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5 Essential Things To Know If You’re Exercising To Lose Weight

23rd May 2023

23rd May 2023

By Shivraj Bassi

Self-improvement can be a big part of why we exercise, and some of us may be pushing our bodies through sweaty workouts in the hopes of losing a few pounds. But unfortunately, it takes more than just the same regular exercise routine to lose weight. 

The culprit behind this disappointing fact of life can be explained through the results of a study in Current Biology. It concluded that as your body gets used to working out, you stop burning as many calories as you did when you first started. In the study, researchers examined the physical activity levels of 300 women and men, looking at the number of calories they burned every day. They discovered that while people who were moderately active burned around 200 more calories a day than those who were sedentary, the most physically active participants didn’t burn any more calories than those were only moderately active. 

In effect, this means that once you’re exercising at a steady rate and have been for a while, your body adapts to the demands you’re placing on it and becomes more efficient, meaning that you burn fewer calories. 

To avoid this conundrum, which is exceptionally unhelpful if you’re exercising to lose weight fast, follow these rules on how to lose weight with exercise. 

 

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

Use the FIIT technique

We’ve all heard of HIIT (and we’ll get back to it later), but this is different. FIIT stands for frequency, intensity, time, and type, which together make up to the four factors of a workout and the amount of stress you put your body through each time you hit the gym. If your workout is always the same, these four factors will be the same, and your body will adapt to what you’re putting it through, meaning the number of calories you burn will drop over time.

However, if you change one of these four elements, your body will be surprised and challenged, and be forced to adapt to what you’re doing. You should aim to change up one of these FIIT variables every one or two months, which will ensure your body doesn’t start to plateau. 

Eat well

Looking for the answer on how much exercise to lose weight? The solution isn’t solely found in the gym, but in the kitchen. Even if you’re smashing your fitness plan every single day, if you’re coming home and also smashing processed foods high in sugar, fat, salt every single day, then the amount of exercise you’re doing for weight loss won’t matter. 

When you’re exercising to lose weight fast, you have to operate in a calorie deficit. You won’t lose even a single kilogram if your calorie expenditure is the same as the number of calories you’re consuming. 

What’s more, if you’re not eating a balanced diet high in nutritious foods and plenty of fruit and vegetables, your workouts will feel harder as it’s likely that you’ll be feeling sluggish and tired. Check out Innermost’s food section for some diet inspiration and focus on eating plenty of protein, healthy fats, complete carbohydrates and those all-important vegetables and fruits.  

HIIT

Ah yes, back to HIIT. We all know that it’s good for you, but high intensity interval training truly is the way to go if you’re looking for how to lose weight with exercise. In a study from 2013 at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, researchers found that people who participated in a 20 minute HIIT workout burned around 15 calories per minute, which is twice as many as they burned during long runs. 

HIIT workouts also provide that coveted after burn effect - and no, we’re not talking about when you wake up the next day with legs too sore to walk up the stairs. Working out in intense bursts means your body burns more calories for longer, sometimes up to 40% more throughout the day after you work out, as your body recovers. 

To burn those calories, we recommend putting in all out effort for 20 seconds, followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated for four minutes. Rest for one minute before repeating the process again three more times - and watch the pounds start falling off you. 

Try weightlifting

It’s an incontrovertible fact that the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. A pound of body fat burns only two calories per day (what a slacker), while a pound of muscle not only burns six calories, but takes up far less room on your body. 

If you’re more of a cardio person than a weights one, check our guide to getting started with weightlifting. It’s not nearly as intimidating as you think, as you’ll look impressively muscular in no time at all. 

Fuel up

When you’re working hard to exercise to lose weight, it can feel like an easy win to start dropping your pre and post workout nutrition plan. After all, the fewer calories you take in, the more weight you’ll lose, right? Wrong. 

Research shows that consuming carbs before hitting the treadmill improves your performance during workouts, which will mean that you burn more calories both during and after your session. 

Correctly fuelling your body after you’ve finished working out will also enable your muscles to recover, keeps your energy levels up and means your body will burn more calories as your body repairs itself. So reach for that bag of Innermost’s The Lean Protein, which is specifically formulated to encourage healthy fat loss, reduce food cravings and support the growth of muscle. 

