So you want to lose weight.
You've decided to find exercises to burn body fat and you've decided that you need to burn as many calories through exercise as possible!
Great!
Or is it?
The issue with burning calories:
When people focus on burning calories, there is a tendency to become obsessed with how many calories are burned in every, single, session.
And I get it... We see calories as fat burning. Apart from one fact... It's not.
When the focus is on calorie burning alone, people tend to overexercise, focusing on excessive cardio and HIIT training (as some examples).
However, this approach to weight loss often leads to improvements in cardio (great), but people often reach a plateau in their fat loss journey. This is because they're focusing on the wrong metrics.
Imagine this is the scenario:
You want to lose weight, so you embark on weight loss journey
You start running 4 x times per week, focusing on burning calories
You 200 calories per session great!
But, you're not eating the correct ratio of protein, carbs and fats. Possibly also not eating the right amount of calories, so weight loss stalls.
You continue to burn calories, but maintain body weight. And now frustrated with why the scales are not moving
Sound familiar?
This is the typical cycle for calorie burning, which leaves people disheartened.
So focusing on calorie burning is nonsense... What do I do instead?
Instead of just focusing on how many calories you're burning, focus on the following:
How many calories do you need to maintain your body weight? Use an online calculator to figure that out on websites such as TDEE calculator
Eat roughly 200-300 calories below your maintenance number per day
Start to incorporate strength training and cardio 1-4 times per week.
Have rest days. Don't train every day.
While this sounds simple, it means
You'll consistently see results
You'll improve your physique
You'll break the cycle of stalling in your weight loss goals