Ep. 104 Common Fitness Mistakes Hindering Your Results—and How to Fix Them

Feeling stuck in your fitness journey despite putting in the work? In this episode, we dive into six common fitness mistakes that could be sabotaging your results—like chasing calorie burn instead of building muscle, inconsistent programming, and overlooking the role of sleep, stress, and nutrition. You'll learn what actually drives sustainable fat loss, how to train smarter (not harder), and why patience and consistency matter more than quick fixes. If you're ready to break through plateaus and see real change, this episode is a must-listen.

For next level fat loss strategies, hormone/gut health help, serious performance goals and unparalleled support, apply for Mountain Metabolic coaching. Learn more HERE.

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What is Fit for Hiking?

Where fitness and outdoors meet. In this space we chat all things hiking, exercise, wellness, adventure, motherhood, and metabolic health from a female perspective! Get ready to learn + be inspired to live your fullest, most adventurous life!

Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a longtime fitness professional and Midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. And combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential, and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for Hiking podcast. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the fit for Hiking podcast. This is your host, Brady. Today we are talking about common fitness mistakes that hinder our results and how to fix them. Um, you know, obviously something is always going to be better than nothing when it comes to exercise and working out. So I am by no means sharing this episode to tell anybody that they are just doing everything wrong, that they should just, you know, call it quits, because the fact that you're even working out at all is already such a win. However, this episode is specifically for the person that's not seeing the results that they want to see, despite following a workout regimen and kind of wondering like what is going on here? Because I'm putting all this energy and time into working out, and I'm still not seeing the results that I want to see. And the reason why I want to share this episode is because this was totally me. For many, many years, I've shared a little bit about my own personal health and fitness journey, um, on the podcast before in previous episodes. But if you're new to the show or you just haven't really heard before, I spent a lot of my 20s. Feeling extremely stuck and frustrated in my body composition and my health. Despite being someone who was working out like five six days a week and sometimes twice a day. I was managing a fitness studio full time. I was teaching the classes. I was doing my own workouts, really intense, like hit style classes and running on top of it. And yet, despite all of that, I still was gaining weight and not in the form of muscle. It was like, absolutely body fat, inflammation, puffiness. I look back at photos of myself and it's like shocking how much weight and puffiness I had in my face. And just my whole body was just drastically different and I was just feeling so stuck. You know, these were my early 20s to mid 20s, like the years where you should be feeling your best. I was on paper doing everything that you would expect from someone who has a very lean body, and yet I was struggling and feeling very stuck. So I know how frustrating this can be when you are putting so much effort into your health and fitness and you're like, why am I not seeing results or even having the opposite effect? Which is even more frustrating. So that is why I want to talk about common fitness mistakes that do hinder our results, and what to do instead, if that's kind of the boat that you're in. Okay, so let's jump into it. Mistake number one. Is chasing a fat burn or calorie burn over muscle building. Why it's a problem. While you might think that simply burning calories is going to get to your dream bod, you really have to think carefully about your goals here. If you want to improve body composition, look toned, and maintain a higher metabolism without always having to manually burn calories and work out constantly. Then you're going to want to take more of a muscle building approach. Just doing cardio workouts without the strength training is not going to get you a toned physique, because you're not going to have the muscle mass to achieve that toned look. And the less muscle you have, the harder it's going to be to stay lean. Your metabolism is not going to function as highly at rest, meaning you're just going to have to keep manually burning calories day after day. And eventually, as your body adapts to the amount of calories that you're burning through cardio, you're just going to have to keep increasing that amount. We actually had a client that came into Mountain Metabolic Coaching who was doing like an hour plus of cardio every day, sometimes more, and she was really feeling stuck in her physique. She was not losing weight. If anything, she was gaining weight and we completely changed up her training regimen. We pulled way back on the cardio. For a while we were doing almost none and we just kept with her non exercise activity so her feet stayed high, getting steps in playing with her kiddo, and we switched her from cardio to strength training and it's made all the difference in her physique and she has so much more time back. She's like oh my gosh, I can't believe how much time I don't have to spend, uh, working out and trying to do all this cardio just to maintain my physique that I'm not even