People tend to make the same mistakes over and over when they’re looking to transform their bodies. Most of these mistakes aren’t just common to weight loss, but are also apply to those trying to gain muscle, get stronger… The key is to avoid as many of these common mistakes, or look to fix some of these common mistakes as things start to slow down.
- Cookie Cutter Plans (Workout & Nutrition). We tend to like things easy and attempt to simplify things, to avoid dealing with the details of how they really work. We like hacks, cheat codes, and other things of that nature, so that we can get ahead of the game. Fitness is no different than any other area of life. And since we’re at an age where everyone is a fitness expert (even people that have never trained anyone before), they’ll often take that easy road by giving everyone the same program to everyone, while expecting everyone to get the same results. Even two people at the same weight, can vary in the amount of calories that they need, carb intake, protein intake… you get my point. Here’s a few reasons why a cookie cutter program won’t work:
- Differences in weight
- Differences in Body Fat. This could also play a role in calorie intake, as well as how much carbs someone could tolerate. Leaner people are usually better at tolerating carbs.
- Amount of Physical Activity. More exercise requires a higher amount of calories to maintain body weight.
- Your History. The program needs to be a progressive move from what your currently doing an not a backwards move or sideways move. If you’re trying to lose weight and your currently stuck with a 2000 calories/day. Giving you 2500 usually won’t help you make progress if your metabolism is healthy.
- Bad Advice from Fake Experts. Fake experts, and/or people that have never trained anyone, are usually people who will attempt to give everyone the same program. They’ll try to make everyone do EXACTLY what they did, because they think their magic applies to everyone. They don’t try to help others make their own magic. For example, I knew someone that thought it was a good idea to recommend that everyone eat chicken breasts and broccoli at every meal for a week, so they could find out their true body weight (let’s forget the fact that if people could eat that for at least 21 straight meals, they’d probably lose weight in the process). I’ve also encountered another that gave out the exact same workout program 150 times. How’s that for putting the personal, in personal training?
- Relying on Low Quality Supplements. The supplement industry is in the business of selling supplements. Sometimes they create the narrative that their product is the only one you need, and it will fix all your problems. Even if you take a fat burner that boosts calorie burning you’ll still need to take care of the basics. Which are creating a calorie deficit through diet and exercise. You’ll also need to get some quality rest.
- Trying to Cardio your Problems Away. You can’t out exercise a bad diet. Besides that, you only burn about 100 calories/mile. And it doesn’t matter If you walk it, or run it.
- You Underestimate the Importance of Sleep. A lack of quality sleep has a strong influence on:
- Your ability to manage carbohydrates and your blood sugar levels
- Cravings for the high sugar
- Cortisol levels
- Metabolism
- Energy levels and Perception of pain
- Refeeds. Using a good refeed at the right time can go a long way towards helping you lose weight. Especially if you use a low carb or ketogenic diet. The thyroid runs more efficiently on higher carbs, and if you go low carbs for a while, and then have a high carb day, or a high carb cheat meal, it will temporarily produce more thyroid hormones, which will boost your metabolism. But this is an individual thing. Which is another reason why cookie cutter programs aren’t the greatest way to go. Some people on low carb or ketogenic diets will need to carb up every 5 days, some people might need a refeed or carb up every 14 days.
- Programs Don’t Match Your Goals. Just because you’re in the gym working out, doesn’t mean your working towards your goals. You have to train specifically to get what you’re looking to accomplish. Sometimes the workout marketed as a fat loss program, is aimed at endurance, other times, it’s aimed at building muscle. Most of them never pay attention to rest periods, or time under tension.
- More Change than Your Ready For Some people can dive into a program head 1st, and others need to modify one behavior at a time.
- You’ve Been on the Same Weight Loss Plan for Too Long. Your body adapts to everything you do. And when it does, the magic of weight loss stops. So you have to change your workout and nutrition programs in a way that a step forward.
- Consistency & Patience At the end of the day, if you have a good amount of weight to lose. It’s going to take some time. The average amount of weight loss will be about 1-2 lbs./week and you’ll need to maintain your winning weight loss strategy for a while. Don’t panic. Just ride things out, and maintain the course. Make sure that you give yourself enough time to lose the weight, and avoid doing drastic things. There’s two ways to create a calorie deficit. You can either eat less, or workout more. You don’t have to panic and do both every time your weight loss stalls. You also don’t need to make large 500 calorie/day drops when your weight loss stalls either.
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