There are millions of people looking to lose weight and boost fitness, but many of you are failing to achieve your goals.

In this post I will highlight the 10 Most Common Reasons Why People Fail to Improve Their Body Shape and Fitness…

BUT, Most importantly I will provide a solution for each problem to help you combat them and finally start getting some long, lasting results!

#1 Trying To Out Train A Bad Diet 

It doesn’t matter how many times per week you are training or how intense the workouts are, if you are eating 6,000 calories per day but only burning 1,500 per day you will still gain weight.

Weight loss comes down to calories in vs calories out and if you fail to get the right balance you wont lose weight.

Eating poor quality foods like sugary snacks and takeouts, which are full of trans fats and a whopping number of calories also lead to poor energy, low self esteem and a host of other negative health problems.

Solution:

Unless you’re an athlete you don’t have to be perfect all the time, but you do need to be at least 70% (ideally 80%!) consistent when it comes to food. That means that if you eat 3x per day, 7 days per week (21 meals each week) that at least 15-17 out of your daily meals should be from good nutritious, and healthy foods.

When you do have a cheat meal don’t binge and act like is the last meal you’ll ever have! instead give yourself a calorie limit of 800-1,000 calories.

Typically I will eat well 90% of the time and then on the weekend I will have a meal of my choice on Saturday and Sunday evening. It works really well and prevents you from binging during the week.

#2 Program Hopping 

One minute you are following the Joe Wicks ‘Lean in 15’ diet but then the next you are doing the 5:2 diet, then the week after Slimming World!

Program hoping is something that many people do because…

• They realise the diet they are following isn’t sustainable
• Results start to slow down or come to a halt
• It’s easy to jump on the latest fitness trend bandwagon

I’m all for variety and mixing things up, but if you are hoping from diet to diet, and exercise program to exercise program you aren’t being consistent and you’ll fail to get results.

Solution: 

Unless a diet or exercise program is making you seriously ill or injuring you, then make-sure to stick things out for at least 2-4 weeks before reconsidering a new plan. Typically I will use a 12 week time frame with my 1-1 personal training clients and only make small tweaks along the way.

#3 Low Self Esteem 

If you’ve been battling with weight for years it can really dent your confidence and lower self-esteem. On one front you desperately want to lose weight but you’ve tried so many things in the past that haven’t worked out – which can make you feel like a failure.

Over time this leads to a BIG knock in confidence and the negative beliefs about yourself stop you from achieving the goals you are capable off.

Solution: 

If you don’t believe you can lose weight and improve fitness then guess what? You WONT!

You’ve got to develop a positive mindset and keep working on both mind and body. Remember ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day!” – it will take time but stick with it and take one step at a time.

#4 Lack Of Education 

There’s a lot of amazing information in the internet, you can literally find anything you want. But that said there’s also a lot of rubbish and fads which will burn a hole in your wallet and leave you without results.

If you want you can take time out and study the human body, you could read loads of books, and listen to podcasts. Overtime you will gain efficient knowledge, but rather than spending 5-10 years learning why not invest in a personal trainer and save yourself hours of time?

Solution: 

If you are in a position to afford a personal trainer then 100% go for it.  A good trainer will get you to your destination in a fraction of the time it takes doing it alone.

#5 Expecting Magical Results Overnight

The longer you’ve been out of a healthy routine the longer it will take to re-build positive habits. If you’ve been gaining weight slowly over the past 5 years, you’ll have developed a bunch of habits which are negatively serving you when it comes to your health. Things like poor sleep, poor quality food choices, lack of exercise, etc, etc.

Amazing results take time. Don’t expect to have the body of your dreams after 4 weeks (or even 4 months!) – it can take 6 months or longer depending on your work ethic and end goal.

Solution: 

Always have your end goal in mind but take small baby steps and see the big picture. Understand that each journey is marathon not a sprint. Enjoy the process, choose exercise which you enjoy and do things slowly. Over time you will get to your destination.

#6 Too Many Excuses

“I can’t afford personal training?”

“I don’t have enough time?”

“I have kids! and never have any energy!”

I mean the list can go on and on and on! Anybody can find an excuse but if you really want something you’ll find a way.

A coach who trained me years back said “you can either have results or excuses but not both!” – it’s a quote that will stick with me forever.

Solution:

Instead of focusing on the problems, focus on the solutions. Instead of saying these are all of the reasons why I can’t, start looking for all of the reasons why you can.

For example, using the above examples let’s look at some solutions for each…

“I can’t afford personal training?”

Solution – stop spending £15 per week on takeouts (£780 per year!) and hire a personal trainer instead. You’ll probably get at least 20 sessions for that. If you still cant afford PT then why not look at exercise classes, for a Pure Gym membership it’s only around £9.99 per month.

“I don’t have enough time?”

Solution – do you watch TV every night? do you have time to drink wine or go to the pub? do you have time to have a bath? watch a film? I bet you do! Everybody has time it’s just how you decide to use it.

