Make your cardio work for you

Name a tried and true way of losing weight. If you answered "Cardio," you are absolutely right. This is not to say that there aren't any other effective methods, but performing regular cardiovascular exercise creates almost a certainty that you will drop some pounds. But how many pounds? That depends on everything else.

If you're consuming an inordinate amount of calories every day, you obviously won't lose much weight with your cardio routine. This mistake can sometimes be made by accident; in fact, it is often made when people are trying to eat healthy. Case in point: the Health Bar. The high calorie content of many of these bars causes you to burn the bar itself before you start burning any fat. That's why noshing on a low-calorie meal that contains slow-digesting carbs about an hour before your workout is a much better way to go.

Another common misstep many people make is to just keep on running. Day after day, week after week, month after month they just run the same way, the same speed, the same direction, and the same route (or, if at a gym, on the same treadmill). Humans are creatures of habit, so it's very easy to fall into a redundant and unchanging routine. The problem is, insofar as your progress is concerned, you're not really making any; rather, you're just maintaining your current fitness level. To start dropping some pounds with cardio again, try following an interval training routine instead. Alternate sprints and walks, with your sprints being at super high-intensity and your walks at a relatively low level of intensity.

The other option, I suppose, would be to stick to your long, low-to-moderate intensity cardio session, only adding speed or distance. But, the downside of this option is that over time, you're 1 mile run will turn into a 2 mile run, and then after a month or so it will be up to a 4 mile run. Before long, you'll be running 20 miles a day. Personally, I don't have that kind of time!! But, hey .. if it works for you, go for it.