Losing weight initially with any exercise program and healthy eating habits at first seems easy. Seeing results right away is great motivation. But if your fat loss starts to slow down and you don’t see the visible effects it’s hard to continue.

It’s natural to lose weight easily at first and then to start to slow down. Don’t lose faith though. It seems harder but it doesn’t have to be. You can reach a 100% or your fat burning goals and keep it off by training smart. Add variety and increase your intensity temporarily to shed the extra pounds.

Lack of persistence makes it difficult to shed the last few pounds or to reach your final goal. Once you reach a certain weight you may be inclined to stop trying and say your happy with what you’ve accomplished. And eventually you start to go back to your old habits and give up before your reach your initial goal.

Beware of giving up or slacking off before you reach your final goal, as this will have negative long term effects. Stick to your plans until you have met your initial goal and you’ll develop a great habit of following through and you’ll also get a positive morale boost.

Most of the time the problem isn’t that you don’t work hard enough but that you may just be training wrong. Cardio alone is a great way to burn extra calories but not the best way. Strength training with long rests between exercises can be inefficient use of your time and less effective in burning fat.

A common mistake most people make is sticking to the same workout for over 6 weeks. But burning fat requires not only a combination of cardio and resistance training but also variety and increasing intensity.

Performing the same exercise routing for more than 6 weeks leads to a plateau because your muscles adapt by being more efficient. Therefor your body requires less energy to perform the same routine which in turn burns less calories. So it’s crucial to add variety and vary your intensity.

If you walk everyday at the same pace and for the same amount of time you’ll notice that after a while you lose less weight. Add intervals by challenging yourself to walk faster for a few minutes or walking up hills or increase the total time you walk.

If you perform the same exercises and intensity when strength training, add more weight or try variations of exercises to work the same muscles. Rotate different exercises every 4 to 6 weeks by adding variety and make sure you increase your intensity as they become easier. You’ll keep your self challenged and continue to burn fat and keep it off.