Following a strict diet and workout plan is a real achievement, however you can do it for eternity. When you get to the finish line it would be wise to keep a kind of order in your nutrition and activities that will help you in keeping your initial shape. The best way to do it is to skim through these principles designed to keep extra-pounds away after the critical weight loss.

Learn how to win the battle against munching and sloth with some simple ideas. Make the best of your day with finding the right schedule that will improve both your mood and new figure. Find out more on the rules of keeping weight after diet.

• Don’t forget about exercising. You might got bored of an exhaustive daily workout plan. However this time you won’t have to make huge effort, instead opt for less and regular physical activities.
• Devote at least 20 minutes per day for a refreshing aerobic or cycling to keep the pounds from coming back. Walk instead of opting for the car, choose the healthy option.
• Mix the exercise plans. The best way to rule out monotony is to experiment with several workouts, that would make both your mood and figure pleasant.
• There are so many plans that can be done with great ambition and fun, think about aerobic, dance lessons, or other social activities.
• Weighing is essential. During your diet you might have weighed yourself on a daily basis. There’s no need to go on with that freaky habit, instead make it weekly.
• Check at the end of each week whether you gained weight or you managed to keep it. It is worth choosing a pair of pants that will show you whether you got bigger, put on this tiny weight-watcher to calm your doubts.
• Don’t skip breakfast. This meal is essential to get your metabolism on the right track. Especially if you start the day very early, the nutrients will help you in getting surviving the day without munching and extra-treats. As the main source of energy choose healthy and nutritive foods.
• Check the portions. You don’t want to overeat yourself right on the first day. As soon as you establish a regime in your life, you’ll learn how to consume only the necessary food to feel satisfied. Be careful, avoid eating until you feel stuffed, obey the golden rules especially on the first days after the diet.
• Don’t wait till starvation. It is vital to eat as soon as you’re hungry. It would be an extremely bad idea to wait until you starve and then have a nice meal. It will with a 100% chance lead to overeating. The key to success is to control your hunger and body functions. Your metabolism will also suffer if you torture it with huge and un-digestible food.
• Keep a colorful diet. There’s no need to go on with the same diet that made you lose so much weight. Instead try out more recipes that presuppose the eating of healthy foods, vegetables and fresh fruits. Plan your meals beforehand and ease your job of making up new dishes.

If you are worried you may struggle doing it on your own also consider taking part of the Medifast Maintenance Program which is designed to help you maintain a healthy weight while learning how to do it on your own.

10. You feel good about yourself and your world.

A good relationship makes you feel great. It should fill in your “gaps” and make you feel whole. It should give you emotional strength and help you to feel that everything is ok and will continue to be. Another good sign is that you’re better able to survive disasters at work, at home, etc. not because you know someone will be there to solve them, but because you know that YOU can.

9. You look forward to spending time together.

Far too many couples stay together out of habit. They don’t really look forward to being together and try to find
ways to avoid it. For example, they always try to include other friends, go to an event so that they’ll have something to do, etc. Another sign is fear of the “conversation lag” where nobody has anything to say. If your relationship is “right”, you’ll enjoy spending quality time together – even when it’s quiet.

8. You respect your partner, and “talk him or her up”.

Is there anyone that agrees with everything someone else says or thinks? (I can tell you – nobody agrees with everything I say!) There’s no reason you have to agree with everything your partner says or thinks either. However, you should RESPECT them for it – right or wrong.
Further, when you respect someone – really respect them – you find yourself “talking them up” to people. You say things like, “You know, my girlfriend said something that I don’t agree with, but it really made me think” or “My husband really knows about wood working – you should ask him about it.”
What this really shows is your focus – if you find you’re always talking about yourself, you’re not focused on your partner – or the relationship.

7. You are really interested in what he or she thinks.

Along with respect, you’ll find that you are interested in your partner’s thoughts on different things – and you ask. You might have heard the President of your company say something and you ask your wife to get her take on it. Or, you may have come up with an idea that you want your boyfriend to think about – and you’re not afraid of getting shot down.

