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Many people, including this blog writer have preached that you must reduce your calorie intake and if you want to lose weight. You need to burn more calories than what you eat or drink on any given day.  While this is a true statement, as with all things the devil is in the detail and it is no different with weight loss. Exercise Diet and Weight Loss are linked and must be managed together to lose weight.

Now that Christmas and New Years are over it is time to pay attention to managing your weight over the year and to meet those goals you set for your self. The following points may be of interest to readers who are trying to lose weight and not having a lot of success for a variety of reasons. Exercise Diet and Weight Loss are something we all need to deal with.

Exercise Diet and Weight Loss

We will discuss each of them in more detail.

• Exercise is only part of the weight loss story.
• Exercise is a must for weight maintenance
• Food splurges may undo your efforts.
• Exercise machines may not tell the whole calorie story.
• One daily workout may not be enough.

Don’t get discouraged if you are not losing weight as fast as you would like. Like any problem, you have to dig into the detail before a solution will present itself.

Exercise is only part of the weight loss story.

If you are not seeing the results you are expecting, it is time to examine what is really happening in your life. Calories in vs. calories out is the principal mantra. If you are exercising but not reducing your intake or perhaps even increasing your intake because you are exercising, chances are you are not going to lose any weight. Embarking on an exercise program is an excellent thing to do, but you need to examine the intensity of the program as well as the amount of calories you are taking in. Cutting your intake by a 1000 calories, combined with exercise that burns a 1000 calories every week will have an impact. Exercise Diet and Weight Loss are linked and have to be managed together.

A healthy diet is important as well. Healthy foods, vegetables and fruit will also contribute to reduced calories. If you are starting in an over weight condition, you probably already know that it is difficult to exercise with all of the that extra weight that you are carrying around. Just watch the biggest loser to find out.

It is actually easier at this stage to start exercising slowly and cutting a 1000 calories out of your diet at the same time. Exercise at least 3 days a week. As you reduce weight, you will find it much easier to lose weight and to exercise as well to build muscle.

Exercise is a must for weight maintenance.

No matter how you lose those  extra pounds, most people will find that they are going to need to be active to keep the pounds off. While you may be successful at losing weight through diet alone, over time you are going to fall off the wagon sometime and if you do, the binge eating is going to be absorbed by your body. With a combination of exercise and diet you have a much better chance of maintaining your weight as well as being much more fit as well.

Food splurges may undo your efforts.

Let’s say you have adopted the program and are managing your weight through diet and exercise. We all have temptations and it may be in the form of parties we go to , special events, or a special food we just cannot stay away from. Chances are that if you succumb to these temptations, often enough you will start to gain that weight all over again.

In addition, many restaurants serve huge portions of food. We have been all trained to finish our meals and this alone can contribute to weight gain. Split portions, share them, use take home. Whatever you do try to get the portion size under control and avoid splurging on more food than what you can handle or are losing through exercise.

Keep track of all of the calories, not just at the table. Fancy coffees, soft drinks etc contribute a huge number of calories to our overall weight gain. If you have a desk job, you are not burning many calories during the day when you are consuming these calories. Try to drink water instead!

Exercise machines may not tell the whole calorie story.

Treadmills and other exercise gear often have monitors that estimate how many calories you’re burning. This is an estimate only and an indicator of the number of calories you are burning. They are not accurate enough to plan your food intake with.

Consider that you probably will burn 70 calories in an hour just sitting at your desk  or even watching TV. If you burn 300 calories on a treadmill or some other device in an hour, you are only actually burning 230 calories in this example incrementally. This is a much lower number than what you might have thought or planned with respect to food intake.

If you are looking for net calories burned as a result of exercise, subtract 70 calories per hour to obtain a better number for use in food planning.

One daily workout may not be enough.

Whether you exercise or not the real culprit is the sedentary lifestyle that many of us lead. For example, taking the car to work, riding the elevator, sitting at your desk all day, elevator can car on the way home, watching TV at night is a typical day for many people.

Leading a more active lifestyle will help you control weight gain and exercise sessions will also help. Consider walking to work, walking up the stairs, walking at lunch time, walking after work and doing physical activities around the home in addition to 30 minutes of exercise 3 times a week will make a huge difference in your weight control battle.

The message is to “get active during the day” to control and lose weight. This activity will also assist in better sleeping habits and less stress as well all of which contribute to weight gain. Manage your Exercise Diet and Weight Loss as an overall package.

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