3 Mistakes Women Make When Trying to Lose Weight
Losing weight is hard; especially for women.
Guys can lose weight FAST!
They stop drinking a few Yuenglings and start working out a couple of days a week and…poof—weight disappears.
Women, I feel your frustrations.
To make matters even worse, the advice that is given to you is one of the main reasons you don’t look and feel the way you dream of.
Today, I want to discuss three mistakes you could be making that is hindering your weight loss and what you can do instead if you’re doing them.
All You Need is Cardio to Get Rid of Your Belly Fat
When your goal is to lose weight as fast as possible, the first thing you usually attract is cardio.
It’s common to think if you burn more calories, you lose more weight. As shown in multiple studies in the past like this and even this, cardio seems like the best thing to do if you want to lose weight.
However, when you dive into the nitty-gritty you’ll find that doing only cardio won’t help you “see and feel” the change you desire.
When we look at just doing cardio for weight loss we have to first account for what weight loss is defined as.
For the studies referenced above, weight loss refers to the number on the scale going down. Which actually isn’t the “only” thing you want to see change.
Imagine, if you lost 20 pounds but didn’t have any tone, no definition, no strength, flabby, and just a bit smaller than you previously were. I can assume you wouldn’t be thrilled about the weight loss. I know firsthand how frustrating that can be especially when you put in so much time and effort.
What you’re really looking for is FAT LOSS; A change in body composition.
If your goal is to maintain muscle and keep your metabolism high and lose as much fat as possible so you can have tightness, strength, and tone while your body drastically changes size—it’s going to take more than just cardio.
Is weight training better than cardio?
Let’s dive into one of the studies mentioned above.
A group of researchers wanted to figure out what type of exercise was most effective with weight loss. They took a group of participants and divided them into two teams.
One doing only cardio and the other doing cardio and a full-body weight training program.
The group who did only cardio lost weight.
From the initial reaction of the study, it looks like they had more success than the combination group but when you dive into the details you find some fascinating data.
The cardio only group lost 1.66 kg of body fat and unfortunately, .10kg of muscle.
Conversely, the group who did a combination of cardio and full-body weight training lost 2.44 kg of body fat and GAINED .81 kg of muscle (see Figure below.)
So not only did the combination group lose weight but they gained muscle.
Which the gained muscle attributes to…
a boost in your metabolism
helping keep the weight off long-term
building and maintaining your strength
and shaping your body.
The best way to lose weight
When you think about losing weight think about losing fat.
You won’t lose fat by just doing cardio.
Add in a combination of both rather than just doing cardio by itself.
I recommend doing at least 2 days of full-body weight training before you add in cardio.
Your priorities for weight loss are as followed:
Diet/Nutrition
Weight Training
Cardio - Interval/HIIT Training
Cardio - Steady Pace
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2. You Need More Ab Training to Lose Your Belly Fat
As you’re getting started with exercise, it’s common to think that if you want to focus on your belly you do exercises that make you feel a burn in your stomach.
When you type how to lose belly fat on google, you’ll get a zillion ab exercises. You don’t need to be an expert to guess what you should do first when you hit the gym.
The problem with this thinking is it won’t actually help you see any changes.
In 1983, Katch et al. wanted to see if a sit-up exercise routine would help target belly fat. Bodyweight, total body fat (underwater weighing), and fat-folds and girths remained unaltered. They found that the ab exercise didn’t reduce fat cell size or fat thickness in the abdominal region.
Another study in 2011 showed the same findings: an abdominal exercise program did not achieve greater abdominal fat loss than a non-exercising group consuming the same amount of calories in the diet.
How fat loss works
The body carries fat in stored cells called triglycerides. Triglycerides are stored energy and can be used when the body needs it.
Before these triglycerides are used, they must be broken down into smaller cells called fatty acids and glycerol, which are able to then travel in the bloodstream to move to where energy is needed.
When exercising the body uses fatty acids and glycerol from anywhere in the body—not just the area that needs it.
So doing crunches or planks targeting your abs won’t stimulate fat breakdown in your abdominal region, because the body can use whatever is already in the bloodstream and it always wants to find the most efficient way to get the energy.
In conclusion, your body isn’t partial to where it loses body fat. Where it happens first is based on a lot of factors you can’t control like genetics, gender, and age.
So instead of wasting your time doing only ab exercises, your best method to focus on trimming down belly fat is to have a different approach.
Focus on this
Be in a calorie deficit (eat less food than your body needs to maintain). Go to >>> https://tdeecalculator.net/ to calculate how much food you should be eating to lose weight.
Focus on a full-body training program that hits all muscles including abs. This has been shown to be more effective than targeting exercises (Rosenburg et al.) Do this 2-3x per week.
Sprinkle in some high-intensity interval exercises that have a brief intense period followed by a recovery period. This has been proven to be more beneficial (Boutcher). I recommend your work to rest ratios should be 1:2 or 1:3. Do this 1-2x per week.
3. Lifting Weights Will Make You Bulky Not Sexy
No way you want to look like that guy you saw in the gym lifting more weight than Hercules. That’s why lifting lighter weights and doing more of your body pump classes instead of heavy weights sounds reasonable.
“I don’t want to get big and bulky. I just want to tone the muscle I already have.”
If you have a TV or computer you know first hand how manipulative and confusing the fitness and health industry can be.
Someone’s product or beliefs can slowly become yours the more they keep showing it.
One of those beliefs are that you can change the shape of your muscle to a more lean and long appearance versus bulky by doing things like lightweight cardio classes like body pump/combat, yoga, pilates, barre, and many more.
Unfortunately, we’ve seen this not have any merit when researched.
What we’ve found is the body can’t change any significant tissue length from ANY exercise.
So no matter how much yoga or barre you do, you wouldn’t see a proven difference in the transformation of your muscle because muscle only changes in length from the nervous system.
The muscle can’t get longer from exercise but it can get stronger.
And you’ll want stronger muscles because it will drastically increase the shape of your body, allow you to pick up your kids or anything that has some significant weight without any help, and increase your metabolism so you can eat more food without the fear of putting body fat on.
The great news is there’s a way you can get leaner (if you want of course), stronger, and have a more toned appearance by training your body in a scientifically proven way in combination with a diet that fits your dreams.
It’s normal to be afraid of putting on too much size from lighting weights and most people will tell you it’s NOT possible because:
Your body can’t produce the hormones to support it.
You’re not strong enough to lift weights even capable of it.
They’ve been trying for years…if only it was that easy.
But the truth is…none of that has anything to do with your concerns. Yes, it will be hard for you to put on “bulk” because of your lack of muscle-building hormones like testosterone and growth hormone but that doesn’t mean it’s not entirely possible you can’t get bigger if you combine working out with a poor diet.
Here’s what to do
Focus on properly progressing your workouts while watching your training volume and cleaning up your diet.
To keep progressing in your workouts you need to make sure that you’re…
Increasing your reps over time by using rep ranges instead of hard numbers. For example, if you were doing squats you would do 8-12 reps instead of 10. That way you can start with a relatively heavyweight at 8 reps and increase by two reps each workout until you can do more than 12. Once you can do more than 12, you increase the weight.
Changing your workouts up every 6-12 weeks. This is a big range but that’s because you can focus on building strength in an exercise for a long-time and still see progress. Switch up your workouts a bit but don’t change it up too much or you’ll miss out on all the breakthroughs you can create by getting strong.
Watching your training volume if you feel you’re likely to put on size quicker than most. Stay with about 10-12 sets per muscle group and monitor how your body changes. Adjust based on your results.
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The limiting factors that are holding you back
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