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Dear Megan,
You are currently suffering from what I like to call the Cardio syndrome.Ok; it’s not a real medical condition. It’s more of a mistake that people make when trying to stay in shape. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the more active you are the more calories you will burn. If you can burn more calories than you are eating you will begin to loose body weight. However as soon as you decide to have a life and slow down on the cardio you will begin to put the unwanted pounds back on.

The problem with building your workout around cardiovascular training is that your metabolism is only active during the workout. However As soon as step off the treadmill your metabolism will return to normal. That’s why you needed to do 6-7 sessions a week to stay in shape. Don’t get me wrong cardio is an important piece of the puzzle, but a combination of weight lifting and cardiovascular training is much more effective.

You mentioned that you don’t lift weights because you don’t want to bulk up. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact weightlifting is the best way to supercharge your metabolism. Unlike cardio, lifting weights causes your body to burn fat throughout the entire day. Bigger muscles require more calories for fuel so you don’t have to worry about doing cardio every day of the week to keep your body from gaining weight. Combining cardio and weight training will help you build quality muscle mass while burning unwanted calories at the same time.

I suggest you try a new program that consists of three days of cardiovascular training and three days of weightlifting. This will allow you to get the best of both worlds.

Make sure that you work major muscle groups such as your chest, back shoulders and legs. You may want to do your weightlifting workouts and your cardio workouts on the same days in order to reduce the amount of days spent in the gym.