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What Is CrossFit And How Do I Get Started?
There’s a plenty of discussion around CrossFit exercise at the moment and for good reason. What once started as a simple workout concept has now grown to engage entire open workout communities; all with one goal – building a supportive and multidisciplinary workout. With more than 15,000 affiliate CrossFit gyms across the world and over 500 in the UK, you’d probably assume everyone knows what the workout involves and how you can get started right?    Well… Despite its popularity CrossFit still remains one of the most misunderstood workouts around. Asking someone to explain its meaning will 9 times out of 10 give you a long ‘uhh’ followed by words like “tough”, “intense” and “athletic”. It’s this preconceived notion that it’s only for those at the peak of their fitness that can make the prospect of starting so intimidating. What if I instead told you that CrossFit offers the optimal full-body workout for everyone – especially those looking to begin their fitness journey? We at Innermost have prepared this all-in-one guide to clear up a few misconceptions about the workout and make the prospect of getting started a breeze.    What Is CrossFit? It’s important to understand exactly what CrossFit actually is, what it involves, and how it can benefit your workout routine. Unlike strength training and cardio exercises that target specific muscles in the body, CrossFit aims to build entire body muscle mass through sequential high-intensity workouts. Established in 2000 by Greg and Lauren Glassman, what also makes CrossFit so unique is that individual routines are entirely flexible and as such no two workouts are the same. While training will be tough, you and your trainer can create perfectly scaled CrossFit workouts to improve your relative fitness. These alterations could be based on the duration, type, speed, load, and frequency of your training. You will thrive in a genuinely varied but personalised training program that is crafted to improve your functional strength and conditioning. It’s also important to remember that CrossFit improvement is based just as much on diet and nutrition as the training itself.  By pairing your workout with supplements like Innermost’s The Fit Protein you will be able to push your workouts comfortably further than most. Benefits Of CrossFit Whether you’re looking to lose weight, keep fit, or build muscle, it’s no surprise to say that CrossFit workouts have plenty of benefits. This is because the variety of functional high-intensity exercises within each session allows for positive physical effects all across the body. CrossFit functional workouts benefit these 10 core fitness areas: Cardiovascular endurance – Your ability to gather oxygen. Stamina – The processing, storing, and utilising of body energy. Strength – Your muscle’s ability to apply force. Flexibility – Maximises the motion of your joints. Power – The speed to which you can apply maximum muscle power in the quickest time. Speed – The efficiency of repeated movements. Coordination – Merging multiple movements into a single motion. Agility – Minimises the transition time between your movements. Balance – Control over your body’s centre of gravity. Accuracy – Your control over movements. While this might sound like a lot, trust me, getting into it is not as complicated as it sounds. Most of these core tenants are built into multiple individual exercises, providing a diverse range of benefits for your body. With a strong sense of community within each gym, taking part in CrossFit can also greatly improve your mood and even mental health.   How To Get Started Now you know why you should give CrossFit a go, you might be anxious about how exactly to start your workout routine. Remember, everyone has to start somewhere, so don’t go pushing too hard at the start before you can walk. With that in mind, here are a few key pointers to get started. Preparation First of all, get some appropriate training gear. Those who try CrossFit training in standard Vans will quickly realise the need for versatile and durable footwear. Your cross shoes should be fully supportive of multiple movement patterns and applied forces. You also want to look for workout tops and bottoms that are fully adept at soaking up a sweat – the last thing you want is to be itching the whole time. Finding The Right Gym The next step is to find the perfect personal trainer and CrossFit gym. This is something unique to everyone. Will you be motivated more by a gym with a supportive or competitive culture? When do you want to attend and what is the standard of coaching like? Most CrossFit facilities provide a trial period which we recommend you use first to get a feel of whether the gym works for you. Tailor Your Workout Before the first workout, it’s a good idea to work out what you want to achieve. As previously mentioned, exercises are completely scalable meaning they can be tailored to you. Are you looking to build strength, endurance, or speed? Do you want to focus on concentric or eccentric exercises? Even if you’re recovering from injury, CrossFit can be altered to speed up rehabilitation rather than force you to push through the pain. Track Your Progress Getting started with CrossFit is all about having a journey-based mindset to develop ability and fitness. No one is reaching the stars on session 1, but by tracking your training ‘firsts’ and personal bests you’ll have added excitement and motivation to keep going from the get-go. Tracking your progress from the start has also been scientifically proven to drive improvement in performance and goal attainment. We’d also recommend monitoring you’re nutrition and protein intake and looking at how it improves your workout. Consider adding one of Innermost’s many supplements such as our Fit Protein Powder to your daily routine. CrossFit Exercises For Beginners For individuals just being introduced to the world of CrossFit, knowing which exercises and training plans to go with can feel intimidating. To make things easier for you, here are just a few workouts to try that are perfect for those at the start of their training. Every Minute On The Minute (EMOM)  EMOM workouts are fairly self-explanatory but perfect for your development plans. These workouts see individuals deviate between start and rest exercise intervals while completing as many reps as possible. By measuring performance across a defined time period, progress and recovery can be closely monitored.   As Many Rounds As Possible (AMRAP) While AMRAP exercises can be tough they make for the perfect introductory CrossFit workout. Essentially, it’s all about quick-time high-intensity aerobic exercise. The focus is pushing yourself to complete as many exercise reps as possible within a given time and monitoring your progress. Ladder  Ladder workouts are also a good choice for CrossFit beginners, as they provide the best of both training plans. Instead of high-intensity or interval workouts, muscle workload is increased or decreased over a given amount of time. This change in muscle demand offers great benefits to speed and agility.     Interested to learn more about Innermost The Fit Protein? Looking for the ultimate gym bag essentials? Maybe you want to share your own experiences of getting into CrossFit? Message us on our Instagram @liveinnermost. Read more
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