90% of exercisers will fail to meet their weight loss goals

If you are like most, weight loss is an important issue. Considering the time of the year, you are now probably heavier than you were last year.

Assuming you have written down your objectives, the next step is to embark on your action plan. What is the most important thing to do?

Would you embark on an exercise programme or embark on a very low calorie diet? Or try a combination of both?   

If your diet is not up to scratch the gains you make from an exercise programme will be minimal. (Trust me on this). Most people because they are exercising, feel they deserve to eat more as a reward for exercising they then end up overeating. The time and effort spent for so little return will ensure they give up.

Sound nutrition is the foundation of any weight loss regime, it is probably 60% of the work, and if you ignore nutrition you are setting yourself up for failure. By nutrition I am not talking about fad diets or very low calorie diets, rather I am referring to healthy eating.  You need to how to identify your carbs (Carbohydrate) from your protein, and fats. Contrary to most people’s beliefs “carbs “are a very important and necessary constituent of your daily diet. Yet when people are faced with the task of losing weight their first inclination is to cut out the “carbs”.   

To lose weight successfully you need to have an idea of how many calories you need to eat daily, and where the calories are obtained, you also need to know how much calories to expend daily. With simple tests and assessments these figures can be easily determined.

From my experience as a trainer I am emphasising the common mistakes made by most people starting a weight loss programme. Most people start the New Year with so much vigour, yet get disappointed when they do not see any improvement, it is a fact that many people will give up the attempt to lose weight by mid February.  If you eat more calories than you require you will not see any results, if you eat too little you will not have enough energy to exercise. How do you determine the appropriate amount of calories to eat?  What about the timing of your meals? Most people do not see this as an important consideration.   

In order not to be among the 90% of people failing to achieve their weight loss goal you need to have an understanding of the issues raised above. If you do not understand the questions poised then you are guessing in your approach. If you are guessing you will not be able to change your behaviour. The only way to sustain weight loss is to embark on an exercise regime backed by sound nutrition.