Hi, everyone! I'm mostly a lurker, but I enjoy reading everyone's posts and encouragement each day. My personal trainer told me a couple of things that I thought y'all would be interested in:

1) The reason the weight comes back: When you diet, you lose 1/3 of your muscle mass along with the fat. This reduces your metabolism by 1/3 as well. So, once you reach your target weight you figure you'll maintain from there and go back to eating pretty much how you want. However, because your metabolism is 1/3 lower, you begin to gain it back more quickly than before. So, you start to diet again, but that reduces your muscle mass (and metabolism) by another 1/3 and on it goes. So, the key to losing weight and keeping your metabolism at a high rate is weight lifting. Working out 6 days per week (ideally), trading off weights and cardio. So, there you go...the science of why yo-yo dieting happens.

2) If you're going to go to the gym and do cardio, it's preferable to do it on an empty stomach so that you're forcing your body to burn its fat stores rather than your breakfast. If you're going to lift weights, you should have a starch and a protein so that your body has the energy stores to build muscle.

Anyway, there you go! Good luck, everyone!

Kellie

Thanks for sharing Kellie....

Kellie - those are good tips. I am a firm believer in exercise as half the key to successful weight loss! I, too, have read the part about doing cardio on an empty stomach (actually, I've read that having a cup of coffee right before the cardio is even more beneficial, but I cannot remember the logic behind it). I work out early in the morning and have never liked to eat anything prior to my workout. Some experts disagree with this, but it works best for me.

Keep the tips coming!

I just read an article on lifescript that says AM workouts are best. These are their top 5 reasons:
1- Consistency, if you do it first thing in the morning, it is more likely to get done.
2- Metabolism boost, get your body burning calories early, and you will burn more all day.
3- Healthy routine, if you make exercise your first priority, you will be more likely to make good choices throughout the day.
4- Smarten up- Research shows that exercise increases blood flow to the brain, giving you a mental boost that lasts all day. (No wonder you are so smart, Joni!)
5- You will look great and feel awesome, raising your self esteem, giving you more energy throughout the day, and overall giving you better health.

The link to the whole article is http://www.lifescript.com/channels/d...its.asp?page=1