What To Do When Cutting Calories & More Cardio Doesn't Work...

What Worked When Low Calories And More Cardio Didn’t...

Have you ever found yourself completely stuck with not seeing fat loss even though you ramped up additional cardio and stayed strict to a low-calorie diet?

If so you’re far from being alone.

While it may seem to defy logic that more calorie burning from additional cardiovascular exercise wouldn’t lead to increased fat loss, you may be surprised.

The accepted rationale is simple enough, eat less and exercise more, that’s got to be better right?

Wrong… After years of training weight loss clients, I can attest to consistent and substantial weight training as the answer to losing weight and keeping it off.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m stating here that the closer one is to their ideal body weight, the less likely it is that really low calories and lots of cardio will work very effectively.

We all know of someone who lost a lot of weight, 30, 50, 100 pounds or more by drastically cutting calories and exercising vigorously. There’s no denying this can work, but understand there are distinct metabolic differences between someone with an extra 30-50 lbs of fat or more to lose and someone with 10-20 lbs or less.

• Not that cardio can’t be effective for fat loss, it most certainly is, but when there’s metabolic slowdown the first thing I throw out is most of the cardio.

• Secondly, I slowly add in more meals focusing on protein, starch carbohydrates, and post workout meals.

What’s the explanation for why this worked? It’s pretty simple actually. By decreasing the amount of cardio, you are in essence reducing the amount of caloric deficiency. The slightly higher calories and carbs in your diet work to reset hormonal balances and ramp back up metabolism.

By focusing on the resistance training, which I’ll say it again for the thousandth time…this is the most beneficial type of exercise a person over forty can do to change his or her shape, my clients start to tap into body fat stores quicker while building lean muscle.

The big take-a-way lesson in all of this is that, yes while calorie and carb cutting with lots of exercise may work for periods of time, it’s not for everyone AND it’s not the long term answer. The closer you are to your ideal shape, the more you’re going to want to focus on feeding the muscle and supporting metabolism.

You simply can’t be afraid of eating more and bumping up carbs when fat loss comes to a standstill. This may be exactly what you need to break out of a plateau.

If you’ve found yourself stuck in a plateau like this I’m here to help. I’ve got several coaching options available, including remote diet coaching for those outside of the Greensboro area. Don’t hesitate to let me know if I can be of assistance.

On a final note, just remember the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. A supportive nutrition diet and physical activity is paramount to fat loss and body composition changes, but your unique needs will change over time.

When a particular approach is no longer working,

you’ve got to switch things up. Best wishes and talk soon.

_Jess Williams

Jess Wiliams CPT, CES, PES is a certified personal trainer, corrective exercise specialist, and founder of Carolina Personal Trainer. She specializes in weight loss and joint pain treatment. Learn more and then sign up for a free no-obligations consultation.