When you’re trying to lose weight, it’s easy to make mistakes. You could start your week off great, with an awesome, greens-only lunch, hit the gym for a solid 45 minutes, get home, and BAM! You’re sitting on the couch, shoving potato chips into your face without even realizing it.
But it’s fine, right? You went to the gym, so you did your part for weight loss today. And if that happens tomorrow, too? No big deal, right?
Well, sort of.
If you think that exercise alone will help you lose weight, you’re in for some bad news. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really matter how much you exercise if you fall back on a diet full of unhealthy foods. Studies have shown that out-exercising a bad diet is pretty much impossible.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t exercise at all. With a balanced diet, exercise can help boost your metabolism, increase your endurance, and make you look lean and toned once you do lose the weight. But regular exercise should be a supplement to a healthy diet, not a substitute.
So what are your steps to effective weight loss?
- Give your diet a makeover. This means doing all the nitty gritty stuff. Cut out sugar and processed foods, one step at a time. First the candy and soda, then the sneaky sugars hiding in the labels on your favorite snacks, then the excess carbs. Gradually, you’ll be able to cut most of your unhealthy foods for good.
- Add in the exercise. If a good diet helps you lose weight, then exercise helps you shape it. Adding in 20-30 minutes of cardio and weight training at least a few times a week will help you build lean muscle where the extra fat used to be. And because exercise boosts your metabolism, it’ll help you keep the weight off, too. With consistent exercise, your body will learn to burn calories from fat, not the sugary carbs that you’ve now cut out.
- Make time for sleep! Sleep is just as important as diet and exercise to a healthy, lasting weight loss plan. So make sure you get those eight hours!
Exercise is important, but don’t get yourself in that rut where you work out all the time and wonder why you never lose weight. In the end, it’s all about taking care of yourself.