happy with, right? So it made all the difference for her. And this is super, super common. Um, so we really want to make sure that we are not just leaning on calorie burn, obsessing over the amount of calories we're burning on a cardio machine, or what our Fitbit tells us, or whatever it is, because one, those those numbers are so inaccurate, and two, we can cancel that out with what we eat so easily. This is why investing in the long term approach, which is building muscle, is going to make such a bigger difference in your physique change, being able to stay lean long term. Um, and this is often why people do see diminishing returns as far as results with running, cycling or cardio based classes. Yes. When you first start doing these things, it's novel to your body, so your body's going to respond more readily. You might see initial, um, changes in your physique that you're happy with, but it's going to be really, really tough long term. So you need to play the long game. Think about how you want your physique to look long term, how much time you want to have to commit every single week and then adjust accordingly. So really how to fix this is by prioritizing strength training at least three times a week or more, depending on, you know, how much work you want to do on your physique, how much you want to see it change, and then fueling with enough protein and calories to support muscle maintenance. Because if we are constantly eating in a calorie deficit, um, then it's going to affect our overall basal metabolic rate over time. Yes, there's a time and a place for a calorie deficit. If we're going into like a cutting phase or really focusing on fat loss for a little while, but you don't want to just be there always. If we're always, always, always living in a deficit, um, it's going to cause an adaptation with your metabolism. And that's when people kind of get stuck in a place where then when they do start eating more, or they have those times where they eat a lot on vacation or whatever, they gain weight so easily because your metabolism is downwardly adapted. Okay. So that is kind of the key success here for how to switch over. If you're just a cardio queen and you're under eating and dieting all the time, you're going to want to switch to strength training and start eating more. Of course, if this is new to you and you are unsure of how to do this in a way where you're not just going to gain rapid weight because of your metabolic adaptation, then definitely I recommend working with a coach. This is something that we help our clients with. Within Mountain Metabolic coaching, so definitely reach out. If that is kind of the situation that you're in, you can always apply and see if we have some spots available. And our application link is as always in the show notes. Um, if you want a little bit more information on this particular topic, episode 29 talks all about how cardio is not the best route for fat loss, specifically running. Um, so if you're interested in learning a little bit more and going more into detail there, definitely check out episode 29. Mistake number two is inconsistent effort or program hopping. So why it's a problem. If you're not giving your body enough time to adapt, then you're going to constantly be starting over the same way that, like learning a song on an instrument would require repetition. Exercise is really no different. So when we're constantly jumping from exercise style to something new, or never really following a program and just kind of doing these random workouts all the time, it's like trying to learn a different song on guitar every single day. You're still going to reap some benefits from the overall practice of the instrument, right? But you're never going to master one particular song. So. We tend to gravitate towards, you know, these trendy classes or workouts that look effective and cool online. When in reality, what's most effective is doing the basics week in and week out while progressively overloading. It's not going to look as like flashy or sexy or cool, but if your program doesn't really have repetition or just jumping all over the place, if you're not doing the same workouts for at least a month, like back to back every single week, you're repeating the same workouts, the same exercises. It's likely not going to be as effective because it's not going to contain enough progressive overload, which is a key component to body recomposition and getting stronger. Okay, so doing the whole like I'm just going to pull up a workout on YouTube or pull up a workout from this app that I'm on where I see this trainer, or just go to a class on a random day and see what that trainer has for me. Yes, it sounds good. In theory, it's more spontaneous. It might be more exciting than doing the whole like following a program thing, but it's not going to yield the same results. And unfortunately, this is why a lot of exercise classes are not a great long term solution. If you really want to like, get deep into body recomposition. Yes, they're super fun. I love group classes. They have great energy. You can meet people. It's a great way to like get you started with exercise if you struggle to find it enjoyable. However, if you are reaching a point where you're getting diminishing returns, it's likely because there's not actual programming to the classes because there's different trainers every day. Typically they don't follow any sort of master program or progression. And again, this is generally how it goes with group classes. There might be some that have really great programming, and all the coaches are on the same page, but for the most part it just doesn't usually go this way and