Are you smashing yourself in the gym or running every day and not seeing the results you expect? It could actually be detrimental to your results if you’re overdoing it and feeling exhausted. When it comes to losing weight, breaking a plateau, or just maintaining a healthy weight, one of the biggest mistakes women making is doing far too much strenuous, cardio-based exercise, neglecting weight-bearing exercise, and never leaving rest days. We spoke to Bec, Founder of Health with Bec, to find out just why this may not be the way to go.
Bec, founder of Health with Bec, is a qualified nutritionist, specializing in weight loss. She helps women worldwide who have ‘tried it all’ quit yo-yo dieting, slim down, and lose the bloat – without the hunger. Bec is also the podcast host of Body Bites with Bec, a podcast for health-conscious women, filled with bite-sized lessons and expert interviews on all thing’s food, weight loss, and optimal health to help women piece together their own healthy weight balance puzzle and thrive at the potential they deserve.
Why Is This Weight Gain Happening?
Overexercising with cardio and neglecting weights may cause women to lose their precious muscle mass in their attempts to lose weight. Our bodies don’t just lose fat in a calorie deficit, they lose muscle too! And, we don’t want this, because muscle is our most metabolically active tissue, meaning that the less we have, the slower our metabolism gets and the harder it is to lose weight. It can put women’s bodies in a constant state of stress and inflammation, especially if it’s a lifestyle that’s already busy, stressful, and possibly lacking quality sleep. When our bodies are under too much stress, it can be difficult to shift weight. When this continues for too long, hormone imbalances can develop, making it even harder to reach a healthy weight and reduce weight gain.
The Solution
Try cutting cardio-based exercise back to just 1 – 3 times a week max depending on your energy levels. Ensure you’re getting a minimum of two weight baring exercise sessions into your week (this could be a reformer Pilates class, a session with a PT, weights on your own in the gym, or a strength-based class at your gym for example). Make sure you’re getting 1 or 2 rest days per week as well.
It’s far more useful and effective to think of nutrition first and focus on cutting your calories through the food you’re eating, instead of using exercise as your primary calorie-burning tool. The more you exercise the hungrier you are anyway… Think of exercise as a booster to your routine to increase your energy, preserve your muscle mass, boost your mood, support your weight loss efforts and keep your motivation for healthy eating high. When this mindset switch is made, results will follow. Like they say… it should be 80% nutrition, 20% exercise.
Bec’s Experience with Reducing Exercise and Upping Nutrition
Bec’s personally been an over exerciser in the past too, neglecting weights and not realizing that it was slowing down her metabolism and putting too much stress on her body, making it part of the reason that she was finding it so hard to remain a healthy and happy weight. Now, her routine is simple and enjoyable, involving just 2 reformer Pilates classes a week, 1 HIIT session, and 2 – 3 long walks and she’s never felt stronger or been able to maintain her weight with so much ease. This helps stop weight gain or Bec.
If you want all of the guesswork taken out of calorie counting so that you can cut down your exercise too and ensure you still see results. Bec’s recipes and meal plans are large, tasty, and easy and help busy women who have tried it all, slim without hunger. And keep it off! Thousands of women have lost weight and kept it off, with lots of them doing only a light amount of exercise. You can read all about the success stories of the women she has worked with here and explore her eBooks and programs here. It’s time to retire the myth that we have to smash ourselves in the gym every day – it’s not necessary!
