Why Dieting Without Exercise is a Bad Idea
Filed Under: Fat Loss
Filed Under: Fat Loss
Do you want to lose weight and keep it off long-term? Than going on a diet and not exercising is a BAD idea.
Today at my studio is “cardio Monday,” with total body exercises designed to keep your HR up and elevate your metabolism. I was talking to my client Deandra after the session and she wasn’t fully aware of the connection between muscle and metabolism.
When you go on a diet and lose 15 pounds without exercising, some of that lost weight will be fat, some will be water weight and some will be lean muscle tissue.
This is not a good idea because you will likely put that weight back on over the course of a year, BUT….. you won’t put back the lean muscle tissue.
notice how lean and muscle tissue goes together?
Say you do this yo-yo dieting for 10 years or more, as some people do, and you may have lost 10-15 pounds of lean muscle tissue.
This has two effects:
1 – the loss of muscle tissue means a slower metabolism.
2 – you lost muscle tissue and replaced it with fat, so now you have a less appealing shape than you used to.
Muscle is more dense than fat, taking up less space. So instead of losing weight you should be concentrating on losing fat – there is a difference!
Meaning, don’t worry so much about the scale and instead, try to lose inches and see if your clothes start to fit a little looser. This is what most people should be worried about. Having lean muscle tissue is healthy, while having too much fat is not.
Trying to keep weight off long term without exercise is a losing battle for most everyone. So you should be exercising but also make sure to do some resistance training to keep your metabolism elevated after you are done exercising.
Get moving!
Brian Morgan
