You exercise frequently, thinking it will help you lose weight, but in fact, exercising too much may keep you from dropping pounds. Building more muscle, not eating enough and even depriving yourself of sleep in order to exercise can stall weight loss, even cause you to gain pounds. Talk to your doctor to ensure that you are making healthy exercise and lifestyle choices to support your weight-loss goals.
Muscle and Fat
Exercise, particularly strength training, builds muscle, and if you do this regularly, you will be replacing fatty tissue with muscle tissue. Your muscles will become larger, and you may even notice your weight go up. To prevent this, make sure you balance your strength training with cardiovascular workouts to burn calories and fat. Keep in mind that your body composition, or the ratio of fat to muscle, is more indicative of your health than your weight.
Dietary Factors
Exercise is only one part of losing weight. You also need to pay attention to what you are eating, because dropping pounds requires you to burn off more calories than you take in. However, if you are expending a large amount of calories through workouts and still not losing weight, it could be that you are not eating enough. This causes your body to believe that it is starving, and it will begin to store up food as fat, the Johns Hopkins Medicine website warns. Inadequate eating may also put your at risk for binging, and you might not have the energy to complete your workouts. In general, you should not consume fewer than 1,200 calories each day, unless directed to do so by your physician.
Adequate Sleep
Working out is great for your health and weight. But if you are prying yourself out of bed in the wee hours or staying up late to squeeze in that long workout, you might be doing more harm than good. Lack of sleep not only makes you more likely to give yourself that burst of energy by eating sugary foods, it may also affect the hormones that control your appetite. You should aim to get about eight hours of sleep per night. If this cuts into your workout, the University of Maryland Medical Center notes that you can break it up into 10-minute sessions throughout the day and still receive all the benefits of exercising.
Additional Considerations
While muscle weighs more than fat, it also burns more calories than fatty tissue does. This is because your body uses up more energy to maintain muscle tissue, which leads to an increase in your metabolism. So do not think that if you stop exercising, you will lose weight. Rather, consider working with a personal trainer to design a workout schedule that fits your lifestyle, and with a dietitian to help you come up with meals that support your weight-loss goals.
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