A lot of people are unhappy with their body image. For the majority of them, they feel losing some excess fat would make them feel better about themselves. As well as the effect that excess fat has on aesthetics, it has an even bigger effect on health. And not in a good way. Below are 5 things you could be doing that are getting in the way of dropping that excess fat.
You have the mentality that food needs to be ‘burnt off’
Quite often the motive for someone to go to the gym is to ‘burn off’ the desert they had the night before. Or the burger they had at lunch. Or the gin and tonics they had on Saturday night. The truth of the matter is that you our body needs food to function, so in an ideal situation, we shouldn’t be consuming things that need to be ‘burnt off’. Food should be eaten to fuel the workout, and to fuel fat loss. That’s right. You need to eat to lose weight!
You focus on calories burnt during the workout
Instead of focusing on the fat that you are burning off during a workout, you should focus on the fat that you are burning at rest. To do this, you should think of your workouts as a catalyst for turning your body into a fat burning machine when you aren’t doing anything!
Not managing stress
You could be on the perfect exercise plan for you and your goals, and following the perfect nutrition plan, but if you are stressed, none of it is going to work as well as it should. A continuously elevated stress response is very common with almost every body in this day and age. Being in a chronically stressed state plays havoc on your bodies biochemistry and limits a lot of processes that aren’t immediately required for survival. Such as fat loss.
Not having a goal
Having a goal is pivotal to ensuring you get results. To have a goal means to have a plan and a set timeframe. It helps to holds you accountable and helps ensure you are on track to getting to where you want to be. Training for a specific goal tends to yield much better results than training without one.
Not drinking enough water
Just as stress inhibits many of the body’s critical functions, so does dehydration. Even being slightly under hydrated causes a plethora of negative effects on the body. Including, you guessed it: Fat loss!
If your goal is to lose fat, more often than not, NOT doing certain things is more important than DOING things. So keep your eye out for next weeks article which will include 5 more fat loss road blocks that you could be doing without even realizing!