Weight Loss Tip #4: Balance Your Fitness Program

Each mode of exercise has a point of diminishing returns. With every hour of cardio or strength you add, they both become less relatively effective than the first hour. Two hours of strength training is better than one, but not twice as good. Same for cardio. And at a certain point, not only does the effectiveness taper off, but you can even run into burnout or injury if you do far too much of any one type of exercise.

That's why it's so important to have a balance between the modes. They should compliment and enhance each other. Bodybuilders do cardio to get lean and improve their capacity to recover between strength sets. Endurance athletes should strength train to improve their muscle endurance and bio mechanics. Core work and flexibility allow you to protect and support your joints and spine so you tolerate the more aggressive modes (cardio and strength) better.

And if your main objective is to lose body fat, all that synergy between the modes lets you burn a whole lot more calories than you would doing just one thing.