Women aren’t the only ones who have difficulty losing weight. Men of any age can have just as hard a time shedding those unwanted pounds. Excess weight can lead to everything from diabetes to heart disease. Plus, men who carry around more than a couple of extra pounds are often tired, lethargic, and lack the energy and sexual stamina they used to.

If you’re working out but not losing weight, you’re not alone. Plenty of guys just like you are scratching their heads about the same problem.

Exercise Isn’t Everything
If you’re like most guys, you figure all you have to do is work out and train hard and the pounds will just melt right off. Unfortunately, that’s often not the case. Exercising until you drop is not only bad for your health, in the end it won’t give you the results you’re looking for. This is because excessive exercise can bring on insomnia and anxiety, which will cause an unhealthy level of cortisol to enter and stay in your bloodstream.

When a guy over-trains to try to get the results he’s looking for, his muscles don’t have adequate time to rest and recover from each set. The result is weaker muscles, not stronger ones. Muscles, tendons, and ligaments that are worked too hard become inflamed and can cause serious injury. This can mean the end of any type of exercise for a lifetime. This is especially true for aging men and men who are very new to exercise.

If you’re working out but not losing weight, overtraining may actually be the problem. Instead of pushing yourself too hard, slow down but change it up. Go hiking, hit the gym, take a walk, go for a swim, do yoga (it can improve your sex life), and then rest. Give yourself at least one day off a week from any type of exercise. This will allow your muscles the recovery time they need to function optimally!

Why “Diets” Fail Every Time
Here’s another common weight-loss mistake millions of men make: Going on a diet. Dieting is one of the top reasons why you can’t lose weight. There are a couple of reasons for this.

First, and this is the most important, there is no such thing as diet food. All that pre-packaged junk that claims to be “low-fat” and “heart-healthy” is nothing more than a gimmick to get you to buy bogus products. These foods are loaded with artificial preservatives, additives, sweeteners, and empty calories that may fill your stomach but will do nothing to give your body the fuel it needs to function at its best.

Second, and this is important too, diet pills and shakes are terrible for you. They operate on the starvation principle. Diet pills are usually stimulants or fat blockers, and either way, they keep the nutrients you need from getting into your system.

Plus, pills and shakes can have some serious side effects associated with them. Stimulants, for example, can give you diarrhea and such a bad case of the jitters, you can’t get the sleep you need to recover from your workouts. Some diet shakes contain a large amount of soy protein that has been known to cause breast development in men!

Lose Weight Without Starving
If you really want to shed pounds without overtraining or starving yourself half to death, get into the whole-food diet. The whole-food diet is simple. It cuts out the junk and fills your body with pure, healthy nutrients. Eating healthy means dining on fresh foods as often as possible. Foods such as a wide variety of organic vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, beans, legumes, whole grains, dairy, and healthy fat. Healthy fats such as butter, coconut oil, olive oil, avocado, and walnut are great choices to give your body the edge it needs to succeed.

Just cutting out the junk food and backing off the rigid exercise program may be all you need to finally start losing that stubborn weight. Oh, and don’t forget to get a good night’s sleep. Research has suggested there is a strong connection between sleep and weight loss.

No matter how hard it’s been for you to lose weight and get the kind of body you’re looking for, going back to nature is always your best bet. Your caveman ancestors had a lot of problems but a spare tire wasn’t one of them. A good diet, a moderate exercise program, and a good night’s sleep will give you the results you’ve been looking for every time!