6. You are aware of, but ignore their quirks.

Everyone (even YOU!) has his or her little quirks. Your partner’s quirks might even appear cute to you, or at least harmless. If they’re getting to you, you should look more closely at your relationship in general.

5. Problems don’t make you think about breaking up.

All relationships have problems. It’s natural and healthy. However, if every time you fight you feel ready to
break up, you should re-think your relationship. People that have good, solid relationships see disagreements as a chance to learn more about their lover, and to get closer. Thus, they don’t fear them, but they don’t create them either!

4. You aren’t scared about losing him or her.

Once you start investing your feelings in a relationship you risk being hurt. This isn’t my rule – it’s just the way it is. However, if you dwell on the possibility of being hurt, you can’t really enjoy the relationship. Further, you shouldn’t be concerned that your lover isn’t happy. If the relationship is secure – you’ll know it.

3. You’re together “just because”.

Many people start dating and then coordinate their lives such that they have to be together – either for finances, kids, family, work, the dog, etc. Is there something keeping your relationship together? If you’re together just because you both want to be, you’ve got a good reason to stay together! If you’re together because you have to be, you’ll likely to start having problems.

2. You appreciate other attractive people, but aren’t interested in them

There is someone more attractive than your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife. I don’t care whom you’re with! If your relationship is good, you still like the way other people look, but don’t find it necessary to compare them to your partner. After all …

1. You are in love.

If you don’t know that you’re in love, you’re not. Love is very difficult to explain, but one of the best explanation I’ve seen is this:

“Love is when you are more concerned with the well being, safety and happiness of someone else than your own.”

That’s a pretty powerful idea, and something I hope everyone gets to experience.

Sometimes it happens that you may be doing well for a while with your diet, but imperceptibly you move away from the results you’re looking for, and sooner or later you realize, “this diet isn’t working for me anymore!”

To prevent that from happening, here are some warning signs to watch out for and what to do about them.

1. Cravings

It’s perfectly normal to experience cravings for cooked and processed foods when you transition to a mostly raw or all raw diet. The problem occurs when these cravings persist and don’t go away.

In my experience, there are two causes for cravings: nutritional and emotional. I will review nutritional causes now, as emotional causes are complex and beyond the scope of this article.

Nutritional causes are fairly simple: if you’re not eating enough calories from fruits and vegetables, you *are* going to crave cooked and processed foods.

The trick is to be able to consume enough fruits to get your calories, without consuming more fat than you need to (and at the same time consuming enough greens for minerals).

Eating too much fat will also cause cravings, while a nutritionally-sound low-fat approach is the best remedy against cravings.

Keeping in mind that the average active woman needs 1800 to 2500 calories per day, and the average active man 2500 to 3000, a short visit to www.fitday.com should let you know if you’re consuming enough calories from fruits and vegetables.

2. No Energy to Exercise

If you have no energy to exercise, or are not making progress in your fitness program, it’s probably because you’re not consuming enough calories and/or you are consuming too much fat. It’s often a sign that your diet is not working.

An energy deficit will be obvious when you follow a fitness program. If you’re barely consuming enough fruits and vegetables to meet your dietary needs, you can’t expect to have extra energy to exercise.

Also, an excess of fat in the diet can cause a “run-down” feeling which may prevent you from experiencing the energy to exercise.

We often tend to “under-estimate” the amount of fruits and vegetables we should eat, and “over-estimate” the amount of fat that it’s okay to eat.

By checking out that your daily consumption of fruits and vegetables is adequate to meet your energy needs, you can also verify that your fat consumption by calories is less than 10-15%.

3. Waking up in the morning tired

Waking up in the morning still tired is also a sign that your diet may not be balanced. This is often caused by eating excessive quantities of fat, especially coming from nuts and seeds, and/or eating late at night. My suggestion would be to try eating only fruits and vegetables, without fat of any kind, for about 3-4 days, and avoid eating later than 7 p.m., and see how you feel.

