It is understandable that many women get it wrong. They have been bombarded with so much wrong information over the years that it has become confusing and misleading. The old belief that weight loss (fat loss) is based on the myth that burning more calories during an exercise session is what is needed to lose this fat, and the more burnt in a session the better.

But we now know that working longer will not help you lose this fat ? in fact it can make you store more body fat in preparation for your long cardio sessions. You are also risking the loss of muscle tissue as the body downsizes muscle tissue to become more efficient at long, slow, steady state activity (walking, jogging, or cycling)..

This is extremely counterproductive as it is the amount of muscle tissue you have on your body that drives your metabolism and determines the speed and calorie burn of your metabolic engine. Endurance type activity does absolutely nothing to tone your precious muscle tissue so you only are burning calories while you are performing the activity and will experience a quick slowdown once the activity session is finished.

Modern day fat loss programs now focus on increasing the metabolism 24/7 so more calories are being burned for days after each exercise session. We are no longer concerned with just what happens during a session but what happens after the session for the best fat loss results. And we do that with strength training exercise.

Along with building and toning your muscle tissue for a better fat burning furnace, strength training offers so many other benefits as well. You can achieve effective 'cardio' (heart/lung) benefits when you perform your program at the correct level of intensity (degree of difficulty).

Just do a heavy set of squats and see what happens to your heart rate. A fitness professional is the best person to teach you what level of intensity is needed. If you try and wing it alone and are end up working at a low level of intensity it is likely you will be disappointed with your results.

Women often say that they lack the time to put into an exercise program, yet somehow manage to spend hours doing unproductive activity in the hope of fitness improvement and increase in strength and/or weight loss.

The good news is that three times the results can be achieved in half the time with a proper exercise program designed to change the chemistry of the body to burn fat rather than store it.

The only type of exercise that can achieve this is strength training exercise. More is definitely not better with this muscle toning and maintaining exercise regime. The idea is to work harder not longer thereby cutting the time down and achieving real results.

It is time to dump old fashioned ideas and beliefs about exercise that have been around since the 1980's. We know so much more now, so make the change and finally get the slim, strong, lean and healthy body that you have wanted all along.