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Everything’s been going great so far, you’ve changed your diet, incorporated cardio and weight training into your lifestyle, and have been losing weight. But know you’ve reached the dreaded checkpoint that is common to the many people trying to lose weight. The point where you suddenly stop losing weight even though you’ve been burn fat for the previous few months and haven’t changed anything in your lifestyle at all. What could be the problem and how can you solve it?
Your body burns the maximum amount of calories when it has to adjust and respond to new challenges. Once you’ve made your body used to a certain intensity or form of exercise, it no longer finds it as challenging as it previously did and stops burning as much calories as it used to when you first started. That is why you reach a point where you suddenly stop losing weight and no matter what you try to do you still can’t seem to break free.
The solution to this issue is something called interval training. Interval training is a form of training which focuses on alternating between high short high-intensity workouts and long low-intensity workouts. By constantly forcing your body into adjusting, you’re making it burn calories like crazy!
An example of high intensity interval training workout would be something like running on the treadmill at max speed for 3 minutes, resting for 2 minutes, and then walking at a slow speed for 15 minutes. So instead of walking at the same rate for an entire hour, you would alternate between intensities every 20 minutes. This is a lot better than doing the same thing at the same intensity for long periods of time.
You can apply the concept of interval training to any cardio exercise, not just walking/jogging. As long as you are speeding your heart up and then slowing it down, causing it to adjust over and over again, then you will reap the benefits of interval training. Many studies have shown how effective this type of training is in fat loss, which is why coaches of professional athletes use this to get their students in shape.
Remember to rest adequately and start with something you can manage to avoid injury. You don’t want to injure yourself just because you wanted to see results a bit faster. Note: Interval training doesn’t necessarily only work when you’ve stopped losing weight, you can use it even as you begin to lose weight as well.
We’re almost done, now you’ve lost the weight, here’s how to keep it off permanently.