Chances are that you’ll start waking up in the morning much more refreshed and energetic!

When that happens, just make sure that when you reintroduce fats into your diet it’s in small amounts.

4. Inability to maintain weight

Two things can happen here. Either you haven’t been able to *release* the weight you were carrying around in excess, or you’re getting thinner than you’d like to be.

In the first case, if you’re still struggling to reach your ideal weight, even though you’ve transitioned to a raw food diet, you may simply have the wrong nutritional and lifestyle approach.

If you’re getting thinner than you’d like to, you should also review the articles on weight. Know that the best thing you can do is to combine strength training (basically lifting weights or high-resistance bodyweight exercises) and *eat big*!

If you wish to gain significant muscle mass, you can, even on a raw food diet. But you’ll need a good training program and to consume sufficient calories from fruits and vegetables. For a woman, that means at least 2500 calories per day on average, and for a man at least 3000.

5. You’re confused

Another sign that you may be heading towards a diet “disaster” is having the feeling of confusion and doubt. Eventually, that feeling may intensify and lead you to either give up entirely or try other programs that won’t work.

The solution to this is to gain sufficient knowledge to avoid this confusion, go to the root of emotional issues behind food, and join a group for coaching and community that can provide you with constant support and inspiration to continue on the path of radiant health.

Your next step? To take what you’ve just learned and put it to the test right away!

With most fights, there are layers of what we mean, feel, intend, hope for, and believe, and what we actually say. We may only say a little of how we feel, or we may even say the opposite of how we’re feeling on a much deeper level than the surface. Problems arise when we don’t come from the deeper levels.

Some people think that the top layer of what they feel and think is all that there is, yet they feel something’s missing in their relationship. Others know how they feel but instead of stating their feelings as their own, they blame how they feel on their lover, leading to hurt feelings and arguing that goes nowhere. This is often the time that people call it quits on a relationship.

Many break-ups occur because we do not know how to get to our inner depth, or getting to it, how to share it. What we want to say isn’t what comes out of our mouths. We argue about something meaningless in order to get space from our lover, rather than feel the anxiety or fear we may have about setting boundaries or looking at what we need. We argue to feel more alive, instead of looking at what is missing in our life. We argue about what our lover spent money on, rather than face our own issues about money. We argue as a way to control our lover, rather than face our fear of being controlled. Regardless of the content of the argument, until we are prepared to express and respect our lover’s deeper feelings, beliefs, and meanings (and s/he respects ours), very little change can take place.

We can work around our lover’s “sensitive points,” expect them to do the same for us, and make compromises, but how far does that really take us? While problem-solving can help, particularly in the immediate future, often it isn’t enough for the long run. As long as the deeper issues remain unaddressed, our relationship will be flattened, soured, or lost to meaningless fights.

So how do you get underneath the arguments? By being vulnerable and risking being as open and as honest about yourself as you can with your lover. Take anything you argue about and ask yourself what is upsetting you. Usually people will respond with answers that are about their lovers – s/he spends too much money, s/he is defensive, s/he doesn’t listen to me. Now try asking yourself the following questions:

• What about that bothers you?
• How do you feel about it?
• How do you react to it, and what does it mean to you?
• What if anything are you afraid of?
• What do you believe it means about you or your relationship?
• Does it remind you of anyone?

Try not to get bogged down in intellectual answers. Even if you know the answers, see if you can connect to your feelings about it and notice whether any other thoughts, feelings, associations, or memories come to you spontaneously. Sometimes the best stuff just suddenly occurs to us.

Next, find an opportunity when you and your lover aren’t rushed or distracted, and share how you are feeling about the issue. When mentioning something about her/his behavior that affects you, phrase it within your own experience (”When I think that you are not listening to me I feel…I then worry that…it reminds me of…which feels…to me). Even when you want to mention something that your lover does, focus on you and your deeper responses. You may want to ask for something specific (”Could we set aside times to listen to each other?”) which your lover can consider, but initially it is usually best to have you and your lover listen to and understand each others’ deeper responses.

