Exercising too hard

This is probably the most common mistake. As Americans we think if some is good more is better. And with physical activity, as I like to call it, this is completely not true. A couple of things you need to know first.

Your Metabolism rate is the speed at which your body converts sugar and fat into energy for daily use. The higher your metabolism rate, the faster your body burns fat cells. One of the largest influencing factors on your metabolism rate is the amount of muscle you have. Generally speaking the more muscle you have the higher your metabolism rate. So you want to gain or at least keep muscle and loose the fat. That is the goal. The more muscle the more fat you will burn sitting around doing nothing.

When you do physical activity your body requires energy. The first place you body will get this energy is from the sugar reserves in your system. This usually only lasts a couple minutes. Then your body will convert or 'burn' fat for the energy. Converting fat to energy takes time. So as long as your body is not using energy faster than your body can convert fat to energy, you will continue to burn fat when you do physical activity. But as soon as you start using more energy faster than your body can convert the fat, your body will start to burn muscle.

Now remember earlier, the more muscle you have the more fat you burn while do nothing. So if you start exercising to hard you will burn muscle to keep up with the energy needs of your body. This will mean you will burn less fat when you are not exercising. That is why exercising harder is not better.

So how do you know where this point is for you? Listen to your inner knowing. This point may change from day-to-day depending on your life.