Many people are capable of losing even a little bit of weight for a short period of time (weeks or months).  A significantly smaller percentage of people can achieve their ideal body weight, and body composition,  getting strong, and lean then maintain long lasting results as part of their regular lifestyle for years or ideally the rest of their life.   

Exercise alone is not enough if you want to lose weight and, or body fat then keep it off..  An individualized fitness nutrition plan must be properly implemented.  A diet that is unreasonably restrictive is most certainly a recipe for disaster, and a workout program that is inappropriate for you will leave you with little or no results. Worse yet you’ll be left with overuse injuries or strength and flexilibty imbalances that can lead to various health fitness issues or injury.  

Losing weight is much more mental than it is physical (since almost everyone is physically capable of getting into shape) and urges and lack of motivation can rarely be overcome for long using sheer will power alone. You need a solid fitness training and nutrition program plus mental strategies to stay on track and keep motivated when you start to fade or slip.

Make a list -  Think deeply for a moment, then write down all the true personal reasons you have for wanting to lose weight and body fat.  Write down all the health fitness benefits of losing weight that are most important to you.  Keep that list handy.  Refer back to your list of personal reasons and health fitness benefits any time you feel your motivation fading.

Have a Plan-  Think about all the challenges you may face in working towards accomplishing your goal and write them down.  Write whatever comes into your mind.  Next, filter your results, and circle a few of your major roadblocks.  Come up with several ideas on how you’ll over come these challenges.  Now, go back and group similar challenges where possible, then come up with one strategy for each of your minor challenge groups.  

Increase Knowledge and Awareness – With all the fad diets, weights loss supplements , and misinformation about fitness out there, it’s hard to find the truth on what will really work long  term for you as an individual. Increasing knowledge and awareness is the first step to changing behavior.  There are 2 major ways of doing this.  One is to learn yourself (like I did) with years of advanced (collegiate) level studying and practice.  The other is to work with a professional.  In this case, a Personal Trainer, Nutritionist or both.  Bottom line, you need to learn and properly implement the right personal strategies and techniques that work for you as an individual to get the weight loss results you want and establish the right habits for your personal lifestyle to maintain lasting results and manage a healthy weight. 

Keep a Log - Keeping a log of your exercise and nutrition is one of the most powerful tools you can use to progress toward your weight loss goal then maintain you new healthy weight .  Those who log their fitness training and dietary nutrition have a much greater chance of success.   I use training and nutrition logs with my personal training clients extensively and after many years still use them periodically for my own personal workouts and nutrition to this day.

NYC Personal Trainer Andrew Schmarje CSCS