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Health
And Fitness Is Not A 12-Week Program
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Not
long ago, one of the members of my health club poked her head in my
office for some advice. Linda was a 46 year old mother of two, and she
had been a member for over a year. She had been working out sporadically,
with (not surprisingly), sporadic results. On that particular day, she
seemed to have enthusiasm and a twinkle in her eye that I hadn’t
seen before.
"I
want to enter a before and after fitness contest called the “12
week body transformation challenge." I could win money and prizes
and even get my picture in a magazine."
“I
want to lose THIS”, she continued, as she grabbed the body fat
on her stomach. “Do you think it’s a good idea?”
Linda
was not “obese,” she just had the typical “moderate roll”
of abdominal body fat and a little bit of thigh/hip fat that many forty-something
females struggle with.
“I
think it’s a great idea,” I reassured her. “Competitions
are great for motivation. When you have a deadline and you dangle a
“carrot” like that prize money in front of you, it can keep
you focused and more motivated than ever.”
Linda
was eager and rarin’ to go. “Will you help me? I have this
enrollment kit and I need my body fat measured.”
“No
problem,” I said as I pulled out my Skyndex fat caliper, which
is used to measure body fat percentage with a “pinch an inch”
test.
When
I finished, I read the results to her from the caliper display: “Twenty-seven
percent. Room for improvement, but not bad; it’s about average
for your age group.”
She
wasn’t overjoyed at being ‘average’. “Yeah, but
it's not good either. Look at THIS,” she complained as again she
grabbed a handful of stomach fat. “I want to get my body fat down
to 19%, I heard that was a good body fat level.”
I agreed
that 19% was a great goal, but told her it would take a lot of work
because average fat loss is usually about a half a percent a week, or
six percent in twelve weeks. Her goal, to lose eight percent in twelve
weeks was ambitious.
She
smiled and insisted, “I’m a hard worker. I can do it”
Indeed
she was and indeed she did. She was a machine! Not only did she never
miss a day in the gym, she trained HARD. Whenever I left my office and
took a stroll through the gym, she was up there pumping away with everything
she had. She told me her diet was the strictest it had ever been in
her life and she didn't cheat at all. I believed her, and it started
to show, quickly.
Each
week she popped into my office to have her body fat measured again,
and each week it went down, down, down. Consistently she lost three
quarters of a percent per week – well above the average rate of
fat loss – and on two separate occasions, I recall her losing a
full one percent body fat in just seven days.
Someone
conservative might have said she was overtraining, but when we weighed
her and calculated her lean body mass, we saw that she hadn’t lost
ANY muscle – only fat. Her results were simply exceptional!
She
was ecstatic, and needless to say, her success bred more success and
she kept after it like a hungry tiger for the full twelve weeks.
On
week twelve, day seven, she showed up in my office for her final weigh-in
and body fat measurement. She was wearing a pair of formerly tight blue
jeans and they were FALLING OFF her!
“Look,
look, look,” she repeated giddily as she tugged at her waistband,
which was now several inches too large.
As
I took her body fat, I have to say, I was impressed. She hadn’t
just lost a little fat, she was “RIPPED!”
During
week twelve she dropped from 18% to 17% body fat, for a grand total
of 10% body fat lost in three months. She surpassed her goal of 19%
by two percent. I was now even more impressed, because not many people
lose that much body fat in three months.
You
should have seen her! She started jumping up and down for joy like she
was on a pogo stick! She was beaming… grinning from ear to ear!
She practically knocked me over as she jumped up and gave me a hug –
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
“Don’t
thank me,” I said, “You did it, I just measured your body
fat.”
She
thanked me again anyway and then said she had to go have her “after”
pictures taken.
Then
something very, very strange happened. She stopped coming to the gym.
Her "disappearance" was so abrupt, I was worried and I called
her. She never picked up, so I just left messages.
No
return phone call.
It
was about four months later when I finally saw Linda again. The giddy
smile was gone, replaced with a sullen face, a droopy posture and a
big sigh when I said hello and asked where she’d been.
“I
stopped working out after the contest... and I didn’t even win.”
“You
looked like a winner to me, no matter what place you came in” I
insisted, “but why did you stop, you were doing so well!”
“I
don’t know, I blew my diet and then just completely lost my motivation.
Now look at me, my weight is right back where I started and I don’t
even want to know my body fat.”
“Well,
I'm glad to see you back in here again. Write down some new goals for
yourself and remember to think long term too. Twelve week goals are
important, but fitness isn’t 12 week program you know, it’s
a lifestyle - you have to do it every day, for the rest of your life.”
She
nodded her head and finished her workout, still with a defeated look
on her face. Unfortunately, she never again come anywhere near the condition
she achieved for that competition, and for the rest of the time she
was a member at our club, she slipped right back into the sporadic on
and off workout pattern.
Linda
was not an isolated case. I’ve seen the same thing happen with
countless men and women of all ages and fitness levels from beginners
to competitive bodybuilders. In fact, it happens to millions of people
who “go on” diets, lose a lot of weight, then quickly “go
off” the diet and gain the weight right back.
What
causes people to burn so brightly with enthusiasm and motivation and
then burn out just as quickly? Why do so many people succeed brilliantly
in the short term but fail 95 out of 100 times in the long term? Why
do so many people reach their fitness goals but struggle to maintain
them?
