I’m going to explain this in such simple terms that if you have more than a high school education you will probably be insulted by the simplicity of it, but just in case you haven’t gotten it yet here it goes.

Many people that start an exercise program believe that they should miraculously start dropping weight and get the body of their dreams because they do the elliptical for 20 minutes three times a week, or whatever exercise it is, that you recently picked up. Spin class, kickboxing class, boot camp, poking around the gym trying to figure out what to do.

Here’s why that doesn’t work. Yes, exercise is good for you, yes you need to do it, but it cannot be used as the sole tool for weight loss and here’s why. Let’s say you join a strenuous class, like Boot Camp or a kickboxing class (the real kind where you’re actually hitting a bag) and you kick butt in that class, you push really hard and don’t let up at all during class. Well 130lb woman would burn approximately 500 calories during that class.

When you start or change your exercise program, often times, your hunger will increase. Your body will notice the new demand for calories and since our bodies job is to stay in state homeostasis it will urge you to eat more so that it can remain at its current weight. You will only recognize that as being a little hungrier than usual. And you probably won’t notice that you have started finishing off your Caesar Salad at lunch instead of leaving a small portion behind. You will recover those lost 500 calories very quickly and in fact you may even acknowledge the hunger pangs and indulge, a little, assuming you can afford to, after all, you worked out. Thus actually putting on weight!

In this scenario the only way our sample person could lose weight as a result of her new class, would be to know that she takes in exactly 1800 calories a day (which is very, very, rare for someone to be accurate about their actual caloric intake). But assuming she’s a rocket scientist and knows this to be true. Then if she continued to eat exactly 1800 calories a day, every day for the entire week, (no cheating on the weekends) that would total 12600 calories for the week. If she then did her kickboxing class 3 days a week, her caloric expenditure for those classes would total approximately 1500 calories. If you subtract that from her food intake of 12600 you are left with 11,1000 calories or a deficit of 1500 calories for the week. She would need to create a deficit of 3500 calories for the week just to drop 1 lb. of fat, so it would take this person two and a half weeks to lose 1lb.

But that’s not how it goes down in real life. In real life you are not aware of exactly how many calories you are taking in, because you don’t live in a bubble and we’re not force feeding you through a tube. In real life the chef put an extra ladle of oil on the grill when he was making your egg whites and that cost you a kickboxing class worth of calories.

In real life, after a week of doing the exact same kickboxing class, your body begins to get used to it and has figured out ways to cheat and so you’re no longer burning 500 calories. Now you’re burning 475 and next week 450 because the enthusiasm is lost and so on. and then you wonder why it’s taking so long to see a change in your body. At this rate it will take about a month for this person to drop 2lbs. and that would be considered a success.

So is the answer to workout harder, find a more intense class? Not necessarily. Based on your weight there are only so many calories you can burn in an hour.

When you see gyms make a claim like “burn 1000 calories in this class”. That is crap! Why, because that caloric expenditure is based on one client, that they had, one time, that weighed 300 lbs and was a professional athlete and able to move like an athlete for that entire hour and now they make the claim that the class burns 1000 calories. You on the other hand weigh half that and don’t move like a professional athlete for the entire hour. Also adding more exercise is going to make you hungrier, so if you don’t get a handle on your diet, the calories will creep in.

Is the answer to give up on exercise? Absolutely not! Our bodies are meant to move. Exercise is not an optional thing and should not be looked at as such. Sitting on your ass all day is not natural and is in fact very bad for you. If you want to be healthy you must move.

The answer to seeing results is to understand that you don’t have all the answers. What you are eating is keeping you at your current weight. You must combine “the big 4″ Strength training, Cardio, Nutrition and recovery. Stop beating your head against the wall. Enlist the help of trained professionals with a track record of success. If they can’t show you proof of people that have reached their goals using the exact same system, they’re trying to pitch you, then move on.

Another option is educate yourself on how to do it on your own. it is possible but no program will work unless you first acknowledge this simple fact. What you are eating is keeping you at your current weight. And as Dr. Phil says, “How’s that working out for you?”.

A good exercise program will change it up all the time, so that your body can’t find ways to cheat as quickly. If you’re going to a class that is the same every week or doing a workout program that doesn’t change, guess what, your body won’t either, it doesn’t need to, it can already do what you’re asking of it.

So to get the most bang out of your hard work, don’t neglect any portion of you new healthy lifestyle. Remember that you need all four wheels on your car to make it run and you need “the big 4” components of good health to get the body of your dreams.