The answer is simple. You are working harder instead of working smarter. Let me explain. First we will start with the amount of cardio that you are doing. You are just spinning your wheels if you are doing cardio sessions for long periods of time. We have been told for decades that if you perform aerobic activity for 30-60 minutes in your target heart rate zone, then you will burn body fat. WRONG!

Look at Olympic athletes. The long distance runners stay in their target zone for hours a day, every day. But physically they look soft and frail. However the sprinters never perform long distance running and they look defined and well sculpted. That is because the average body fat percentage of an Olympic sprinter is around 5% while the long distance runners are around 14%.

The point I am trying to make is that performing long bouts of cardio is not the way to lose weight or burn fat. Instead try interval training. This means that you work in short bursts like sprinters do. Examples of this would be to walk for 30 seconds then run for 30 seconds or jump rope for 15 seconds then rest for 30 seconds, and do this for say 10-20 minutes. Anything that you do with high intensity coupled with low intensity will give you the results you are after. Also make sure that you perform cardio after any weight training. The reason for this is two-fold.

One, after you have trained with weights your glycogen storages are at a minimal level if not zero. When these storages are gone and you perform this advanced cardio; your body has no other choice than to burn body fat for fuel. Second, you want to have all of your energy for when you are performing resistance training because that is how you develop muscle tone. Every pound of muscle tone that you develop will burn an average of 50 calories per day. If you can develop 10lbs of muscle tone you will burn 500 calories per day while resting! Multiply that times seven days in a week, and you will incinerate a total of 3500 calories by doing nothing! 3500 calories equals an entire pound of fat!

Now let's address the diet issue. Another myth we have been taught is that less calories consumed than expended will equal a weight reduction. This is a half truth. It will result in a weight reduction, but at what cost? Remember that you want to keep the muscle tone and lose the fat because muscle tone burns extra calories. When you diet too hard or restrict too many calories then your body has to find a way to feed itself what you aren't. When that happens the body does not resort to burning fat because there are no nutrients in fat. Think about it. If you had a choice between eating a juicy steak and a bowl of fat; what would you choose? Of course you chose the steak. The body isn't stupid. It picks the same thing because there are nutrients in the steak that your body needs to function.

Next time that you want to restrict calories try to restrict certain types of calories like things made with flour, sugar and foods high in saturated fat. Also spread out your meals over five to seven small meals per day making sure that you eat within 45 minutes after training. This will keep your metabolism primed and help to shed unwanted pounds and body fat.

If you find yourself working harder instead of smarter give these tips a try. If you have hit a plateau, implementing these ideas are a sure fire way to get you over that hurdle.