The
answer is simple: Health and fitness is for life, not for "12 weeks."
You
can avoid the on and off, yo-yo cycle of fitness ups and downs. You
can get in great shape and stay in great shape. You can even get in
shape and keep getting in better and better shape year after year, but
it's going to take a very different philosophy than most people subscribe
to. The seven tips below will guide you.
These
guidelines are quite contrary to the quick fix philosophies prevailing
in the weight loss and fitness world today. Applying them will take
patience, discipline and dedication and they will put you in the minority.
Just remember, the only thing worse than getting no results is getting
great results and losing them.
1)
Don’t “go on” diets.
When
you “go on” a diet, the underlying assumption is that at some
point you have to “go off” it. This isn’t just semantics,
it’s one of the primary reasons most diets fail. By definition,
a “diet” is a temporary and often drastic change in your eating
behaviors and/or a severe restriction of calories or food, which is
ultimately, not maintainable. If you reach your goal, the diet is officially
“over” and then you "go off" (returning to the way
you used to eat). Health and fitness is not temporary; it’s not
a “diet.” It’s something you do every day of your life.
Unless you approach nutrition from a “habits” and “lifestyle”
perspective, you’re doomed from the start.
2)
Eat the same healthy foods consistently, all year round.
Permanent
fat loss is best achieved by eating mostly the same types of foods all
year round. Naturally, you should include a wide variety of healthy
foods so you get the full spectrum of nutrients you need, but there
should be consistency, month in, month out. When you want to lose body
fat, there’s no dramatic change necessary - you don’t need
to eat totally different foods - it’s a simple matter of eating
less of those same healthy foods and exercising more.
3)
Have a plan for easing into maintenance.
Let’s
face it – sometimes a nutrition program needs to be more strict
than usual. For example, peaking for a bodybuilding, figure, fitness
or transformation challenge contest requires an extremely strict regimen
that’s different than the rest of the year. As a rule, the stricter
your nutrition program, the more you must plan ahead and the more time
you must allow for a slow, disciplined transition into maintenance.
Failure to plan for a gradual transition will almost always result in
a huge binge and a very rapid, hard fall "off the wagon."
4)
Focus on changing daily behaviors and habits one or two at a time.
Rather
than making huge, multiple changes all at once, focus on changing one
or two habits/behaviors at a time. Most psychologists agree that it
takes about 21 days of consistent effort to replace an old bad habit
with a new positive one. As you master each habit, and it becomes as
ingrained into your daily life as brushing your teeth, then you simply
move on to the next one. That would be at least 17 new habits per year.
Can you imagine the impact that would have on your health and your life?
This approach requires patience, but the results are a lot more permanent
than if you try to change everything in one fell swoop. This is also
the least intimidating way for a beginner to start making some health-improving
changes to their lifestyle.
5)
Make goal setting a lifelong habit.
Goal
setting is not a one-time event, it’s a process that never ends.
For example, if you have a 12 week goal to lose 6% bodyfat, what are
you going to do after you achieve it? Lose even more fat? Gain muscle?
What's next? On week 13, day 1, if you have no direction and no long
term goal to keep you going, you’ll have nothing to keep you from
slipping back into old patterns. Every time you achieve a short term
goal (daily, weekly and 12 week goals), you must set another one. Having
short term goals means that you are literally setting goals continuously
and never stopping.
6)
Allow a reasonable time frame to reach your goal.
It's
important to set deadlines for your fitness and weight loss goals. It's
also important to set big, ambitious goals, but you must allow a reasonable
time frame for achieving them. Time pressure is often the motivating
force that helps people get in the best shape of their lives. But when
the deadline is unrealistic for a particular goal (like 30 pounds in
30 days), then crash dieting or other extreme measures are often taken
to get there before the bell. The more rapidly you lose weight, the
more likely you are to lose muscle and the faster the weight will come
right back on afterwards. Start sooner. Don't wait until mid-May to
think about looking good for summer.
7)
Extend your time perspective.
Successful
people in every field always share one common character trait: Long
term time perspective. Some of the most successful Japanese technology
and manufacturing companies have 100 year and even 250-year business
plans. If you want to be successful in maintaining high levels of fitness,
you must set long term goals: One year, Ten years, Even fifty years!
You also must consider what the long term consequences might be as a
result of using any "radical" diet, training method or ergogenic
aid. The people who had it but lost it are usually the ones who failed
to think long term or acknowledge future consequences. It's easy for
a 21 year old to live only for today, and it may even seem ridiculous
to set 25 year goals, but consider this: I've never met a 40 or 60 year
old who didn't care about his or her health and appearance, but I have
met 40 or 60 year olds who regretted not caring 25 years ago.
Burn
the Fat, Feed The Muscle (BFFM) is a fat loss program which acknowledges
the simple truth that going "on diets," entering "Fitness
challenges" or competing in "Transformation contests"
without having long term goals and a lifestyle attitude, is a recipe
for failure. Don’t let yourself be part of the latest fitness dropout
statistics: visit the Burn The Fat website for more details on how to
change your lifestyle... and keep the change! Burn
the Fat, Feed The Muscle
About
the Author:
|
Tom Venuto
is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal
trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist
(CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn
the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written hundreds of
articles and has been featured in print magazines such as IRONMAN,
Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development,
Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on hundreds
of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program,
click
here.
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