Enough exercise?

How do you know if you are getting enough exercise to reach your goals? There are different ways to evaluate that but the quality of your sleep should be a good indicator. Did you have problems falling asleep last night or did you wake-up a few times during the night? If so, you may have not exercised enough in terms of time and intensity or you may have exercised at the wrong moment (right before going to sleep).

Another more scientific way of analyzing if you are getting enough or not is to simply make a mathematical calculation. On an advanced scale (if you don't have one, come to my house and use mine), you can know your basic metabolic rate. This is very important because it tells you how many calories you are burning in a day doing absolutely nothing (staying in bed all day). On top of that, someone at a desk job sitting all day may be burning an extra 200 calories maybe. So for example for me, my basic metabolic rate is 1308 cal. Since I do not have a physically active work, I may be burning on average 200 calories more. So if I jog for a half hour at a moderate pace, I may burn another 250 calories. If I eat 1700 calories during the day, I will not loose anything. If I eat 1400 calories during the day, I will lose about 300 calories of accumulated fat and in 12 days, it should be a pound less.

Make the calculation for yourself, and this will illustrate you why you are losing or not. Also, make sure you don't go below your basic metabolic rate in terms of calories consumption because then your body enters starvation mode and will be stocking what comes in.

Go exercise and enjoy!