It may feel like you’ve reached a plateau in your workout regime, so here’s the amount of exercise you need to be doing to continue losing weight.
You may think you can’t work any harder than you already have been and you’ve been spending more hours in the gym than there are in a day, but now it turns out you may not need to burn yourself out quite so frantically.
Brydie reports the author behind The Hormone Cure, The Hormone Reset Diet and Younger, Sara Gottfried, believes this may be the case anyway.
It would make sense to think the harder and longer you workout, the more the weight drops off you, but according to the author, this could ultimately end up disappointingly working against you…
She wrote in Mindbodygreen:
Overexercising releases two key hormones: CRH and cortisol, both related to the stress response.
CRH increases the permeability (or leakiness) of the intestinal wall as well as the permeability of the lungs, skin, and blood-brain barrier.
This could mean the high levels of cortisol could result in the ageing process being sped up, as well as blocking the digestion and blood flow to the gut, which is not helpful if you’re aiming to lose weight.
The author goes onto explain athletes face this problem often, as they are forced to face gruelling workouts and try to combat it with friendly bacteria encouraging, probiotics, omega-3s and vitamin C.
So here’s the really good bit, her suggestion is if you do not need to embark on this sort of rigorous regime, but still want to lose weight, then working out in moderation may suit you better.
She goes onto suggest 20-30 minutes of exercise a day – four times a week – are optimum for healthy weight loss, without going too far and hindering your progress in the process.
The author also advises moving less but more frequently throughout the day is the best way to encourage weight loss, even if you have a sedentary working lifestyle.
In terms of the types of exercise which are believed to promote healthy, gradual weight loss, Sara suggests Pilates and yoga, as well as anything that works the whole body, without putting it under detrimental levels of stress.
She added:
These will stabilise cortisol levels, help with weight loss, and keep your muscles toned.
So it seems less is more. If that means I can spend more time binging on Netflix and less time on the treadmill, then I’m game for that.
