We’ve heard it all our life: “if you want to lose weight, you have to eat less and work out more.” However, over the last several years, Americans have actually increased the amount they exercise. The guidelines for physical activity call for 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity workouts (such as walking briskly or playing tennis), or 75 minutes a week of more intense exercise (such as jogging or swimming laps).

Today, almost 54% of Americans meet the US government’s aerobic exercise recommendation (compared with 38% in 2000), but our obesity rates continue to climb.

I’m not against regular exercise—in fact, I exercise most days of the week, with a special commitment to lifting weights at my gym 3 days a week. However, exercise can be detrimental to weight loss efforts in several ways, especially if we are just beginning our weight loss journey. There are several reasons for this:

1. We think we can out-exercise a bad diet
2. It makes us eat more or differently than we would have
3. We exercise until injury
4. We use exercise punitively to beat ourselves up
5. We use an exercise “rebellion” to talk ourselves into quitting our weight loss efforts

Listen in while I discuss all this and make you feel better for not constantly running around like a chicken with your head cut off!

+++++++++++++++++++++++

Join the BestShape50 FREE Challenge! BestShape50.com/challenge

Start immediately and stay as long as you like.

The challenge is to follow along with the BestShape50 weight loss plan.
1. Avoid sugar and no flour
2. Eat twice a day between an 8-hour window
3. Prep most of your food for the week once a week
4. Write down what you plan to eat every morning
5. Weigh every morning

 
Come and join us! BestShape50.com/challenge