Just as you would visit Precision Car Restoration to keep your car shiny and sleek, so too would you need to visit the gym to keep your body in peak condition. But when you don’t have much experience in the gym or the proper knowledge to lose the weight that you desperately want to drop, you can wind up wasting hours on the treadmill and not lose a pound. Here are three important things you should know about losing weight.
Targeting Fat
Let’s get one thing straight first thing: you cannot target body fat. There is simply no way to do so because that’s not how the body works.
If someone has told you otherwise, they are wrong or lying to you. This means if you have stubborn belly fat that you’ve been trying to get rid of, no amount of crunches will make it go away and leave the excess fat on your arms and legs. Losing fat is a package deal—you’ve got to burn it all at once, slowly, a little bit at a time.
That’s not to say doing push-ups to lose chest fat or doing squats to get rid of leg fat won’t work, it just won’t do it the way you think. In simple terms, burning calories by swimming or doing jumping jacks is just as effective (and probably better) as nearly any workout you could do to target a specific area of your body in terms of losing fat.
Calorie Deficit
Something else you should know about losing weight is that in order to do so, you must remain in a calorie deficit. But what does this mean? Basically, this equates to burning more calories in a given day than you consume. Have you been going for daily fifteen-minute walks then returning home and smashing an entire cheesecake only to wonder why you didn’t lose any weight at the end of the week? Diet is the most important part of losing weight, even more so than exercise (though you should be doing that too), so being aware of how many calories you’re consuming in relation to your size and amount of exercise is crucial for losing weight.
Also Read: Side-effects of odd eating habits
Routine is Key
It’s not enough to go to the gym once every two weeks and expect the pounds to drop off instantly. Sticking to a routine is going to be your best friend when it comes to losing weight in the long run. This means going to the gym the same days of the week, consistently tracking your calories, and managing to work up enough willpower to do it every day. If you can create a routine that works for you and your schedule and stick to it even if you don’t notice immediate results, you will build a mindset that creates a habit out of being healthy. And if you don’t have to try as hard to lose weight, you’ll find that it will come much more naturally.
Work Smarter, Not Hard
It’s a phrase we hear far too often, yet people rarely take the time to figure out what that looks like for them. In the case of losing weight and obtaining a healthier lifestyle, these tips are all you need to do so. If you take these into account when focusing on your diet or hitting the gym, the results you’re after are sure to come.