The Encore Fitness Blog Resources and information from top Las Vegas personal trainers, fitness and dietary experts. Carol Strom.

The reasons diets alone really don’t lead to long lasting weight loss is because at some time during every diet, the body begins breaking down lean muscle tissue to create fat.  This is disastrous for two reasons.  One, the body has found a new source of fat and learns to generate fat on its own without the need for food.   Second and most importantly, by eliminating lean muscle from the body the most vital means of fat burning is being destroyed.    Just as importantly, exercise alone won’t take off the pounds, especially if it is only aerobic exercise.  What sense does it make to work out for hours on the treadmill or stair climber machine to burn off 500 or more calories and then reward yourself for pushing so hard with a sports drink that may contain 600 calories or more?  Do the math.   You’re losing the battle. The real key to losing, and keeping weight off, is to eat a healthy, low-fat diet that does not starve the body and to mix aerobic exercise with weight bearing exercise to build muscle tissue, and therefore burn more calories than are taken in.  It’s that simple. An important thing to remember is that exercise will make you hungry and it’s been shown that people actually eat more on days when they work out than when they don’t.  What’s the solution?  Well, one good thing is now that you know this, you can plan for it by packing a healthy protein snack to eat after you work out.  Another is to drink plenty of water, which as we described earlier this will help the body feel full and eliminate the need for high calorie sports drinks after a workout.   Last year Americans spent over $46 billion on diet products and self-help books according to Forbes Magazine.  Recent estimates are that over 45 million Americans belong to fitness clubs and that over $19 billion a year is spent on gym memberships.  If you factor in the millions upon millions that are spent on exercise equipment and you can see that Americans spend a lot of money and a lot of time exercising and going on diets.   Yet we are still a fat nation.  Why?  Because we aren’t doing the simple math that any third grader could do.  Eat less, but don’t starve.  Exercise smart, and gain muscle.  Use up more calories than you eat!