it's just random. So you're not going to get as good of results as if you're actually following a progressive overload style training program. Um, episode 20 is a really, really great place to start if you're curious about progressive overload. If you're like, I don't even know where to start when it comes to putting all this together. Um, so in order to really fix this issue, I definitely would start there and then committing to a solid program for at least 8 to 12 weeks and being super consistent with it, um, consistency is always going to beat out novelty. When it comes to results. Yes, it might not be as exciting, but if you really want the results, you got to do the things that are going to get you the results, right. So I definitely would start there. If you are like, yep, that sounds like me. I love to program hop. I'm or you're just not consistent. Maybe you are following a program, but you aren't really doing it to the best of your ability. You're not following it consistently. You do. You know, one workout one week, the next workout next week. You do two workouts, but you're just kind of all over the place in your consistency. That's something you're really going to want to dial in, um, first. So again, this is something that we absolutely do in Mountain Metabolic Coaching. We follow a program that's designed for you. Each individual is going to have their own program built out for them by their designated coach. And I do believe that this makes a really big difference. One, for just adherence, because you're way more likely to be consistent with something if it fits your life, if it fits the equipment that you have easy access to, if you are removing barriers that kind of pop up, that make it hard for you to show up for your workouts and be consistent. Um, if it's tailored to your goals, your restrictions, all of that makes such a big difference for just doing it consistently, right? Um, but also just following something that is going to be structured in a way where you're getting the results that you want to see. Because what's the point of working out if we're not going to really maximize our time and get the results, you know? Yes. We still get the mental health benefits. And there's other great benefits as well, just like the socialization and things like that. But if you really want to focus on physique change, then you've got to start there. Um, mistake number three is focusing only on workouts and not lifestyle. I used to totally fall into this category of like, putting all of my eggs in this one basket of like, if I work out every day really, really hard, sometimes twice a day, then it's going to, um, like overshadow everything else that I'm not focusing on when it comes to my health. And this is just not realistic. Um, why? It's a problem. Sleep, stress and nutrition can absolutely make or break your results, even if you are like the most religiously fit person going to the gym all the time. You can still see strength gains and still benefit from your workouts, but not necessarily see the physical changes as a result of your nutrition, your sleep, and your stress. Um, so this is really huge. Like if we don't address these areas, you can follow the exact same program as somebody else and they can lean out and drop fat and like see amazing results. And you can gain weight and look puffy and feel like crap, all based on lifestyle components. If you're drinking a ton, if you're not getting very much sleep, if you are eating like crap or just inconsistent with your nutrition, um, if you're stressed out constantly and you just are never regulating your nervous system, all these things are really going to affect your body composition and the results from what you're doing in the gym. Um, I definitely recommend checking out the episode Stress and Exercise. How much is too much? This is one of our early episodes before they were numbered. So go all the way back to the beginning and you can find that one. Um, kind of talking about the connection between stress and exercise and, and why exercise is not everything when it comes to body composition. Um, so how to fix it? We really need to treat fitness holistically, and this is something we focus on so much in mountain metabolic coaching. This is not just like a one thing like, oh, check off our workouts and there we go. Like we have to look at everything holistically. So our habits, our mindset, our nutrition, our sleep, our stress, our recovery, our workouts our non exercise movement throughout the day. Micronutrient intake. There's so much that goes into our overall health and how our body's then going to look on the outside. So we just need to really look at all of this together in order to get the most optimal results. Okay. Mistake number four is underestimating nutrition. So again this kind of goes back to what we were just talking about. Why it's a problem. You can't outrun a poor diet or one that's not aligned with your goals. So this could go either way whether you're trying to gain muscle or lose weight. Um, even if you're eating really healthfully, like you're looking at your food and you're like, oh my gosh, I eat so healthy. And this was me big time in my 20s. Like, I actually ate pretty healthy a lot of the time. But my amounts were not correct for my goal of leaning out. I was still eating too many calories, Trees, even though they were. What people would say. Quote unquote good calories. I was still eating too much so I wasn't able to drop weight. Okay, so that really makes a big difference. Not only the quality of the food, but the quantity. So how do we fix this? You want to track your intake for awareness for at least a week and really