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Why Am I Not Losing Weight With Cardiovascular Exercise ? Myths, Mistakes and Misunderstanding About Weight Loss

Updated on November 15, 2013

Myths or Mistakes About Dieting

There are many nonsense myths or wrong understanding about burning fat and losing weight. Among them are: “If I want to lose weight, I must eat as little calories as possible”, “The more I sweat during exercise, the more fat I can burn”, "You must do plenty of cardiovascular exercise to lose weight". But why, people are not losing weight with these beliefs? In fact, dieting failure caused by some of these myths are discouraging people to continue exercising to lose weight.


Why am I not losing weight with cardiovascular exercise I am doing ?

One of the greatest myths about dieting is: You must do a lot of cardiovascular exercise to lose weight. Unfortunately it is not so. Excessive cardiovascular exercise burn both muscle and fat – a very inefficient way of burning body fat. You need muscle to help burn the calories you take in daily. Each kilogram of muscle in your body can burn 100 additional calories per day. Intensive cardiovascular workout does burn the body fat, but also the muscle, which you don’t want to burn. Muscle in your body is essential to burn the fat. So, you are actually wasting your time and effort with excessive cardiovascular exercise. An appropriate amount of cardiovascular workout done with resistance workouts is what you need to effectively lose body fat and trim your body.

Why am I not losing weight when I am on low calorie diet?

Receiving low calorie of food is perceived as “famine” by your body, and the natural reaction is to fight for survival by storing the body fat. So, you are actually losing weight in the wrong way, if you are eating too little or starving. The secret to successful weight loss is not to eat very low calorie, but eating the right balance of food, such that the total daily calorie intake is not too far below your normal intake. Say for example, if you are taking in 3000 calorie a day, reduces it to 2500 calorie. Weight loss will be slow, but it will work in the long run. Discipline and consistent are the keys.

Can I trim the hips, buttocks, abdomen, arms, or waist with spot reduction?

Unfortunately no. Studies done has shown that there is no such thing as isolated sport-reducing exercises. If would be nice if you can choose to do 1000 sit ups to burn fat on the abdomen. However, it does not work that way. Excess calories intake are stored in the fat cells called adipose tissue, and they are spread all over the body. If the caloric expenditure is sufficient enough, it will cause fat reduction in the entire body, including that particular target area. You have no control over which fat cells burn or store energy.

I sweat a lot during work out, do I burn more fat ?

Another weight loss myth is : The more I sweat, the more fat I burn. The amount of sweat does not reflect how hard you work out. High intensity work out will burn more calorie than low-intensity work outs, regardless of how much you sweat. People sweat more in hot dry weather or with more clothing. Some people are born to sweat more than the others. Exercising in extremely hot condition like in hot yoga or in plastic weight-loss suit will definitely make you sweat heavily and lose weight immediately, but the lost weight is mostly water. The weight will bounce back as you replenish your fluids by drinking water after work out.

Do Sports drinks help to exercise more effectively?

The answer is no. Sports drinks contain mostly sodium and sugar. Sodium helps the body to retain water while sugar replenishes the energy used during exercise. If you don’t exercise enough to burn up the extra calorie intake from sugar and sweat away excessive sodium from the body, then you may gain weight with sports drinks. So unless you are training for a marathon or triathlon, plain water is all you need.

4 Weight Loss Myths

Work Out Reduces Anxiety and Depression

A recent study ran by University of Colorado reported that work out can actually reduce anxiety and depression. Whether you are forced to exercise by your doctor or gym instructor or do it voluntarily, both will help to reduce stress, anxiety and depression.

Copyright

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