Quickest way to lose a few pounds? Cardio.

That’s why fitness culture loves it. If you are currently not doing a lot for exercise, and you start doing some simple cardio, not only is that good for your heart and overall health, but more than likely you will drop some pounds quickly. Even if you are currently working out, and you add in some more intense cardio than you normally do, you will also likely see that scale drop a bit.

So, what’s the problem? Your body is smart.

The more cardio you do, the more efficient your body will become with burning calories. Okay, that still doesn’t sound bad. But where are those calories coming from? Some fat, but also muscle.

What happens when you lose muscle? Among other things, it worsens your metabolic rate (lower metabolism). Tack on to this a low-calorie diet and what you have is “metabolic adaptation.” Your body becomes more efficient by reserving energy. This is what causes your results to slow down, your weight-loss to plateau, and those darn pounds to come back on.

If we keep running with this “more moving, less eating” strategy long-term, we are sending the wrong types of signals to our bodies (starving, preserve energy) and slowing our metabolism. Eventually we get to the point where, in order to maintain our weight or lose more weight, we would now have to either increase intensity of our cardio, or eat even less.

I don’t know about you, but I have no desire to endlessly add on more time to my workouts and eat fewer calories. Hell naw!

So, cardio is helpful; cardio is even healthy in right amounts. BUT it is not the long-term answer.

Starting to feel like screaming, “WELL WHAT DO I DO THEN?!”

I feel ya.

I’ve been there.

I used to eat 1200 calories or less per day, while working out twice a day doing intense HIIT or 5-10 mil runs. How is that sustainable?! Oh trust me, it was not.

And my body hated me for it. I was depressed, losing hair, sleeping like crap, injury-riddled, and grumpy as heck.

Over the last few years it really hit me that this was no way to live. Duh.

I am one of those weirdos that loves to exercise, it’s truly therapeutic for me. However, my goal is to be healthy in all areas of my life, and have something that is sustainable… not slowly ruining my body.

So, I started lifting weights & learning.

Here’s the short version of what I’ve learned & implemented:

#1 - “bulking” & “reverse dieting” are terms you should not be scared of. I thought these were just for the body builders of the world, but I was wrong. If you’ve been a cardio junky or living off a daily level of low calories, you would be wise to look into reversing out of that. Your metabolism is likely ultra low and beyond that, you are likely headed towards hormone imbalances, burnout, and more. The way to fix that takes time and patience and a lot of kindness towards yourself, but it is so so soooo worth it.

#2 - weight-lifting does not have to be about body-building (although, to my surprise, I’ve come to love seeing muscles on my body). Lifting weights is about your health. We’ve learned that muscle is linked to all sorts of health & longevity benefits. Beyond that, instead of sending a signal to your body of starvation & energy preservation, weight-lifting done right sends muscle-building signals to your body which in turn will ramp up your metabolism.

#3 - food is not the enemy or the idol. As someone who struggled with eating disorders for years, this has been the hardest thing for me to learn. Yes, food is fuel. It’s also yummy and sometimes just for the enjoyment. Find that balance and for goodness sake, please eat enough. As part of my venture into building muscle, and as my metabolism responds, I am HUNGRY. And that is fantastic; that is the goal. You want to get to a place where your body is able to burn a higher amount of calories while still staying at the same weight. As you continue to build muscle, you will likely need to continue to increase your daily caloric intake to keep up with your growing metabolism, up to a certain point. I don’t know about you, but I like the sound (and experience!) of being able to eat more and stay at the same weight!

To summarize, the outcome of high cardio, low calories is eventually “do more for less.” The outcome of strength training and metabolism building is “get more for less.”

Your most healthy self likely is not the you that runs the fastest, eats the least, gets the most steps, etc. Your most healthy self looks closer to someone who is balanced, focuses on a healthy mindset, has a good approach to food, and an exercise routine that is sustainable for all the different phases of life that you’ll encounter.

Think about what you’re doing now, and ask yourself this: “Can I see myself doing this every week for the next 10 years?” If the answer is no, because either you’d be miserable or because you’d only fit in sweatpants, that would be a good sign that something needs to change.

One final thought. All the information in this is a high-level summary of a lot of information I’ve ingested from people much smarter than I. Please don’t take one sentence and apply it as law. Your body, your life, your priorities are not the same as mine. Take this within it’s rightful context, and please feel free to ask me any questions. I’m here to help. <3