It is still a common misconception that aerobics is the key to taking off the fat. I've written it before and I will continue to write it
because it's a long uphill battle to undo what the mainstream media has done.
Weight training is the key to taking off fat and keeping it off, NOT aerobics!!
Unfortunately, the best you can hope for from diet and aerobics alone is to become a "skinny fat person." you'll go from a big pear to a small pear, but still a pear nontheless.
If you don't weight train, at least half the weight you lose will be muscle, which will in turn slow down your metabolism, preventing you from losing more fat and making it difficult to keep off what you have lost.
Obviously, weight training is the key to developing strength and muscle. What few people realize is that weight training also increases fat loss, and does so more effectively than aerboics and diet alone. Weight training burns calories during a workout, just like aerobics. Weight training also burns more calories after your workout than aerobics does, due to its higher intensity level. Weight training can elevate your metabolism for up to 39 hours after a workout. This means you are burning even more fat, WHILE DOING NOTHING! You can't do that with the typical low intensity aerobics. By the way, you'd have to run a marathon to burn off about a pound, some of which will be muscle.
Weight training increases your lean body mass - aerobic training does not. Having more muscle will reset your resting metabolism at a higher level, making it easier for you to lose more fat and also making it easier to keep the fat off permanently.
You've lost a few pounds, now you are feeling better and looking better. What if you feel that it's not enough? What next?
You need to begin working both smarter and harder. This is extremely important if you wish to continue to see more progress.
I know, it sounds simple and it is, but it's not easy.
Spending 2 hours a day, 6 days a week lifting weights isn't gonna cut it. Sure, you may be working hard but it's the wrong kind of work and you won't make progress, you'll overtrain.
Forget about the genetic freaks that get big and ripped no matter what they do. Their program isn't gonna work for the other 99.9% of us.
If you want to ascend beyond the lowly beginner level you simply have to push yourself harder. And that means getting the heck out of your comfort zone.
The comfort zone is the crusher of dreams, the destroyer of potential. It's the comfort zone that prevents you from living the wonderful life and being the amazing person you are supposed to be. GET OUT OF IT!
The comfort zone isn't just getting home from work, plopping on the couch, grabbing the remote and downing a few beers every night. You can get into a comfort zone even while engaged in a workout and nutrition plan.
Maybe you are doing only 6 reps on that set of squats when you know deep down that if you just worked hard you could get 9 or 10. Now, you're not increasing the weights on your exercises. There it is. You're stuck in the comfort zone. Pretty soon, you won't even get off the couch to workout at all.
Let's be very clear. There is no maintaining. You are either moving forward or moving backward. Which direction you choose to go is up to you. The achiever is the person who is aware that to "stand still inside the comfort zone" will get you absolutely nowhere, so he or she is ALWAYS MOVING FORWARD.
The only way to move forward is with hard work and effort in the direction of a specific goal.