You might be tempted to leap to a solution, but this is only the beginning. If you settle on a solution too quickly, you could miss something that still needs to be unearthed.

The listener’s job is to listen attentively and to verbalize understanding for the other’s feelings, regardless of whether or not the listener agrees with her/his lover’s perception of the events. For example, maybe you think that you’re the one who’s always listening to your lover, and it is s/he who doesn’t listen to you. It’s okay that you do not agree with her/his version of reality, but for now, offer only your understanding of how s/he feels and what it means to her/him. It is important that you suspend your difference of opinion and only offer understanding.

When you’re finished with that, switch roles. Feel free, as the one who just listened, to say something like “When I hear you say that, I feel…because I believe that I do listen…. This reminds me of…and I feel…and I don’t know what else to do. I feel that you don’t listen to me. When this happens I feel….” It’s important to not argue about who does or doesn’t listen, or what you each do, but rather, the original speaker should now listen and offer understanding for how it must feel. Keep going back and forth and see what happens. You may not notice anything for a while, but you might. If you don’t, try not to worry or rush the process; something usually shifts over time, especially if you keep going deeper. You never know what you might discover – it may be a completely different issue than you originally thought. Only by staying with your deeper feelings and reactions will you discover what is underneath the arguments.

By each of you truly understanding the others’ perspective without judgment, you’ll be able to move through this barrier in your relationship. Stick with the formula, even if it feels unnatural, and you may find that the two of you are laughing about what started the whole disagreement.

Finding the Right Plan

With the wide variety of dieting plans available out there today you are going to be presented with multiple choices. This may be the most difficult decision you make with your weight loss wants. All of the dieting plans will have different benefits and different downsides. You will want to look through thoroughly to ensure you get exactly what you want and need. If you are someone with any health issues such as diabetes you will also want to look into the diet to ensure that it can work with these issues and not cause any harm to your health.

Making your diet work with your life doesn’t have to be the most complicated thing you do. With the variety of options available there is at least one plan out there that will work perfectly with your health needs. One plan that seems to work with just about everyone happens to be the Medifast Diet. This diet has been designed to work with many health ailments including Type2 diabetes.

It can also be molded into a very hectic life with ease because of the simple meal preparations and the ability to get 5 quick Medifast meals in throughout your day no problem. You will be required to follow the guidelines to a tee to ensure that the diet works properly, but this is also not difficult to do.

Benefits of Medifast

• Easy to follow
• Meals are easy to prepare
• Incorporate into your life with ease.

Affording Your Medifast Diet

For those that are worried they are going to be unable to afford the Medifast Meals you’ll be happy to learn that there are many Medifast Coupons for 2010 available. Each month there will be an update to the Medifast coupon codes so that you can get the latest discount on your Medifast Diet. Whether you are ordering one of the Medifast Variety Plans or combining multiple Medifast meals  in one order there is going to be a Medifast coupon available to you.

Pricing will vary with what you are looking into purchasing. You do not have to purchase the pre-designed meal plans. You do have the option to develop your Medifast Diet on meal preferences. If you are new to Medifast though consider utilizing one of the Variety plans to get a good trial of what Medifast has to offer meal wise. The variety plans are designed to incorporate the main Medifast meals which will give you are good view of what Medifast has to offer. Once you are more comfortable with what Medifast offers and how you can personally design your own plan you will easily be able to develop your own Medifast diet plan on what you prefer and still keep improving your health and weight.

Do not waste anymore time feeling unhealthy and overweight when you have the opportunity to lose weight easily with the help from a Medifast Diet. Remember to get your Medifast coupon so you can get a discounted price on your order. It won’t matter if it is your first Medifast order or the 100th, everyone is eligible to utilize the Medifast coupon codes.

