Greetings!

Welcome to the third issue of Survival of the Fitness!

Working out — we all know what this is like. Some of us may be working out more than others. So why is it that the workouts don’t seem work?

Five Reasons Why Your Workout Is Not Working

There are several reasons why you may be working out and still not be losing weight. Here are the top five possibilities.

1. You are on a workout program that makes you eat too much

According to studies conducted, mane people tend to eat a lot more calories when they take up exercising. That’s because they have the mentality that since they’ve already worked hard to burn some calories, they have earned those extra calories.

Even if you do exercise, it will not be enough for you to burn off whatever extra calories that you are putting on. For example, a 45-minute run may burn about 400 plus calories, but this is still far from burning 1,200 calories (or more) for a slice of chocolate cake.

So instead of piling on the calories just because you are exercising, try to maintain a healthy balanced diet with a calorie count that is what your body needs to maintain or to lose weight.

2. You are totally wiped out after your workout

If you are doing a program where the workout leaves you totally drained, then you may not be doing your body any good. If you finish your workout feeling exhausted and sore it could be that you are pushing your body too hard.

Your workouts do need to be challenging but if you over train yourself you will be causing more harm than good. Overtraining can also lead you to insomnia, a weak immune system and even sugar cravings which could easily lead you to gain more weight.

Instead of trying to kill yourself in the process, try to follow a workout that is most appropriate for your fitness level. You need something that is hard enough that it will challenge your body, but something that will not leave you feeling completely drained.

3. During your workout you are burning fewer calories than you think

This is one common problem among many people, especially when they rely on machines to tell them how many calories have been burned. Did you know that most machines such as the treadmill can easily overestimate your calorie burn by a whopping 30%?

Instead of relying on machines, go for “distance covered” sort of readings to gauge the calories that you can burn. For example, to burn 300 calories, you can either walk 4 for miles, jog for 3 miles or cycle for 10 miles.

4. You have a workout that is not well balanced

As with other things in life, you need variety. You shouldn’t just pick a workout and just do that one workout. You will not be able to get the results that you want. Seeing how there isn’t any one activity that can give you the results you want, you need to have several varieties.

If you’re only doing strength training or only concentrating on cardio you won’t get the opportunity to build lean muscles and your body may not be challenged in new ways. After a while, you may plateau.

Instead of concentrating on just one type of workout, add variety and rotate your strength training, core exercises, and your cardio in your weekly workout so that you keep on engaging your mind and body.

5. Your workout is really old

If you have been doing the same workout with the same routines and the same weights for the past several months, then perhaps your workout is just stale. You need to increase your weights or try out routines that you’ve ever done before.

The reason that you need to shake things up a bit is that over time your body can become accustomed to the workouts that you have been doing. Your body ‘learns’ how to do the movements and so finds the movements easier to do.  When the movements become easier the calories burn will be less.

So try to switch things up in your workout. You can try using heavier weights, adding more intensity, or even trying out new moves and yoga positions. As these are all new to your body, they will be a new challenge and can make your workouts more beneficial.

Let’s all make sure that our workouts are working us out!

Till next week…. 

Kind regards,

Jeff