Dieting results in long term changes to hormones and muscle fibers.

[noamnety]

133. I agree. Upping the activity level isn't normally doable or even helpful.

That puts people on an infinite loop of having to eat less, exercise longer - which isn't maintainable. Your experience of doing long bouts of cardio and not getting the results you wanted exactly matches a lot of what I've been reading about traditional weight loss wisdom.

Things that seem to be more productive are either working different muscles or working the same muscles in different ways. My favorite thing is bike riding. I like long bike rides, but once you get to a certain level of training with that (not pro or racing, but just moderately comfortable with it), your body learns to do it more efficiently and the same exercise becomes less effective. It sucks. The trick is to avoid always doing something you're already good at because we don't WANT to work out efficiently. We need to perpetually be doing things that we are somewhat clumsy or inefficient at if the goal is to build muscle and burn fat. (Paraphrasing that from the New Rules of Lifting for Women.) That was a new concept for me.

A good way to break out of a plateau is instead of going from an hour long ride to an hour and a half, drop to as little as 4 minutes of severe interval work. There are studies showing that changing to even 20 minutes a week of exercise can be more effective at increasing both your aerobic and anaerobic capacity than riding at a moderate speed for 5 hours a week. http://www.active.com/triathlon/Articles/Go-for-Broke-with-Tabata-Intervals.htm

Or change from biking to another strength training thing at home for 10-15 minutes a day. I posted up my progress photos from doing that in the fitness forum a few months back. http://www.democraticunderground.com/1149101 I still like biking so I'll add that back in as recreation for summer but I no longer view it as my exercise program.

I really wish shows like the biggest loser didn't emphasize having to work yourself to a state of misery for long sessions to meet weight loss goals. I know it's good for business but it's bad for us. Just as your experience demonstrates - that isn't the most effective solution. I've built more muscles and shed more weight with 1-2 hours per week in my living room than I did over the summer riding 6-9 hours a week building up a serious sweat.