How exercising too much could actually be making you fat

WHEN you're trying to get fit it can be tempting to work out like crazy - at every opportunity.

Those pounds won't shift themselves, will they?

But the truth is working out all the time could be one of the reasons that you're NOT slimming down.

Confused?

Don't be - we reveal why exercising every day is actually stopping you from shedding fat and building the abs you've always dreamed of having.

We all have a set of abs, it's just that for the vast majority of us, they're hiding underneath a cosy layer of adipose tissue (belly fat).

In order to expose those stomach muscles, you've got to concentrate on getting your overall body fat percentage down.

You can train the muscle underneath the fat but the real game changer is losing the fat covering the muscles in the first place.

We tend to have a high storage of fat around our middles if we're exposed to high and prolonged stress.

Stress comes in many different forms but one of those is physical stress and working out at a high intensity every day is just that.

If you're disproportionately storing more fat around your lower belly, then you need to start thinking about reducing your stress levels and getting a good night's sleep.

And the first thing you might want to think about - if you already exercise regularly - is whether you're working too hard and not giving your body a chance to properly recover.

"Over-training is very common, both in sports and on the gym scene," PT Harry Thomas, owner at No1 Fitness, told The Sun.

"They are now showing that a lack of rest and recovery is why many premiership players are getting injured.

"That's why many teams in recent years have introduced full recovery sessions into their programmes."

But it's not just injury you should be wary of - it's also fat accumulation.

It's all down to the production of cortisol - the stress hormone.

Laurence Fountain is the founder of Salus London and specialises in body transformations by way of re-balancing stress.

"Cortisol is going to interfere with different hormonal effects," he told us.

"Firstly, it’s going to interfere with your thyroid - meaning it’s going to be very hard to burn fat when your cortisol is high. In fact, you’re going to be more likely to burn muscle.

"Too much cortisol can also lead to an overstimulation of the brain during sleep causing an increase of ghrelin - the hunger hormone, which is going to make it impossible for you to control your appetite and stay away from simple sugars and high-fat foods.

"And when ghrelin high, leptin is going to be low so it’s going to stop you from feeling satisfied."

And there's plenty of science to back Laurence up.

A study published last year in the journal Obesity found that having high levels of cortisol is "positively and significantly correlated to larger waist circumference and higher body mass index or BMI".

Scientists looked at the stress levels and body weight of more than 2,500 Brits over the age of 54 and found that the results provided "consistent evidence that chronic stress is associated with higher levels of obesity".

While the body is a fantastically clever machine, it struggles to differentiate between different kinds of stress.

Back in the day, constantly running around might have been indicative of you running away from a man-eating mammoth or hunting for days on end in the midst of a famine.

We might be super sophisticated today, but our bodies still haven't caught up.

If you're smashing spin, step, cardio, weight classes every day, your body still thinks that you're in danger.

The result is that the body clings to fat (because it's not sure if it's about to experience a period without food) and also muscle.

That means that you're not seeing all the gains you should be from all that hard work.

Nutrient uptake gets lower, inflammation rises and instead of seeing your abs poking through, you end up feeling tired and bloated.

Laurence explained that "being in fight or flight mode sends the blood flowing to our extremities - so that we can leap out of perceived danger at any minute".

The problem with that is when we’re like that for too long, our bodies forget about sending blood to the digestive system and our food stops being broken down properly and converted to an alkaline state.

"That means that when acidic food hits your small intestine, it causes high levels of inflammation - cutting off your ability to absorb nutrients," he said.

The imbalance of stress on the body starts to deregulate our natural hormones by destroying gut function and disrupting sleep cycles.

That then starts to affect our endocrine system (that's the chemical messenger system which sends hormones to various organs).

The result? Poor metabolic output (energy expenditure), decreased energy levels, increased food cravings and a rapid decrease in mood.

And you know what else starts to deteriorate? Our self-image.

Our perception of what we look like starts to become more and more distorted with poor sleep and increased stress.

Today's obsession with #fitspo has lead to loads of fitness influencers and studios promoting a "go hard or go home" approach.

But that just doesn't work for most people - it simply causes wear and tear.

To maintain lean muscle and mass and prevent weight gain, you've got to get the balance right.

So what's the solution?

1. Mix up your routine

For every hour of yang (cardio/weights) practice you do, try an hour of ying (restorative practice).

"I encourage people to be active at least five or six days per week, but get people to understand that training doesn’t just have to be in a gym or taking part in a sport," Harry told us.

"Training should be looked at as activity - not everything needs to be at a high intensity or pumping weights.

"On a 'rest day', go for a stroll and leave your phone at home, walk the dogs, take the kids out.

"This will be a rest to your body, but also for your mind as you are switching off from the day to day stuff."

2. Get a good night's sleep

Sleep is so crucial for stress management and it's also when our muscles grow.

Don't get enough sleep and you're stopping your body from actually benefiting from all the exercise you're doing.

3. Have a couple of days off

No one needs to work out seven days a week.

Make sure that you have two days of complete rest, so that you can reset and enjoy life.

See your friends, hang out with family, send time on self-care.

You'll recover better and feel mentally more on it when you do resume exercising.

4. Eat more

Another stress many of us face is not eating enough of the right foods to match our energy output.

It's no good starving yourself and then expecting your body to be able to undergo an hour of training every day.

Make sure that you're getting a good amount of protein and complex carbs, so that you have enough glucose for your muscles to feed off.

Yesterday we revealed how a certain kind of instant coffee can help you lose up to three time more weight

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