We are now in an age when dating is so easy once you know how. With so many dating agencies around the possibilities are endless, an almost limitless number of profiles for you to read through in the comfort of your own home and the ability to start dating several steps removed from the starting block armed with almost everything you need to know about a person before you even go on a first date.

No pick up lines, no playing hard to get, just a natural progression from the initial contact that is totally within your control.

The clever ones have taken dating one step further by making good use of all the targeted information that is now available on the net written by people that are most experienced in the field. They have learned everything there is to know about why you should be honest about yourself, avoid playing games and be proud of who you are.

The clever ones in the dating scene have learned how to relax and portray their character full of confidence. They have learned the art of seduction, how to make the best use of body language and how to capture who ever they meet from the very first date and hold on to them for as long as they want to.

None of it is rocket science, it’s all about the level of effort you are prepared to put in to find and keep that perfect partner.

Take for example the first time you meet. Dating is all about first impressions, it doesn’t matter if this particular date is the one for you but at the outset you don’t know and you can never recover that initial meeting. The very first time you set eyes on each other is lost for ever after the first few seconds. You may have met up with several people that really aren’t right for you but never let past experiences make you underestimate the need to make first impressions count.

Most people head out for that first date nervous and concerned about what people might think. They lack the confidence they need to carry it off but at the end of the day you are who you are, does it matter what other people really think. You might not think you have the best looks, you may think you are over weight but then we’ve all now seen what a good makeover can do and how many people do you see out there drawing in the crowd when the main things they have going for them is confidence and the ability to make the most of their assets.

Confidence is all about looking beyond what you don’t like about yourself, focusing on what is good and learning how to make the most of everything you have. Stop seeking approval from others and learn to be who you are. And it has to be said, with internet dating it’s never been so easy, your first meeting is with someone who has already seen your photo, they’ve already learned nearly everything they need to know about you and they still want to meet up. If you’ve been honest in your profile what is there to be nervous about? Just make an effort, show off your assets and go out there and enjoy yourself. If it doesn’t work out so what, they obviously weren’t right for you, you just move on until you find that match made in heaven.

Your body fat percentage is the weight of your fat divided by your total weight. The result indicates your essential fat as well as storage fat.

Essential fat – this is the amount of fat we need to survive. Women require a higher percentage than men. Essential fat is 2%-5% in men, and 10%-13% in women.
Storage fat – this consists of fat accumulation in adipose tissue, some of which protects our internal organs in the chest and abdomen.
Total body fat percentage – this is essential fat plus storage fat.

The American Council on Exercise recommends the following percentages:

Essential fat

Women 10-12%
Men 2-4%

Total fat

Athletes

Men 6-13%
Women 14-20%

Non-athletes classed as fit

Men 14-17%
Women 21-24%

Acceptable

Men 18-25%
Women 25-31%

Overweight

Men 26-37%
Women 32-41%

Obese

Men 38% or more
Women 42% or more

Many experts say that calculating people’s body fat percentage is the best way to gauge their fitness level because it is the only measurement that includes the body’s true composition. Any male whose body fat percentage is over 25% or female over 31% is either overweight or possibly obese.

Body fat percentage would not make the couch potato seem fitter than the 100 meter Olympic champion – as was the case with BMI.

There are various ways of calculating a person’s body fat percentage. None of them can give a 100% accurate figure, but the estimates are accepted as fairly close. Examples include near-infrared interactance, dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, and bioelectrical impedance analysis.

Many gyms and doctor’s practices have devices that can tell you what your body fat percentage is.

Conclusion

This article has briefly explained three ways to help you find out whether your weight is ideal, and what your target should be if it is not. You can work out your BMI, WHR, or Body Fat Percentage.

BMI and WHR can be done easily in your home. WHR is more accurate than BMI. However, BMI is a useful indicator if you are an “average” person – not an Olympic athlete or a dedicated weight trainer.

If you embark on a weight loss regime that includes exercise and diet, bear in mind that the exercise will probably increase your muscle mass, which may increase your weight, even though your waist may shrink. Muscle weighs more than fat.

