Going To The Gym Could Make You Fat: 25% Of Gym-Goers Gain Weight Due To Post-Workout Snacks
The feeling of complacency after an intense workout is found to make 25 percent of gym-goers gain weight due to their indulgence in high-calorie snacks post-workout, according to a recent survey.
The poll, conducted by Forza Supplements, a UK diet firm that specializes in selling fat-burning supplements, polled 1,000 gym-goers on their diet habits and found that 25 percent of gym-goers gain weight when they start an exercise regimen. Approximately 40 percent of gym-goers burn as little as 300 calories during each visit to the gym, leaving them prone to weight gain if they choose to consume a high-caloric snack after exercising.
“Lots of people go the gym because they know they have no control over their eating habits,” said Lee Smith, Forza Supplements' managing director, to the Daily Mail. “Battling the bulge is the toughest thing many of us do,” he said.
Forza Supplements found regular gym sessions evoked a feeling of complacency among gym-overs, which was found to contribute to the overindulging in unhealthy snacks directly after a session. More than a third of fitness fans allow themselves a treat after going to the gym. Among the most popular treats that gym-goers admitted to having were chocolate bars (223 calories for a Kit Kat) and a glass of wine (190 calories). These snacks together total more than the average amount of calories that gym-goers are burning in a 40-minute to one-hour session, three to four times a week.
Four out of 10 survey respondents burned an average of between 300 and 500 calories in a single session, while a quarter managed to burn 200 to 300 calories, 10 percent burned just 100 to 200 calories, and four percent burned less than 100 calories, the Daily Mail reports. An interesting discovery was that 49 percent of gym-goers reported that their weight has stayed the same while just 27 percent said they actually lost weight as a result of going to the gym.
The dangerous feeling of complacency and the need to reward yourself for a good workout at the gym can backfire. Forty-two percent of fitness fans believe that, because they go to the gym, they can consume whatever they want. But that's not exactly the case. "My advice is to eat back no more than half the calories you burn off during a workout. So if you burn 300 calories jogging, you have 150 calories to play with afterward,” says Dawn Jackson Blatner, R.D., author of The Flexitarian Diet. The idea is to maximize your nutritional intake in minimal calories so that you can eat healthy and filling foods that won’t make you susceptible to high-calorie post-workout snacking.
To learn how to shamelessly indulge in a post-workout treat while keeping the pounds off, click here.