“I have kids! and never have any energy!”

Solution – I have a 9 month year old baby and i know exactly what it’s like to be running around like a headless chicken chasing my son around the lounge!

Before he was born I used to train 2 hours per day, 5 days per week, now I only train 4 days per week and for no more than hour! It can be done!

Choose to go on more walks with your kid(s), get them involved in fun workouts at the park, play badminton in the garden or kick a ball around the park! Just get moving.

#7 Emotional Issues 

This is something i’ve experience a lot with clients, when things are going well in their life they stick to a nutritional and workout plan no problem, but when something goes out of whack…all hell breaks lose!

Without trying to sound too much like a Greek Philosopher…

Life is constantly changing and things will test us, but how you navigate your way through obstacles will determine how successful you are when it comes to transforming your body.

Working on your mind is more important than working on your body (in my opinion anyway!) because when your heads right your body follows!

Solution: 

Try meditating for 10 minutes a day. I use and recommend the app ‘Calm’ – it’s really great for giving you time to gather your thoughts and re-charge your batteries both mentally and physically.

#8 Lack Of Structure 

I’m sure most of you reading this will brush your teeth at least 2x per day (I hope so anyway!), this is part of most peoples daily routine. So is going to work 9am-5pm and many other of our weekly routines.

Exercise is no different you’ve got to build in structure and plan out in advance when you are going to train and prep your meals for the week.

Solution: 

Buy a diary and plan your week in advance. For example on Sunday plan your workouts or the fitness classes you’ll attend and make a note in your diary. Write in what days you need to prep your meals and write down a healthy shopping list and go pick up your food for the next 7 days. Make-sure that when you go to the supermarket you go on a full stomach – this will prevent buying naughty treats!

#9 Inconsistency 

One minute you’re eating and training like Anthony Joshua, the next minute you’re eating everything in site, polishing off calories faster than you can say “Bobs your Uncle!”. Remember….Being good one minute but then bad the next will not lead to results!

Solution: 

Commit yourself to at least 3 months worth of training where you train at least 4x per week (5 if you can!) and are 80% good when it comes to food choices.

You’ve got be be consistent for at least 2-4 weeks to start noticing improvements to your body shape and fitness. Persist and the results will follow.

#10 Lack of Enjoyment From Exercise 

A lot of people HATE EXERCISE! Instead I prefer to think of it as…you’ve just not found the exercise that you enjoy yet!

Often the reasons for a dislike of exercise are things like: being out of breathe, lack of confidence, dizziness, boring, etc, etc!

When you have negative feelings towards exercise the likelihood of you doing any are slim.

Solution:

Instead of focusing on pain, focus on the pleasure. Think about how good you’ll feel after your workout. Think about how in a couple of months you could be 2 or 3 dress sizes down! Get excited about what you can achieve and focus on the positives. I’d also recommend ranking the following types of exercise on a 1-10 (1 being hate it! 10 being love it!) and then choosing the activities that you enjoy each week.

Rate the following on a 1-10…

• swimming
• cycling
• walking
• weights
• boxing
• circuit training
• spin classes
• running
• badminton
• tennis
• squash
• football
• cricket
• basketball
• netball

Thanks for reading, if you have any questions please give me a holla! and make-sure to check out my other blogs (there’s now over 500 free articles on my site!).

Nick 🙂

Who Wants A Workout Plan to Follow At Home? 

Not everyone likes going to the gym to workout, for one they can be expensive (£180-£600 per year!) and it’s not always easy to find the time to go.

By the time you’ve travelled to the gym, got changed, worked out and then driven home you could be looking at 1-2 hours!

Not many people have 1-2 hours spare each day, especially mums, hardworking dads or anybody with lots of time consuming responsibilities.

Gym’s can also be sweaty and intimidating –  a bunch of bronzed men and women looking sculpted and wearing tight lycra pants!

One of the best ways to get fit, without spending a fortune and taking up too much time is to workout out from home. All you need is some basic equipment, like resistance bands and dumbbells and you can great results.

Lots of my 1-1 personal training clients prefer to workout in the comfort of their homes and they get just as good results.

Due to this demand I’ve designed an 8 Week Home Workout program which you can follow yourself.

The plan is suitable for both men and women and suitable for all fitness levels (there’s a different program for beginners, intermediates and advanced trainees)

The plan includes…

• An 8 week exercise plan
• 4 different home workouts
• 20 different exercises with full demonstrations

and everything you need to know to get fit and lose weight without spending hours working out!

In fact, the workout(s) only take 30 minutes per session! and you only have to train 4x per week! That’s just 2 hours per week out of 168 hours (1.2% of your weekly time!)

If you were to have a workout plan written up by a personal trainer or gym you would be looking at a minimum of £30 but i’m making this plan available for a small fee of just £3.99. 

If you’d like to shift some weight and get fit then swipe up your copy by clicking the blue button below…