardio can actually make you gain body fat. In fact, probably 20% of all the clients who seek our personal training services are already doing aerobic exercise 4-6 times per week, 30-60 minutes each day. And despite all that exercise, they have too much body fat. How does that work?
Your body only knows survival. It doesn’t know aesthetics. So the more steady-state (constant speed) aerobic exercise you do, the better you become at doing it. You become what’s known as “fuel efficient.” But this about it for a second. What does it mean when your car is fuel efficient? It means that it goes a longer distance on less gas. The same thing happens with your body. You can go a longer distance on fewer calories. Great adaptation if you want to be an endurance athlete, but terrible adaptation if you want a beach body.
Another downside of too much cardio is that it causes the release of a hormone called \”cortisol.\” This is the hormone you release when you\’re under stress. And that\’s the hormone that causes you to have belly fat.
So there are 2 reasons why doing too much cardio can actually make you put on body fat.
Cereal for Breakfast
This is among the poorest breakfast choices available. First of all, it doesn’t fill you up, so you’re hungry again half an hour or an hour later.
Second of all, most cereals are laced with sugar (and if you’re thinking that your cereal doesn’t taste sweet, the effect on your body is just the same if it has lots of carbohydrates). After a 10-12 hour fast (which is sleep), your body’s stress hormone, cortisol, is at its peak. You briefly decrease that cortisol with breakfast (which triggers the release of insulin due to the high carbohydrate content), and then spike it again, because cortisol opposes insulin (insulin decreases blood sugar and cortisol increases it). This causes the body to cannibalize itself because cortisol is a breakdown hormone, and it breaks down muscle.
And even if we forget about the carbohydrates in the cereal, there are lots of things inside the cereal that aren’t healthy for you. Chances are if it’s on the ingredients label, and you have to be a biochemist to pronounce it, it’s not good.
Even cereals that are marketed as healthy aren’t healthy. A good general rule I picked up from Holistic Nutritionist, Shannon Kadlovski is that if something has to advertise how healthy it is, it’s probably not healthy. Yes, there are exceptions, but that’s the general rule.
Increasing Fruits
Many people are surprised to learn that increasing your fruit intake can actually make you put on body fat. If for years and decades you\’ve been eating a traditional North American diet (lots of processed foods, lots of pasta, potatoes, rice, etc.), you can\’t tolerate sugar very well, and it doesn\’t matter whether that sugar comes from pastries or fruit. In many people, eating fruits makes them put on body fat.
Does that mean they should never eat fruits? No, absolutely not. Fruits have a lot of benefits, but save the sweetest ones (like bananas and grapes) until you\’ve lost some body fat, so you can tolerate more. The leaner you are, the more carbohydrates you can tolerate.
Not Resistance Training
Resistance training (also called \”weight training\” or \”strength training\”) is one of the most important things you can do to lose body fat. It has many wonderful effects on your body.
For one thing, resistance training helps you build muscle. Muscle is what drives your metabolism. In fact, if you are losing weight through diet alone, a good amount of the weight you lose will be muscle. You don\’t want to lose muscle, because it\’s the most important thing for healthy aging (yes, more important than your aerobic endurance and your flexibility).
Exercising Too Hard
Believe it or not, exercising too hard can actually stop fat loss right in its tracks for some people (not for everyone).
This comes back to an earlier point about the connection between body fat and hormones. If your levels or cortisol are either too high or too low, you will have a very difficult time losing body fat by exercising very intensely. It seems counter-intuitive, but if you\’re one of those seriously stressed-out people, you\’ll lose more body fat with gentle exercise as opposed to really hard training.
Not Managing Stress
The previous point and this one are very interrelated. I\’m a very results-oriented person. If something doesn\’t get my clients to their goals, I don\’t use it as a method. And I\’ve seen specific, measurable results by managing a person\’s stress levels.
I\’ve mentioned this a number of times, but there is a very strong connection between hormones and body fat. And stress negatively affects all hormones.
Your thyroid (the \”gas pedal\” on your metabolism) slows down.
Your insulin (the hormone that tells you to store fat) goes up.
Your DHEA (the anti-aging hormone) goes down.
Bad things happen. By teaching our clients to manage stress, and to take specific nutrients that decrease the negative effects of stress on their body, they start to lose body fat.
Eating Whole Grains
While whole grains are certainly better than conventional grains, many people just can\’t tolerate them. They will be bloated, and have a hard time losing body fat. Their immune system sometimes recognizes a specific component in whole grains as a foreign object, and attacks it. During that attack, your body becomes puffy with water.
It\’s not the case for everyone, but if you\’re one of those people, as soon as you replace grains with greens (veggies), you look and feel better fast (in 2 weeks or less).
Not Differentiating Between Weight Loss and Fat Loss
The biggest mistake clients make when it comes to their body is not differentiating between weight loss and fat loss. People look on the scale, and see a drop of 10 pounds. But what is it 10 pounds of? Chances are that some of it is fat, but some of it is also water, muscle, and other things that are beneficial for you.
You don\’t want to lose muscle. You don\’t want to lose bone mass. You just want to lose fat.
So what we do with all of our clients is we measure their body fat. Not just their weight.
Want to Avoid These Mistakes?
Call us at 647-271-8672 to set up a free initial assessment to help you:
– Lose body fat
– Have more energy to keep up with your kids
– Continue doing the activities you enjoy doing (like dancing, golf, tennis, and others)
– Live long enough to see your grandkids
– Stop thinking that you\’re too young to feel this old
– Get ahead in business
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