With the new year right around the corner, gyms will be flooded with hopeful humans looking to change their habits and lose those extra pounds. Treadmills and ellipticals become overcrowded as many attempt to push their bodies to burn as many calories in one session as possible, because burning calories means burning fat and losing weight…right? Wrong! If your method to lose weight is chronic cardio and hitting the gym 7 days a week, you’re working out way too much.
While losing weight may seem easy, more calories out than in, it’s not exactly that simple. Hitting the gym hard to burn more calories than you consume won’t always give you the results you want. In fact, studies show that excessive prolonged high intensity workouts in which your heart rate is elevated for over 15 minutes can actually lead to weight gain if performed too often. Even if you only make it to the gym three days a week, sticking to cardio the entire time won’t give you the results you want. So how do you know if you’re working out too much?
The easiest way to tell if you’re working out too much is if you constantly feel exhausted during your workout plan. Your body generally needs 24-48 hours after an intense workout to fully recover. Hitting the gym multiple days in a row keeps your body from fully recovering, meaning that your muscles don’t get the chance to rebuild. Plus, not allowing yourself days off means increased levels of cortisol in your system, a hormone related to stress that is actually linked to weight gain. Without full recovery time, you’ll slowly notice a decrease in your body’s ability to perform certain exercises that used to be easy. You may even notice you get sick more frequently as your body uses energy normally allocated to your immune system to help with recovery. Ultimately, you become weaker instead of stronger as you consistently push yourself at the gym without rest.
Not only does excessive exercise not benefit the body, it’s been proven to lead to an increased risk of heart disease. One of the biggest signs of an over-trainer is an elevated resting heart rate. Any high intensity cardio is going to elevate your heart rate, and for someone who works out a healthy amount, that heart rate should fall back into the normal range only minutes after working out. For someone who works out far too much, it may take hours to return to normal. All those hours at the gym take a toll on that little heart muscle. A study conducted at the University of Illinois found that those who work out three times more than the recommended amount (which is only 7.5 hours per week, by the way) actually increase their risk of heart disease and early death. That risk is much higher in white men, who are 86% more likely to develop plaque in their arteries as they increase their gym visits in middle age. The fact is, our hearts weren’t built to be under the prolonged stress of high intensity work outs and pushing them to the limit has its toll.
So what’s the answer? As counter intuitive as it may sound, if you really want to lose weight and shape up, limit those hours in the gym! A study conducted in 2008 that compared people who did 20 minutes of interval training 3 times a week for 15 weeks to people who did 40 minutes of steady cardio 3 times a week found that those who simply did interval training lost 5.5 pounds on average and increased lean mass while those who did steady cardio actually gained an average of 1 pound of fat. That means that with only an hour of exercise a week, you can lose steady weight! The real trick is to work out every other day at a maximum and to switch up your workouts. Try weights, they’re a great way to build muscle and actually increase your body’s ability to burn calories while in a state of rest. keep intense cardio to a minimum and practice interval training instead when you’re looking for a high intensity workout. Maybe even take a yoga class on your workout day, or simply go for a walk. If you’re still unsure of how to tailor your exercise for your body to optimize your weight loss, we’ve created a program that can help you figure that out. GxSlim is our original DNA-based weight loss program that uses your genes to determine how well your body responds to weights and cardio so you can plan exactly how you want to optimize your time in the gym. While everyone continues to search for “weight loss teas” or magic “fat burning gummy bears”, the real secret to weight loss is spending less time in the gym. Committing to weight loss as a goal for 2018 shouldn’t be so daunting. Learn what your body needs with out kit, GxSlim, and spend a little bit of time here and there working out when you can. The little things really do add up when it comes to losing weight.