see okay, what am I doing? Because sometimes we're blind to our own habits. We have a lot of blind spots in our own health typically, and it's not until we have someone else come in and kind of look at all of this and audit it and say, yeah, do you notice that you think that you're eating healthy, but you're actually having like ten drinks every single weekend, or you are having 700 calories worth of Starbucks drinks every single day, or whatever it is. That is kind of your advice. So it's important to gain some awareness about what are your baselines even looking like right now? What are you eating on a daily basis as far as your calorie intake and your food quality, and then focusing on a mix of macronutrients at each meal? So this is getting a solid protein. Things like chicken, eggs, Greek yogurt, beef, tofu, um, this is going to be crucial for building and repairing your tissues as as well as satiety just keeping you fuller longer. Um, carbohydrates. Things like fruit, rice, oats, sweet potatoes. This is going to help provide energy, especially for your workouts and for brain function. We really don't need to cut carbs in order to lose weight. This is such a big misconception. Healthy fats, things like avocado, nuts, olive oil these are going to support hormones and also help with satiety. And then fiber. Things like veggies, whole grains, legumes, chickpeas. This helps support digestion, healthy gut, and blood sugar balance. So all of these things should be incorporated ideally at every single meal if possible. Okay, so trying to get a blend of all of these and mostly focusing on non heavily processed foods. So trying not to eat out all the time, trying to cook more at home, watching the amount of butter that you're cooking with and trying not to always eat things out of boxes that you know, have a lot of crazy ingredients that you've never even heard of. Right. This is not going to be possible all the time. So really just trying to aim for this like 80 to 90% of the time. Color variety is another thing to look at. The more colors from your fruits and veggies, the better they are as far as your vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. So that's going to be huge as far as the micronutrients that you're getting. And this is going to very much affect your overall health, how you feel, making sure you're not getting nutrient deficiencies or mineral deficiencies, your gut health and your hormone health. So yes, while the amount of food makes the biggest difference for your body size, we also want to pay attention to what we're eating so we can feel our best. And of course, if we're having deficiencies, if we are experiencing gut issues or hormone dysregulation, all of that is eventually going to kind of catch up with our physique, too. So both parts are equally as important. All right, let's talk about mistake number five. Doing too much or too little. So I know that that might sound like kind of vague. But like most things in life, finding the correct balance of exercise to recovery is crucial for optimal results. When we do too little, we're going to struggle to see changes, right? There's not enough stimuli on our body to create a change, to tell your body to adjust. But when we do too much, we may experience inflammation, hormonal cascades, or just simply burn out. Um, so what works for most women is exercising anywhere between 3 to 6 times a week is going to be ideal if you have a high tolerance for stress. Maybe you don't have a whole lot going on in your life right now. That's super stressful, and you do well with a higher volume of exercise. Going closer to six days a week may actually work out just fine for you. And you don't experience inflammation or hormonal issues if you experience or if you exercise three times a week, but you're able to stay active with your non exercise Activity on the other days, and in general, you're just moving all the time. Maybe you have little kids and you're just on your feet constantly. Then you might find that three days a week is enough for you to be pretty happy with your body composition. Um, so you have to consider factors like how much time do you have? What's your schedule like? What are your stress levels currently, and what are your goals? Are you wanting to just in general, stay healthy and have some muscle mass? And you know you're not trying to be as lean as humanly possible, then you might be able to get away with 3 to 4 days a week. That's absolutely what I'm doing right now as I have a newborn baby, I have a three year old, I have a business, and I'm juggling a lot. So for me, a week where I get three good strength training sessions is really, really good. Like I'm happy with that. And the other days I'm walking, I'm hiking, I'm running around taking care of everybody. I'm on my feet a lot. Um, and for me, that's been enough to, like, maintain a physique that I'm happy with. Am I the most shredded ever? No, definitely not, but I am happy with my amount of leanness, with how my clothes fit and look, my fitness level, my strength, all of that. All right. Mistake number six. Our last one is expecting super fast results. So why? It's a problem. Unrealistic expectations can really lead to burnout or quitting too soon, which creates this vicious cycle of, okay, I'm going to start something. I'm really motivated. And then you do it for like two weeks and you're like, okay, I'm being so consistent, but why have I not already dropped £10? And then you get frustrated, you throw in the towel and then repeat cycle a few months later, right. So how do we fix this? We really need to adjust. Our mindset starts there and play the long game. Focus on what