Is your workout actually helping you lose weight?
Exercise plays a crucial role in
aiding weight loss. Choosing the right regime that actually helps you
meet your goal and matches your requirement is imperative to losing
weight and maintaining it in the long run. However, it can just so
happen that you do everything right but still don't see the number on
the weighing scale budge. Or even worse, you start to feel heavier than
usual.
The 'wrong' kind of exercise, if not well-suited for your
needs might just go against your goals and actually make you prone to
putting on more weight. It could also be one of the reasons you are not
seeing the results you imagined in the first place.
If you have
been training for a while and not getting to the goal you wanted to be
at, here are some signs your workout may not be the best for weight
loss. Watch out for these:
You have more lean muscle mass
Most exercises work to burn calories and
define your body, including the creation of muscle mass. What most
people are surprised to learn is that muscle mass is also a sneaky
source of weight gain. It doesn't happen right away, but most exercise
doers, experiencing a change in the weight, a month or two of training
is fairly common. Training under the expertise of a personal coach, and
following a disciplined routine would be the ideal way to fight back
this additional gain resultant of your regime.
Another reason for
sudden weight gain could be the stress-induced on your muscle fibres due
to harsh exercising, which can cause micro-tears, or trauma, which is a
form of inflammation.
You aren't active enough through the day
Spending an hour doing intensive exercise or
following a strict routine isn't sufficient for calorie burning. If you
are spending the majority of your hours in a sedentary manner, it goes
against the goal of weight loss. Even simple acts of staying active,
non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) can act as the simplest way
to burn up to 200 calories per day.
You aren’t burning as many calories from exercise as you think
Every exercise you do supports calorie
burning, which ultimately contributes to fat loss. However, if you are
not assuming the right form or performing enough repetitions, you might
be doing more harm than good. You'll be burning lesser calories than
needed. Secondly, eating back the same number of calories could also be
fairly easy, post the exercise. Hence, creating a calorie deficit solely
dependent on exercise won't provide the best results and has
probabilities of failing.
Your exercise doesn't match up to your gender
Studies suggest that men and women
respond differently to exercises, with women more biologically prone to
putting on body fat and get hungrier post-exercise than men, with a
higher risk for obese women with a higher body fat percentage. Here's
where it gets tricky. If you feel your appetite is burning up post a
workout session, you'll feel the need to take in more calories than
usual, disturbing the calorie deficit for weight loss.
Experimenting with shorter workout sessions, or distributed high-intensity sessions may help combat the problem.
Supplements may be making you gain weight
Supplements and post-workout meals are
beneficial but may also cause some weight gain after working out. One of
the primary reasons behind so is the carb content in it. Carbs in many
supplements and energy drinks supply glycogen in the body, which
increases water retention. The fluctuating water weight is more commonly
experiences whilst trying out endurance supportive exercises such as
running or cycling. Hence, it's important to pick out the right kind of
energy drink, follow good pre and post-workout meals which would limit
additional carb build up.