Trying to lose 20 pounds can be a tough thing to do if you keep making a few simple mistakes.

When most people try to lose 20 pounds, they usually try one of all of the following:

-Crash dieting to lose fat fast
-Long bouts of time on a cardio machine

This article will show you why these two common methods are NOT going to help you lose 20 pounds. In fact, they may even slow your progress.

Why Crash Dieting Won't Help You Lose 20 Pounds Crash dieting basically involves eating an extremely low calorie diet. This is usually in the range of 500-1000 calories per day that all comes from eating 1 meal.

Eating 1 meal per day that consists of very few calories is not going to help you to lose 20 pounds. The reason for this is that it will actually slow down your metabolism! If your body only consumes a little amount of food, then it does not know if you are on a diet or if you are starving on some desert island. It will respond by slowing down your metabolism to preserve what energy is has!

A better method is to eat 4-6 small meals per day that consist of protein, complex carbs, and good fats.

This way your body is getting better quality food more often, so you will not feel hungry all the time. On top of the, your blood sugar will stay more regulated so you will not store the excess as body fat.

Why Long Bouts on a Cardio Machine Won't Help You Lose 20 Pounds

This is a very common mistake that I see. The

common thought is that the best way to exercise to lose 20 pounds is to get on a treadmill, elliptical, stairstepper, or exercise bike and go for 30-60 minutes at the same speed.

This type of workout does burn calories, and combined with the right type of diet can help you lose pounds.

What this type of workout DOES NOT do is help raise your metabolism. In order to raise your metabolism through exercise, you need to both add muscle mass and do high intensity cardio workouts.

The best way to lose 20 pounds by doing cardio is to do what is called interval training. This means that you do about 2 minute slow followed by 1 minute very fast, then repeat 3-6 times.

The high intensity minutes are great because it will burn lots of calories as well as ramp up your metabolism for hours after you are done exercising.

Aside from the metabolic benefits of interval training to lose 20 pounds, it is also a lot less boring! It is a lot better to think that you only have 2 minutes until you change intensities as opposed to thinking "ok, only 28 more minutes to go."

In conclusion, you can lose 20 pounds if you do the right things with both diet and exercise. Instead of crash dieting and long same speed cardio routines, try making the adjustments described in this article.

Good luck =)

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