you can do daily and not what you can change in ten days, right? Build the habits first. Make it a non-negotiable in your week that you just always work out 2 to 3 times, even if it's just for 30 minutes from home. Rather than jumping to extremes and don't have an end date. Just make this a part of your life. Instead of focusing on the end result that you're wanting to see, focus on setting those daily habits and just getting super consistent with it. Because this needs to be a lifelong adjustment if you want to maintain the results. And the results are going to correspond with your efforts. Too often we expect a plus results from B or C, or maybe even D efforts if we're honest. So really be introspective and honest with yourself about your effort levels. Like are you really giving a effort or are you kind of more like a B minus or a C with your consistency, the intensity of your workouts, the duration? And instead of just claiming like, oh, this just doesn't work for me, or I'm just not seeing results. Um, one being actually patient for long enough, but also being honest with yourself about your effort levels. Um, and how do we be realistic about this? In general, someone looking to lose about £10, a 3 to 6 month time frame would actually be pretty accurate for how long that's going to take. When done in a healthy way, without crash dieting, without taking ozempic or something like that. Um, if you're really doing it the right way, where you're building muscle, you're focusing on changing your eating habits, you're doing these things that you can maintain long term. Then it's going to take 3 to 6 months, sometimes longer. Okay. So really focusing on that body recommit versus just weight loss. There's a difference between fat loss and weight loss. If you're just wanting to lose weight that includes fat and muscle, but that's setting you up for a harder time maintaining because you're losing your precious muscle, which makes a really big difference in your basal metabolic rate. So if you really want positive body recomposition, you have to play the long game. And instead of just focusing on how fast you can lose £10, £20, whatever it is. Think about where you want to be in like five years. Um, you know, for me personally, this has been such a journey, I. Started my own personal like weight loss success about five years ago, actually. And, um, you know, before I had been doing so many things, I had been following all these diets, cutting carbs, cutting sugar, following things like Whole30, working out, constantly running, trying all like the standard go to things to fix my weight problem. And I just kept getting heavier and heavier. And it wasn't until I implemented what we do in Mountain Metabolic Coaching and what I talked about on this podcast, that I finally started to see changes, but I really had to work on my metabolic health. So if I was all about the quick fix, I would have just stayed stuck longer. Because yes, I could have like taken some extremes and lost weight fast, but then I would have probably just jumped right back up because I didn't fix the root issue. Right? So it's important to focus on where you want to be in five years versus just three months from now. And amazingly, I've been able to lose £25 over the course of five years and maintain it even with getting pregnant twice, right? I gained pregnancy weight, and then I dropped right back down after both pregnancies to my lower weight. Again, it's actually wild because even when I was at my heaviest while pregnant, I still never weighed as much as I did when I was really struggling with my weight and inflammation in my 20s. Um, so all of these habits and playing the long game will absolutely get you through long term, and you'll be able to not only lose the weight but maintain it. And that is even more impressive. Like, I don't really care if you lose weight, if you can't maintain it, what's the point, right? Um, being able to maintain says a whole lot more about the healthy habits that you established along the way than simply losing it in the first place. Okay, so those are our six top fitness mistakes that might be hindering your results and what to do instead. I hope that this has been really informative. If you're listening to all of this and you're like, I don't know how to put it all together, I'm overwhelmed. I know that I need support, I've been trying to do this on my on my own, and I just am in that vicious cycle where I get really motivated and then it drops off and I never really follow through. Um, or you just really genuinely don't know what you're doing wrong. I definitely recommend Mountain Metabolic Coaching to get you started, get you on the right path, get you some results so you can do this on your own long term. That is what we are here for. Um, so if you're interested in learning more about that and talking with me about it, you can apply in the show notes and I will get on a call with you, and we'll just kind of talk through what the program looks like, what your goals look like, and see if it sounds like a good fit for you. Um, as always, thank you so much for tuning in. Um, if you have questions, if you have a certain topic you want to hear about, or you want to chat with me about Mountain Metabolic coaching, reach out to us at the Fit Underscore for Hiking Instagram page. I would love to chat with you there. Thanks so much for tuning in you guys and I will chat with you in the next episode. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this, be sure to follow along with my daily posts at Ponytail Underscore. On a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at Ponytail trail.com. Happy and healthy trails.