This is the time of year when you are likely to be going for it with full determination at the gym… this is GOOD NEWS if you are progressing the way you want to. Unfortunately for a lot of people they are finding it hard to keep off the fat they’ve lost in the first few months of the year. EVEN WORSE – some people are putting it all back on again or have ended up with more than they started with.

Here are two very brief reasons why people find it difficult to maintain fat loss… the first is that most gym goers do the same exercise programme week after week without changing anything. It doesn’t take long for the body to adapt to the same exercise demands. For beginners it can take as little as 4 to 6 weeks to become more efficient at doing the same exercise programme – meaning that from a fat loss perspective it will give you less in return.

Secondly, people are doing the WRONG EXERCISES to lose fat. The majority of your exercises should be to build muscle and not to break it down! Cardio and long duration workouts will break your muscle down and make it harder for you to keep the fat off. Muscle preservation plays a big role in your metabolic rate. Love them or hate them – the majority of your routine needs to be resistance type exercises.

For those that are sceptical about choosing resistance training over cardio to burn fat… it’s not what you do it’s the way that you do it – that gets results!