Summer seems to bring out the exerciser in all of us. Nice weather, fewer clothes, and for many, more time. Without the burden of the school year and extra activities, we can devote more time to working out. The gym floor is busier and the aerobics and spinning classes are crowded. People are sweating, turning red, and spending extra time training. But, the chief complaint I hear from people is, “I’m exercising like crazy, but I haven’t lost any weight!”
If you've increased your exercise time, but aren't getting the weight loss results you expected, it could be that you've also increased the number of calories you consume. It doesn't take much food to cancel out the calories burned through exercise. And while it's true that exercise burns calories and that you must burn calories to lose weight, exercise has another effect: it can stimulate hunger. Then it causes us to eat more, which in turn can negate the weight-loss benefits we just accrued, and on and on and on.
You might be eating more without even realizing it. Maybe you feel that because you've had a good workout, you deserve a reward or maybe you feel hungry due to the increased calories your body burns post exercise. Whatever the reason, you need to plan your food as carefully as you plan your exercise. Remember that water hydrates better than any sports drink and doesn’t add calories. If you eat before you exercise, choose a glass of skim milk, a small container of low or non-fat yogurt, or a piece of fruit ( around 100 calories each) and skip the sports drinks and energy bars which can add anywhere from 200-350 calories before you even start.
After you’ve sweated up a storm, what do you do? During a study of two weight loss groups (both were given a list of foods to include or leave out of their diet, but only one group exercised) conducted by Dr. Timothy Church of LSU, he discovered that the group who exercised felt they deserved “compensation” after a hard trip at the gym. Consequently, they either ate more or moved less throughout the day. Do you swing by Starbucks for muffins and coffee or hit Panera for a bagel? Even the “healthy” smoothie at your gym can pack about 400-500 calories. If you’ve worn your heart rate monitor (and that’s how you’ll really know what you’ve burned. Remember, the machine calorie counters are LIARS!!) , you’ll see that you’ve likely only burned 200 or 400 calories, which you're going to neutralize with that first sip or big bite!
The bottom line to weight loss is burning more calories than you eat. Calories in vs. calories out. If you eat 2,500 calories a day and only burn 2,000, you gain weight; if you eat 1,500 calories and burn 2,000, you lose weight; if you eat 2,000 and burn 2,000, maintain weight. Duh!!! Exercise alone has little impact on the scale because it's far too easy to eat back all the calories you burn exercising. Walking very briskly for 30 minutes burns about 150-200 calories—the equivalent of a bowl of oatmeal. Even if you run 7 miles in an hour burning about 800 calories, you can wipe it out with a plate of pasta and caesar salad.
So make all of your hard work count for something! Diet and exercise work together, so write down what you eat and write down the results of your workouts. Keep exercising, but don’t use it as a free pass to gluttony!!
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