Why Can't I Lose Weight

I can’t tell you how many times that I have heard this question. People come to me and ask, “Why can’t I lose weight? I am doing everything I can, but I’m just stuck!” Sound familiar? The problem isn’t what you are doing, but rather what you are not doing. Let me explain.
First and foremost, you need to have a firm understanding of what it really takes to lose weight. There are four simple guidelines. Let me share them with you.

1. NUTRITION - What you eat and how often you eat are much more important than how much you eat.

2. RESISTANCE TRAINING - free weights, weight machines, bands, balls and even your own body weight plays an important role in this category.

3. CARDIOVASCULAR TRAINING - This is done by walking, running, swimming, biking and even cleaning house if your working hard. These are things that cause you to sweat by raising your heart rate.

4. ACCOUNTABILITY & DETERMINATION - This is both the most important and most overlooked ingredient needed for fat loss and weight loss. You need to have a checks and balances system in place for you to succeed.

Let’s start with the diet. Diet is a four letter word that nobody likes to hear. The problem is that most people treat this word as a verb and not a noun. A diet is really whatever you eat. The key to having a good diet (notice I didn’t say key to dieting) is to eat more often. Actors, models and other people who take care of their bodies follow this rule. You need to eat something small every two to three hours. This will keep your metabolism working overtime and help your body not only burn fat, but process the food you feed it. Keep the sugars and hydrogenated oils to a minimum and focus on complete proteins and fibrous carbohydrates.

Next comes the resistance training. Working with weights will not make you bulky or manly looking, no ma’am. Doing resistance training properly adds muscle tone, not muscle mass. This is crucial because not only will it build that sexy body of your dreams, but by increasing muscle tone, you increase your metabolism. For every pound of muscle that you build, you burn an average total of 50 calories per day! That means you burn 50 calories even when you are sleeping! With a structured program from a qualified personal trainer you can build a total of 10lbs of muscle tone over the next 10 to 12 months! That means you will be burning a total of 3500 calories per week! That equates to a pound of body fat! That means that once you can build 10lbs of muscle you will burn approximately one pound of fat per week just by resting!

Cardiovascular training is the most abused form of weight loss. We have been taught for years that if we stay in our target heart rate for 30 minutes three times per day, that we will burn fat…WRONG! Cardio doesn’t burn fat, it burns calories. We want our fat to melt off of our bodies right? Lets look at the top Olympic athletes to illustrate this point. World class distance runners stay in their target heart rate for hours each day, however, they look soft and frail. The average body fat percentage of an Olympic distance runner is 16%! That is four points above ideal for an average male, let alone an Olympic athlete! Now lets look at sprinters. These athletes push their bodies very hard for short periods. This is called High Intensity Interval Training. This allows them to build muscle with every sprint. Sprinters look hard and defined. They have very sexy, sleek and long lean muscle tone that is visible even from the top of the bleachers. These athletes never run long distances and carry an average body fat percentage of 4%. Instead of walking or jogging forever to get that small waist, try pushing yourself for short periods. This will incinerate your fat storages!

Finally we come to the most important part, accountability. The easiest way to stay focused is to write things down in a journal. I keep a training journal to write my workouts in, and a nutrition journal to write down what and when I eat. I also measure my arms, waist, chest and thighs every month to make sure that I am making progress. That way if some jerk tries to tell me what he thinks, I can always listen to the reality of my results, and not the stupid comments of ignorant people.

In closing I want to leave you with what I call the THREE COMANDMENTS OF FITNESS. If you can apply these principles, then you will always be one step ahead.

1. The hardest part of your workout is walking through the front door. Once you are here, then you can accomplish anything.

2. Never compare yourself to any one else, including the person you might have been five, ten or fifteen years ago. The only person you have to be better than is the person you were yesterday.

3. “Never give up what you truly want, for what you think your want today” - Zig Ziglar