It might be better to aim for target waist, hips and chest measurements. A Waist-hip ratio goal is also possible. If you feel really dedicated, check your Body Fat Percentage; if you are not happy with the reading, discuss a realistic target with a nutritionist, sports scientist, or personal trainer and go for it!

BMI is a very simple measurement which does not take into account the person’s waist, chest or hip measurements. An Olympic 100 meters sprint champion may have a BMI higher than a couch potato of the same height. The couch potato may have a big belly, not much muscle and a lot of body fat on his hips, upper thighs, in his blood and other parts of his body. While the athlete will have a smaller waist, much less body fat, and most likely enjoy better health. According to a purely BMI criteria, the couch potato is healthier.

BMI does not take into account bone density (bone mass). A person with severe osteoporosis (very low bone density) may have a lower BMI than somebody else of the same height who is healthy, but the person with osteoporosis will have a larger waist, more body fat and weak bones.

Many experts criticize BMI as not generally useful in evaluation of health. It is at best a rough ballpark basic standard that may indicate population variations, but should not be used for individuals in health care.

Put simply: experts say that BMI underestimates the amount of body fat in overweight/obese people and overestimates it in lean or muscular people.

What is Waist-hip ratio (WHR)

This is the ratio of the circumference of your waist to that of your hips. You measure the smallest circumference of your waist, usually just above your belly button, and divide that total by the circumference of your hip at its widest part.

If a woman’s waist is 28 inches and her hips are 36 inches, her WHR is 28 divided by 36 = 0.77. Below is a breakdown of WHR linked to risk of cardiovascular health problems.

Male WHR
Less than 9 – low risk of cardiovascular health problems
0.9 to 0.99 – moderate risk of cardiovascular health problems
1 or over – high risk of cardiovascular problems

Female WHR
Less than 0.8 – low risk of cardiovascular health problems
0.8 to 0.89 – moderate risk of cardiovascular health problems
0.9 or over – high risk of cardiovascular problems
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The WHR of a person is a much better indicator of whether their body weight is ideal and what their risks of developing serious health conditions are, compared to BMI. Various studies have shown that people with apple-shaped bodies – who have larger WHRs – have higher health risks compared to people with pear-shaped bodies – who have lower WHRs. An apple-shaped person will have more fat accumulating on the waist, while a pear-shaped person has the fat accumulating on the hips.

A woman with a WHR of less than 0.8 is generally healthier and more fertile than females with higher WHRs. They are less likely to develop diabetes, most cancers, or cardiovascular disorders. Similarly, men with a WHR no more than 9 are generally healthier and more fertile than men with higher WHRs, and less likely to develop serious conditions or diseases.

Studies indicate that if WHR were to replace BMI as a predictor of heart attack worldwide, figures would include many more people.

What is the problem with WHR?

WHR does not accurately measure a person’s total body fat percentage, or their muscle-to-fat ratio. However, it is a better predictor of ideal weight and health risks than BMI.

One person’s ideal body weight may be completely different from another’s. If you compare yourself to family and friends you risk either aiming too high if you are surrounded by obese or overweight people, or too low if everyone around you works as fashion models.

Even comparing yourself with people outside your immediate surroundings may not work.

The levels of overweight and obesity in one country, such as the USA or UK, are much higher than in The Netherlands. So a Dutch person may aim for a lower ideal weight than an American if all he did was to compare himself to other people.

Is Body Mass Index (BMI) a good measure?

Your BMI is your weight in relation to your height.

BMI metric units: Your weight (kilograms) divided by the square of your height (meters)
e.g. Weight 80 kilograms. Height 1.8 meters.
1.82 meters = 3.24
80 divided by 3.24 = BMI 24.69.

