Fat Chance Five Reasons For Failed Body Transformations

Why do so many people fail at achieving their body transformation goals?

You know what it’s like. You’ve tried everything in your power to finally shift that weight that’s been hanging on for so long, and yet, despite your best efforts (or so you believe), you’re still far from the shape you’re hoping to achieve — and you can’t understand why.

What’s wrong? Why can’t you lose that stubborn fat and achieve your goals?

From my experience coaching hundreds of clients over the years, most of the time failure can be attributed to just a handful of reasons. Here are five of them.

You’re Cheating!

No getting away from this one. We’ve all done it. You say you’re going to commit 100{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} to your fat-loss goal, but then, as soon as you’re within sniffing distance of your favorite foods, you tell yourself ‘just one won’t hurt.’ Before you know it, you’re chomping away on the very thing that contributed to your fat gain in the first place.

Here’s the deal: you’re an addict. ‘Just one’ will hurt! Like all addicts, you need to go cold turkey to break the cycle of dependence — no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

The thing is, cheating on your nutrition plan will accomplish nothing. It will keep things exactly as they are. It keeps you exactly how you are. So don’t cheat. Commit to follow your nutrition plan 95{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5}.

You’ve Lost Your Why

There is a famous quote that says, “those that have a strong enough why will overcome almost any how.” This means, of course, if you have a good enough reason for doing what you need to do, you’ll find the way to do it, even if it’s incredibly hard.

The flip side of this is obvious. If you’re not clear on why you’re doing what you’re doing, then practically anything you need to do to accomplish your goal will appear difficult, if not downright impossible. You’ll experience everything as obstacles rather than opportunities and feel that you’re more likely to fail than succeed. This sure isn’t the best foundation to build your goals upon, is it?

Identify your ‘why.’ Be honest with yourself: why do you want to lose that fat? Yes, to look good in your bikini, but what else? What’s the real reason? Dig deep and find the real why, and you’ll increase your likelihood to achieve it a hundredfold.

You Don’t Know What You Want

Sure, you’ve set a goal to ‘lose weight’ or ‘get fit’ or ‘tone up,’ but you’ve never absolutely, positively set a specific target.

There’s a big difference between a weight loss goal like the ones above and “I’m going to lose 20 pounds by July 1, 2009.” You can’t hit a target you can’t identify or see. You’ve got to get specific. Set a big, obvious, prominent target with a specific timeline, and commit to it, rather than being vague about ‘losing some weight.’

What goal are you aiming at? This is critical to know. Ignore it at your peril.

You’re Trying to Do It Alone

You’re not an expert on fat loss. If you were, you wouldn’t be trying to lose fat, right? So why are you trying to do this alone or with limited knowledge on losing fat?

If you don’t know much about your car engine, I’m sure you wouldn’t attempt to strip down the engine block on your own, right? You’d get a mechanic to do the job. Well, your body is far more important than your car, so stop tinkering and guessing and hoping that what you’re doing is going to work.

Instead, seek out fat-loss experts who’ll give you the proven exercise and nutrition guidance that they use to get results for their clients. Follow their advice and get those results for yourself. It’s hardly rocket science, but the number of people actually doing this are few and far between.

You’re Still Trying to Do It Alone

Once you’ve gotten your professionally designed program, you’re not cheating, you know your ‘why,’ and you have a laser-like focus on the specific goals you want to achieve, then make sure you find and join a support group to keep your motivation high. This is not just a suggestion — it’s a necessity!

You see, those who are attempting major changes in their health and fitness often undergo massive swings in motivation with huge highs and dramatic lows. It’s during the lows that self-doubt and the feelings to quit come into play, and, before you know it, you’ve cheated, told yourself you’ll never succeed, and quit the program that you started with such high hopes.

Having support means that this won’t happen. Sure, you’ll still get the swings, the highs, and the lows but you’ll be talking to people that are going through the same things as you, experiencing the same problems and feelings, and know what you’re going through. They’ll drag you back up when you’re flagging, and you can return the favor when they need it.

This is a win-win, and it is responsible for more people achieving their health and fitness goals than practically any other reason. Get support, and you’re most of the way there; do it alone, and the goal feels miles off.

There you have it: the top five reasons why your fat-loss goals fail. Apply all of them, and your fat loss is guaranteed!

Coach Holly Leonard, owner of BeFit Health and Wellness Solutions, is a body transformation and specialist who has helped more than 300 Pioneer Valley men and women reclaim their health, fitness, and vitality through proper fitness and nutrition. For more expert fitness advice and information about her coaching programs, visit www.befittraining.com