Why do we say you should avoid insanity or P90x to lose weight? I get this question a lot. As the general public, when it comes to losing weight we want results instantly. I always think, “man, I ate so well and I worked out every day and I didn’t lose anything!” It can be very frustrating. What is even more frustrating is seeing a commercial full of sculpted people saying they were just like you and now look at me. Seriously?! So I bought into the insanity and P90x theory. I thought it sounded awesome, quick burst of energy and the fat should just shed right off, just like it did with the people on the commercial!!!
Wrong!! I was dying! I could barely make it through the video without stopping. I kept telling myself, “you can do it, you use to be an athlete, if they can do it, so can I”,……all these thoughts went through my head until I finally accepted defeat and thought how am I ever going to be able to make it through this video. So the day goes on and I’m beyond frustrated that I couldn’t even make it 30 minutes and then hunger sets it! I was craving popcorn, cookies, chocolate, soda, bread, pasta……basically nothing good.
So what happened? I thought, hey you gave it a shot so go ahead and eat that cookie, I probably burned enough calories to eat several. Wrong again! I probably only burned 200-300 calories and that would only give me one cookie….so was it even worth it? I did the same thing with P90x. Except not only was I hungry but I was super sore. I really enjoy weight lifting, but I would like to be able to walk the next day without being in pain. Now I will say the more you do these exercises the better you will get and you will be able to complete it, but wouldn’t you rather start at an easier level?
Does this sound like anything any of you have gone through? It can be soooo frustrating! So at WeightWise we came up with a different theory. “Exercise smarter, not harder”.
Most people think that exercise has to be high intensity. Hiit, high intensity interval training, is SUPER popular right now. In the exercise classes I take that is all you hear about…..the higher your heart rate is the more fat you are burning. But that statement is FALSE. Instead, all you are doing to using whatever you ate recently for energy, then you are going to want to go home and eat the house!
In order to burn fat, there are two concepts with exercise:
- Lower intensity
- Longer duration.
If you love zumba, by all means continue zumba but think about your workout, not everyone else. You have to keep in mind that you want to be a fat burner and that happens at lower intensity. Walking 30 minutes 5 times a week is more beneficial for fat burning than do anything high intensity.
Weight loss surgery is a lifestyle change and so is the exercise. We offer the VO2 assessment to find exactly where to keep your heart rate in order to be successful at burning fat. The ACSM, American College of Sports Medicine, says that 65% of your heart rate is a fat burning place and 85% of it is more for cardio. If you think back to the commercials, the whole idea behind Insanity is to have your heart rate high for the majority of the workout, but you will just end up more hungry after this workout and probably really sore as well!