The Reason Many Obese People Can’t Lose Weight Or Burn Fat

The reasons many obese people can’t lose weight and burn fat have nothing to do with genetics or “fat genes.” The main reason why many fat people can’t burn fat and lose weight is because they don’t exercise. This sounds simple enough, but many overweight people THINK they exercise plenty, when in reality, they exercise little. What makes obese people think they’re already getting enough exercise? It’s those lame exercise guidelines that have inundated the media for years:

Get 30 minutes a day of exercise, such as cleaning the house. The moment many people (fat as well as all other sizes) read this feeble exercise guideline, they figure why go to a gym, why walk a brisk mile around the lake, why take an aerobics class or lift dumbbells, when they do housework? The mindset of some fat (and thin) people is, “Gee, I’m already getting in my daily exercise quota — I clean the house!”

And therein lies the problem with fat burning!

An individual cannot include housecleaning as part of an exercise program to burn fat and lose weight, especially a large amount of weight. In order for the body to burn a lot of fat, it must be forced to work hard. From a mechanical standpoint, housework is not hard work. It can be frustrating, monotonous, tedious and stressful, YES. But from the standpoint of forcing the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal system to work hard enough to really burn fat, house chores just won’t cut it.

Vacuuming does not trigger growth of new bone cells or increase size of muscle cells. Doing laundry does not increase density of capillaries or increase how much blood the heart pumps with each beat. When the body is forced to make these adaptations, it pulls energy from fat stores.

If a you feel tired after doing housework, don’t let this fool you. Feeling tired after wiping countertops, loading the dishwasher, putting things in cupboards and changing beds simply means a person is in poor physical condition.

Keep doing the housework so that the house is inviting to guests, smells fresh and looks tidy. But if an individual includes house chores in the daily exercise quota, they’re making a big mistake in their efforts to burn fat.

Now, if you do 10 squats or deep lunges every time you push the vacuum cleaner across a room, then yes, this is nice exercise. But the exercise is the squats and lunges, not the vacuuming. If you wish to integrate exercise with housework, then put a 20-pound dumbbell in the laundry basket and keep it there. Then, every time you do laundry, you’ll be carting around a little more than 20 pounds.

These are little tricks to burn more calories, but nothing beats structured exercise time. So if an overweight person is wondering why the fat continues to stick around, it’s crucial to devote 45 minutes a day to hard exercise, the kind that makes the person (fat, obese, or whatever) pant heavily, the kind that makes the muscles “burn.