Imperial units: Your weight (pounds) times 703, divided by the square of your height in inches.
e.g. Weight 190 pounds. Height 6 ft (72 inches)
722 = 5184
190 x 703 divided by 5184 = BMI 25.76

Health authorities worldwide mostly agree that:

• People with a BMI of less than 18.5 are underweight.
• A BMI of between 18.5 and 25 is ideal.
• Somebody with a BMI between 25 and 30 is classed as overweight.
• A person with a BMI over 30 is obese.

In some countries health authorities say the lower limit for BMI is 20, anything below it is underweight.

Some do. But a lot of people fail to see anything in the way of meaningful results, even after months of trying.

It’s easy to think the problem lies with you. Is it because your metabolism is slow? Are you getting older and burning calories at a slower rate? Is it in your genes? You stick to the program, and still you don’t lose any weight.

What’s going on?

If you’re not losing weight, it’s probably not your age, your metabolism, or your genetics that are causing the problem. It’s simply the fact that conventional aerobic exercise programs are not a particularly effective way to drop the pounds.

By aerobic exercise, I mean things like cycling, walking, rowing or jogging, usually done 3-4 times each week for 20-60 minutes in the so-called “fat burning zone.”

Despite what we’ve been told, this type of program has only a minor effect on weight loss. There’s been enough research over the last 25 years to convince almost anyone that aerobic exercise alone is not a very effective way to lose weight.

Let me give you a few examples...

In a review of several hundred weight loss studies, Dr. Wayne Miller and colleagues at The George Washington University Medical Center looked at 493 studies carried out between 1969 and 1994 [5]. Miller and his associates wanted to determine whether adding aerobic exercise to a low-calorie diet accelerates weight loss. And what he found was that diet and aerobic exercise provides only a very marginal benefit (in terms of weight loss) when compared to diet alone.

The average weight loss after a 15-week program of regular aerobic exercise was seven pounds. Over the same period, dieting cut weight by roughly 17 pounds. When exercise and diet were combined, average weight loss was 20 pounds — just three pounds more than diet alone.

A study completed at Appalachian State University also shows that aerobic exercise has little effect on body composition over a 12-week period [9]. The research team assigned a group of 91 obese women to one of four groups. Group one followed a restricted calorie diet (1,200 – 1,300 calories per day), while group two performed aerobic exercise for 45 minutes, five days each week. A third group combined exercise and diet. The fourth group acted as controls.

The exercise-only group lost just three pounds. This is despite the fact they exercised for almost four hours each week. Not surprisingly, the women combining diet and exercise got the best results, losing 16 pounds of fat. However, this was only one pound more than the group on the diet. These disappointing results led the researchers to conclude that aerobic exercise has only a “minor, nonsignificant effect” on fat loss.

A study at Pennsylvania State University shows similar results [4]. A group of men took part in a 12-week program of diet and exercise. Half the men dieted, while the rest used a combination of diet and aerobic exercise. Despite the fact they trained three times each week for up to 50 minutes, under the watchful eye of certified personal trainers, the exercise and diet group lost only one pound more fat than the diet-only group.

Research carried in the Journal of Applied Physiology also shows that aerobic exercise has a minor effect on fat loss [11]. A group of 24 obese men was assigned to either a low- or high-intensity exercise group for 12 weeks. The men were told to maintain their dietary habits during the study.

The exercise program consisted of cycling at either low-intensity (40% VO2max) or high-intensity (70% VO2max) three times per week. Each workout burned about 350 calories. The duration of each workout for subjects in the low-intensity and high-intensity training program was 57 and 33 minutes, respectively.

After analyzing the results, the researchers conclude that exercise training “did not lead to significant changes in body weight and body composition.”

One of the main criticisms of weight loss studies is the small number of participants they use. The more people that take part in a study, the more reliable the results. But the challenge for researchers is to stop people dropping out. When a research group from the University of Georgia attempted to examine the effect of aerobic exercise on fat loss, more than half the subjects quit before the study was finished [3]!

But even with a large number of subjects, the results aren’t much better.

As part of the HERITAGE Family Study, one of the largest well-controlled training studies of its kind, researchers followed a large group of 557 men and women were followed as they embarked on a 20-week exercise program [13].

