Working Out Like Crazy But Still No Results?
Have you committed to some crazy intense cardio routine BUT it just isn’t working?
Today, I’m going to break things down for you. What you may be doing wrong and HOW to fix things to ensure you get the results you want. I’m also going to take a quick dive in to the science of WHY cardio doesn’t solve everything. Let me tell you, once you KNOW the reasons behind it, you are going to want to make those adjustments STAT!
BUT before I get to the workouts I just have to say that a workout routine without addressing your food first will never work. Food will always give you the best results initially. If you’ve been in our community awhile you have heard this before as I’m always talking about this. Research has found that 70-90% of your results will come from your food! That old adage, “Abs are made in the kitchen” is true friends. In our community, we practice the food philosophy first. I will always tell you to get your food 100% dialed in before we even LOOK at your workouts. Once you are ready, adding in workouts are a MUST. Your workouts will help you sustain your weight loss and take your body transformation to the next level EVERY SINGLE TIME!
Now, lets chat workouts. I am always hearing a lot of women doing the same thing and making the same common mistakes. A few years ago I was working in the gym and a new client, Casey, came to me. A 45 year old Mama with two kids, Casey was DESPERATE to release the weight she had put on after her 2nd baby. Her youngest was now three and she had been working out for awhile. She had quickly lost the first 10 lbs but now wanted to lose the last 10 lbs which were just not coming off. As we chatted about what she was doing she told me she was heading to the gym, hopping on the treadmill and running at 6.0 for an hour EVERY SINGLE DAY. And she wasn’t losing weight, she was GAINING. Of course she was frustrated! An hour on the treadmill every single day at 6.0 is no joke! But what was going on inside of her body might surprise you. Every time Casey got on the treadmill her body would say, “I know what’s coming!”. Her body KNEW she was going to be on the treadmill for an hour running at 6.0. Her body KNEW she was going to need a lot of energy to pull this off. Instead of burning calories, her body stored them to make sure she had enough energy to get through that long workout. This long duration cardio where you get your heart rate UP and keep it steady is the old school way of working out! Not only does it NOT work, it can be counter productive when it comes to fat loss.
Now I know you are probably shocked right now and thinking, “But, Simone, doesn’t your body always burn calories when you work out?” The answer is NO! And here is the SCIENCE! Our bodies are smart. Like really really smart. They are always looking for ways to ensure we survive and have the most amount of energy. For this reason, we need to find ways to trick them and shock them into burning more calories. There are two specific ways to shock the body into burning calories.
Cardio. No, not the long duration cardio that Casey was doing. With Cardio, you want to be doing high intensity interval training (HIIT). This will give you a series of high intensity periods and a series of low intensity periods interspersed with rest periods throughout. So, like this, if you are running on a treadmill, you will split up your training into intervals. In those intervals you would have periods where you go all out by sprinting for 30 seconds, then jog at a slower pace for 30 seconds THEN walk for 30 seconds to bring your heart rate back down. The benefits of this HIIT training are astounding! It’s going to improve your aerobic capacity and strengthen your heart. It’s going to cut your training times in HALF! Yes, you read that right! This is why in our community our workouts are 30 minutes or less. If you are doing a true HIIT workout then there is no way you can do it for more than 30 minutes. HIIT workouts shock the body into burning more calories because your heart rate is constantly changing with each interval. This confuses your body as it doesn’t know what to expect. And this confusion is what tricks your body into burning MORE calories.
Integrate strength training. I’m a huge supporter of strength training. Did you know for cardio you burn 10-12 calories per minute and for strength training you burn about 8-10 calories per minute? Essentially, you burn the same amount of calories with both cardio and strength training. Now, this will blow your mind! With cardio, you burn your 10-12 calories per minute and that’s it. You do not continue to burn calories. With strength training, you burn you 8-10 calories per minute AND THEN continue to burn calories for up to 72 hours after! On average, you are going to burn an extra 25% more calories. Also, for every 3 lbs of muscle you build, you are going to burn an extra 120 calories per day doing nothing! WHAT?!?
The key to losing body fat and keeping it off is strength training. Lean muscle is the driving force behind your metabolism and the only way to increase your metabolism or burn more calories at rest is to increase lean muscle through strength training. This does NOT mean you have to get big and bulky ladies! You are not going to get big or bulky from adding strength training into your routine a few days a week to get healthy. In order to truly rev up your metabolism and get rid of body fat once and for all there is just no substitute for strength training. Strength training is often overlooked because it is believed that building muscle won’t help you lose weight. Nothing could be further from the truth! Bottom line, when you build muscle you do three things; you burn more fat, you build strength and prevent injury, you reshape your body. Strength training will tighten, firm, tone and target those trouble spots that you just can’t seem to release.
Now, going back to Casey. Casey switched to interval training and added strength training to her workouts using the SAME formula I have used for the last 22 years and continue to use in our community today. Which is basically a mixture of strategic and intentional cardio and strength training sessions throughout our workout week. We also implement two days of rest days which can be just as important when it comes to your results. We also made sure her food was 100% food was dialed in. For her, it turned out she actually wasn’t eating enough. She was working out like crazy but reducing her calorie intake as well making it impossible for her body to burn glucose for fuel. We need fuel if we want to get the best out of our workouts. So remember if you are adding workouts in, you have to eat enough. You need to ensure you eat enough calories and never allow your body to go into starvation mode. In our community, I encourage you to check in with your macros calculator every month to ensure you are eating the right amount of calories for you and your activity level.
No, cardio doesn’t solve everything. The problem with doing only cardio is that you will eventually plateau and stop seeing results. Walking or jogging is ok if you are just starting out on your workout journey but this will not be helpful for long term results or keeping you injury free.
Remember, do NOT be afraid of adding strength training in as the more muscle you have the less fat you will have as well.
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