I Exercise- Why Am I Not Losing Weight?

Still think you can exercise,  eat whatever you want AND still lose weight?

Let’s take a look at just a few items on the Cheesecake Factory Menu, shall we ;)

Mac & Cheese – 1,550 calories

Sweet Potato Fries- 1,020 calories

Cobb Salad- 1,570 (not kidding)

And for dessert – Salted Caramel Cheesecake- 1,220 calories

When I was in my 20’s and first started exercising, I couldn’t understand why I was exercising 3-4 days a week, didn’t change my diet, and I wasn’t losing any weight.  I said to myself, “I went from NO exercise to exercising 4 days and I weigh and look the same?”  What’s the dilly?

Well, there are TON of benefits from exercise (I still recommend itJ) but it is not the best for weight loss if you are NOT looking at what you are putting in your mouth.

Let’s look at calories burned in exercise:

Walking for 3 miles (estimated 60 1 hr) – between 195 and 300 calories burned depending on weight

Jogging/running- you will burn the same calories about but in about half the time (30 mins)

Zumba class (1 hr)- 350-650 calories

30 minutes of weight training- between 112-185 calories depending on weight (now hold up- strength training helps you burn calories and fat at rest as it is repairing itself and it increases metabolism vs cardio you just burn calories during the workout)

Vinyasa Yoga (1 hr)- 594 calories (I know, right?)

Now, even though you can burn about 600 calories in Zumba or a Yoga class, it still takes 3500 calories to burn just one pound.  Very often the mindset can be, “well, I exercised today, so I can have dessert”.  Well, if you were to exercise 600 calories and eat 1,000 (brownie with scoop of ice cream) to 1,220 (piece of cheesecake) calories, you are now in a 400-620 surplus of extra calories.

My point…….you can’t exercise enough to burn off calories from poor eating choices.  

Click Here for a cool website that gives you the calories burned off different exercises and physical activity specific to your body weight, gender, and age. 

Be mindful and intentional about your eating choices today!

Love, 

Erica Torres-Dudziak