Weight Loss: Why We Fail To Succeed

In my 15 years experience in owning and operating my own gym, the rolodex of reasons why people fail to achieve success seems to keep growing. It’s no wonder the fitness industry is a $65 billion business with a 95% failure rate. I have put together the top 4 reasons in my experience why people continue to struggle with losing weight and achieving better overall health.
 
First and foremost, and this can’t be overstated, PEOPLE DO NOT LIKE TO EXERCISE!!! Sure there is a fraction of the population who enjoy it, myself included, but even we don’t enjoy the actual work, it’s the payoff that we crave, to look and feel better. I associate it with an actual job, you punch the clock, suffer through your work week and collect your check on Friday. Clients have come up with all kinds of creative ways to cancel a session. My favorite is the women who actually come in to the gym after doing their hair and say” I will work out but I can’t sweat”.
The second reason is unrealistic goals and high expectations. Prime example, a common consultation question is “what do you believe to be your ideal weight?” I will get an answer from a 170lb middle aged woman of 120 lbs. My next question is “have you ever weighed that in your adult life?” The answer…NO! Guess what? That’s an unrealistic goal. People spend years destroying the shape of their bodies and make one small 2x a week commitment to exercise, not even truly changing their eating habits and expect drastic results within six weeks. When they don’t see it, they give up! Again, THEY REALLY DIDN’T WANT TO EXERCISE in the first place.
 
The third reason is the dreaded DIET! Being on a diet implies that at some point you will go off a diet. Where will that leave you? The same place you started, looking for some quick fix to “give you a jump start”. I actually had a client that amongst every other fad diet, spent $100 on this patch to speed your metabolism. The last page of the instructions says “this patch will only work if you exercise regularly and eat a sensible diet. Really, if I could do that, I wouldn’t need this ridiculus patch.
 
The fourth reason and most important in my opinion is psychology. I can put you on a food plan and train you and you will have temporary success. What is going on in your personal life that is causing this destructive behavior. Let us figure that out before true success is achieved. I have a client who was 100 pounds overweight. Lost a good portion of it, in the proper way, but didn’t begin to touch the reasons how he got to this weight in the first place. It was no accident, people just aren’t that hungry. In fact, for many people, hunger is way down on the list of reasons to eat. He lost 80 pounds and slowly gained back 120. People generally do what they have always done unless they discover why they do it and make some real changes in their life!