Each subject was required to exercise three times per week for an average of 42 minutes. Researchers even went to the trouble of having each bout of exercise monitored by an exercise technician and a computer.

Following a grand total of 60 exercise sessions over a period of almost six months, the average amount of fat lost was slightly less than two pounds, prompting scientists to admit that aerobic exercise “is not a major factor” in weight loss.

What about your metabolic rate?

One popular claim is that aerobic exercise leads to an increase in your metabolic rate. However, researchers conducting the HERITAGE Family Study found that almost six months of aerobic exercise had no effect on resting metabolic rate [13].

Some studies do show that elite athletes have a higher metabolic rate than weight-matched controls. However, scientists have been unable to establish whether this is due to a higher calorie intake, a superior level of fitness or if it exists simply as an after effect of their last training session [8].

Furthermore, when an increase in physical activity results in a calorie deficit (which it’ll need to if you want to lose weight) there is research to show that the metabolic rate does not rise at all [2, 8].

Another popular misconception is the idea that aerobic exercise increases caloric expenditure for several hours after a bout of exercise, thus making a further contribution to fat loss. Unfortunately this is not always the case.

Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), which is the name given to the increase in calorie expenditure following a workout, is more likely to occur after high-intensity exercise. Moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (such as walking or jogging) has very little effect.

So, why does aerobic exercise deliver such small returns?

The most fundamental aspect of any fat loss program is to create a calorie deficit — to burn more calories than you eat. Unfortunately, you just don’t burn that many calories with a typical aerobic exercise program.

One pound of fat contains the equivalent of roughly 3,500 calories. So, assuming your calorie intake remained static and your weight was stable, you’d need to burn an extra 500 calories per day to drop just one pound of fat over the course of a week. To lose fat at a decent rate (around two pounds per week) you’d need to burn 1000 extra calories per day. And the type of workout that burns 1000 calories, in terms of both time and effort, is not a realistic goal for most people.

For aerobic exercise to be effective, you need to do a lot of it. Scientists from Canada, for example, report that a walking program was enough to cut body fat levels by an average of 13 pounds over three months, or just over one pound per week [6]. Although this is a lot more than some of the other studies we’ve looked at it, the people taking part in this trial trained for more than one hour, every single day. And not everyone has that much spare time to devote to exercise.

And that brings us to another problem.

Most modern exercise machines have digital readouts telling you how many calories you’ve burned. Unfortunately, these digital readouts can’t always be trusted.

The most reliable way to assess energy expenditure during exercise is to measure oxygen consumption. Each liter of oxygen that you consume generates approximately five calories of energy. For example, if you exercise for 30 minutes and consume 30 liters of oxygen, you’ll have burned 150 calories. But without directly measuring oxygen consumption, it’s difficult to get an accurate estimate of how many calories you’ve really burned.

Another factor that affects the reliability of calorie counters is the difference between net and gross calorie expenditure. Gross energy expenditure refers to the number of calories you burn during exercise plus your metabolic rate. Net energy expenditure refers to just the number of calories you burn during exercise. Because calorie counters on some exercise machines display gross energy expenditure, the figures they give can be misleading.

In one study, the gross number of calories burned during each workout was estimated to be 255 calories [9]. But the net figure (remember, the net figure represents the “real” number of extra calories you’ve burned) was just 187 calories.

In other words, if you rely on the numbers given by the calorie counters, it might appear that you’ve burned more calories than you really have.

The bottom line

Although it comes as a surprise to many, the majority of research shows that aerobic exercise in the so-called “fat burning zone” is not a very effective way to lose fat.

That’s not to say that cardio is a waste of time. Interval training, or the type of high-intensity cardio recommended by Tom Venuto, is another story entirely.

But in most cases, 30 to 40 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio three or four times a week isn’t going to deliver the results you want. A full-body training program that includes both cardiovascular and resistance exercise, combined with a proper diet, is a far more effective way to drop the pounds.