Dropping Too Many Calories to Start
One of the biggest questions people have when it comes to starting a new diet is how to manage their carbohydrate, fat and caloric intake. Many people make the mistake of cutting too many calories out of their diet which can do more harm than good.
When you first cut your carbs you will see a decline in bodyweight which can be deceiving. Those results will be short lived simply because of how our body adjusts and adapts to these changes in our diet. You can only drop so many carbs before there simply is no more room left to cut. The problem is where do you go from here?
The idea here is to eat enough to keep satiated while at the same time losing fat. This sounds difficult because it is, and it can be hard to find a balance between the two. A better route to go is to make smaller cuts in calories over a longer period of time, essentially you are stretching out those results as far as you possibly can.
You will come to the point where you will plateau as far as losing body fat is concerned. If you are cutting carbohydrates in a controlled steady way you should be able to cut your carbohydrates little by little to continue to see that drop in body fat as a result.
Not Taking Advantage of High Intensity Interval Training
We have been told throughout our entire lives that the way to maximize body fat loss is through low intensity, long duration cardio exercise. The problem with this concept is that what we are seeing today contradicts these traditional thoughts.
When we exercise for prolonged periods of time, whether it be through moderate or intense exercise, our body becomes more stressed over time. As our body becomes stressed, it releases a hormone called cortisol, which encourages the production of fat cells as a result.
This means that at some point during exercise the body begins to produce these stress hormones which obviously hurts us when it comes to fat loss. In response athletic trainers today have developed programs focused around high intensity interval training or HIIT.
If you’re not doing HIIT already, you should be for a variety of reasons. First of all it is an exercise foreign to you meaning your body isn’t familiar with it and you’re going to struggle. You aren’t going to be as efficient in doing this program as a veteran would be, and thus would will burn more calories as a result.
Second, with a HIIT program you can get more out of your workout in a shorter span of time. HIIT programs are developed around the concept of exerting yourself almost to maximum capacity with little rest in between.
Not Lifting Heavy Enough
Another big myth when it comes to weight training and weight loss is that you should prioritize low weight and high repetition exercises over high weight and low repetition exercise.
This myth was perpetuated by the idea that doing more repetitions means that you are doing more work, which simply isn’t the case if you’re working with reduced weight. In fact depending on the difference in weight between the two, you may be doing less work with more repetitions.
There is one huge reason why you should try to lift heavier during your workouts in you’re interested in losing that extra body fat, your metabolic rate post workout is higher as a result. That means you will burn even more calories when you aren’t even at the gym.
Resting Too Often
When it comes to burning fat and getting ripped through your weight lifting routine, keeping your heart rate elevated is key. Keeping our heart rates at about 80-90% of our maximum helps us boost that metabolism and burns that additional fat.
Try to keep your rest periods as short as possible. If you find yourself struggling to do so because you are still tired from your last set, squeeze in another exercise in the down time. Reducing your down time during exercise can boost the calories you burn by up to 50% so remember to keep moving as much as possible during your workout.
