Why aren’t you losing weight with exercise alone?
Posted on March 9, 2015
You’ve decided to lose weight and want to do it by exercising every day. The health benefits of exercise are incredible , however focusing solely on exercise is unlikely to help you in losing weight. The reasons for this are multifaceted but today I want to talk about one in particular and that is Food as a Reward. I don’t mean you exercised in the morning so you go upstairs to your kitchen and eat the whole pig (although I’m sure it happens) I mean you worked out in the morning had a sensible breakfast and then you go to work eat your lunch in the cafeteria and then a co-worker (it’s always a co-worker) sets a box of doughnuts on the table and tells everyone to have one. This is a regular occurrence and normally you would say ‘NO’ but today you say ‘ok, I worked out this morning’. The subtle cycle of food as a reward system has begun and will continue. Most people only burn 200 to 400 calories during a workout which is problematic, as one or two ‘it’s okay because I worked out’ snacks will leave you discouraged and not losing any weight at all especially when that Tim Horton’s Apple Fritter you just ate is an astounding 290 calories (see their nutrition guide). So the next time someone slams a dessert right in front of you ask yourself this question.
‘Is it worth it?’ and if you’re answer is ‘Yes’ follow it up with ‘Even though I toned this morning?’
Your answer won’t always be no, but at least it will substantially cut down on your yeses. Which means it will cut down on what you actually care about and that is your waist!
