5 Common Exercise Mistakes That Sabotage Your Weight Loss Progress

Just like taking the right steps towards successful weight loss– eating a healthy, balanced diet, cutting back on sweets, avoiding alcohol, getting active– knowing what not to do is as important. You may be doing all the right things of shedding the pounds, but when you don’t see the results as fast as you’d like to, take a second look at your exercise routine, it may be ruining your fitness goals.

1. You don’t plan your workouts

Did you really expect to go to the gym and use the first piece of equipment you see? Failing to plan your workouts ahead of time is like going on a trip without directions; you’ll waste time by getting lost.

Educate yourself on the basics, and design a proper fitness program that combines resistance and strength training with aerobic exercises.

2. You do too much cardio

Aerobic and cardio exercises seem to be the go-to workout for aspiring slimmers, and while they do wonders on burning calories by getting your heart rate up and maximizing lung function, you may not be seeing the results you want because you’re doing too much of it and forgetting how strength training burns fats at a much faster rate, even while at rest.

People tend to avoid strength training for the fear of looking ‘bulky’, but what they don’t know is that looking like a bodybuilder requires a personal lifestyle commitment, and it doesn’t just happen with ordinary strength training.

3. You lift weights, but use the wrong ones

Okay, so you recognize the benefits of strength training, but you may be falling prey to the "pink dumbbell syndrome". Lifting low-eight dumbbells for numerous repetitions day after day, without hitting the point of muscle fatigue.

Let’s say you do 10 repetitions every session, if you do all 10 without difficulty, then you need to add some weight. But when you start to struggle with the 10th repetition and feel your muscles strain, then you’ve just lifted the correct poundage.

To reap the maximum benefits of lifting weights, you should need to add weight every month or so to continue hitting the appropriate level of muscle fatigue.

4. You treat your exercise routine as something permanent 

When you do the same thing over and over again, you get very good at it until doing it seems like a no-brainer to you anymore. It’s the same thing with exercise. Doing the same stuff everyday makes your muscles adapt to it, and they will stop responding and giving you the results you want.

Vary your exercise routines, mix the order on which you do them, change weights and increase the number of sets. Make each of your workout sessions different from the workout session you did the day before to constantly challenge your body.

5. You starve yourself in addition to exercising

Exercise is actually an appetite suppressant, so when you train yourself so hard and then not eat, you’re actually helping your body create the perfect conditions for losing weight fast. Starving yourself for weight loss is bad because it slows down your metabolism, because this is one of your body’s defense mechanism once it recognizes that you are restricting food.

It may sound counterproductive, but in order to burn fat, you need to eat. Instead of restricting meals, portion control should be practiced instead.