Can Your Doctor Really Help You Lose Weight? Probably Not
If you have been told by your doctor that the best way to lose weight and slim down
is to run for an hour every day on a treadmill, I'm sorry to say that he probably just doesn't know what he's talking about! The truth is that slow cardio like that does little to help you burn fat in the long run.
Here's the problem with slow cardio... When you jog for so long your body will actually start to burn fat and muscle to get energy to keep going. This fat burning stage is what everyone talks about when they suggest that you run forever on a treadmill.
But you're not just burning fat, you're burning muscle too. Burning your lean muscle mass away will make it much harder for you to lose fat. As you lose your lean muscle mass, your resting metabolism decreases, and your body will burn less and less calories every day, making it much harder to burn fat and keep it off for good.
What you should do instead of cardio is focus on lifting weights (Yes, even us ladies!) Lifting weights will increase your lean muscle mass, making your body burn more calories on it's own every day. Building lean muscle mass is by far the easiest way to increase your metabolism and lose body fat.
Don't worry about bulking up either. If you believe that touching a dumbbell or free weights will make you huge, think again! Most men have trouble building a lot of mass, even when they are trying to get big.
Can Your Doctor Really Help You Lose Weight? Probably Not