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How to strike a balance between diet and exercise If you've been sweating it out on a regular basis and the scale has barely budged— or worse, it spiked—you can likely blame an imbalance of two key weight-loss players: calories in (how much you eat) and calories burned (how much you worked off). What looks simple on paper gets tricky in practice, because a crazyhard sweat session not only torches calories and revs your metabolism but can also up your hunger quotient. Luckily, a few quick tweaks are all you need to make sure your workouts are helping—not hurting—your poundshedding efforts. Sweat by Numbers Sorry to break it to you, but your last ubertough workout probably didn't torch nearly as many calories as you thought it did. "People grossly overestimate how many calories they burn during exercise, especially when they think it's high intensity," says Eric Doucet, Ph.D., a human kinetics professor at the University of Ottawa. "Estimating calorie output can be an inexact science," says Georgie Fear, a registered dietitian for Precision Nutrition. That's because it involves factors like age, weight, body temperature, metabolic rate, and hormonal changes (to name a few) that are complicated, difficult to track, and ever fluctuating. Many cardio machines, for example, factor in just age and weight—and are calibrated for men. What's more, at higher intensities, or as the machines get older, the readouts may become less accurate.
Instead of focusing on numbers, monitor your intensity by focusing on your perceived effort—how difficult the workout feels. In the weight room, the last few reps of every set should be tough to finish (if they're not, bump up the weight or number of reps). During cardio workouts, add short bursts of speed to shock your body and spike your burn, suggests Mark Gorelick, Ph.D., an assistant professor of kinesiology at San Francisco State University. After warming up, speed up to your near all-out max effort (it should feel unsustainable) for 30 seconds, then slow to a conversational pace for three minutes. Repeat six times. Too easy? Adjust both the sprint and recovery to one minute. Calorie Conundrum If you've been logging tons of miles or you're a gym regular and you still aren't seeing changes, it's time to take a closer look at your diet. Moderately active women typically need a ballpark of 1,800 to 2,200 calories a day to maintain their weight, says Fear. To drop pounds, you'll need to shave anywhere from 250 to 500 calories a day from that total. Seems simple, right? Not quite. "After exercise, adrenaline and endorphins are flowing," says Howard Rachlin, Ph.D., a research professor at Stony Brook University. In this elated state, women often feel they deserve a post-workout treat or can splurge on a high-calorie lunch. Case in point: In a study published in The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, Doucet and his colleagues found that college students consumed up to three