What if I’m just Born to be Fat?
For anyone who is struggling to lose weight this can be a question that continuously crosses your mind. You’ve tried hard in the past and it just didn’t work out. You tried again but now you’re 10steps further back than your first attempt.
Attempting over and over again without success can accumulate “failure” in the brain. Once that starts to happen, it’s easy to start believing you’re a failure. That you’ll never get what you want.
That you don’t deserve it. That you’re somehow genetically different to everyone else and you don’t respond to diets in the same way. So you’ve failed.
We begin to use this way of thinking as the rationale for over-indulging in high calorie foods and lazy lifestyles.
But here’s the catch! In your previous attempts, did you really fail? Let’s say you lost 2 or 3lbs over the two weeks you were able to stick to whatever diet or training regime you were following. Is that really failure?
No.
Did you put the weight back on eventually? Is that failure?
No.
Did you have any real idea of what you were trying to achieve? Did you measure your results?
Did you educate yourself to know why you were doing each thing in your diet or training programme? Did you read lots of conflicting advice?
Yes.
So can you lose weight?
Yes. And you will.
When working with clients we continuously ask ourselves one question before putting any nutrition or training schedule into place: “is what we are doing sustainable for this person?”
If it’s not, we don’t use it.
It’s highly unlikely that your body is failing you in your weight loss journey – it’s more likely to be one or a combination of the following factors:
Your training is failing you:
– Its too intense and you can’t keep it up
– It’s too complicated and you don’t understand it
– It’s not intense enough
– It’s so high impact its likely to cause injury and your knee’s are in f-ing agony
– It’s boring
– It’s too time-consuming
Your nutrition is failing you:
- Your calories are far too low to sustain and your hunger is greater than your willpower
- You’ve removed all your favourite foods from your diet and all of a sudden they are back in your mouth and now you feel ashamed to face the world, so you go back and eat some more
- You’re cutting a certain food group and now it’s all you can think about
- You haven’t got enough energy to train properly because you’re not fuelling your body properly
- Your mind set is failing you:
- You’re not willing to make a change, you think that the enjoyment you get from foods will be completely removed if you’re on a diet
- You’re scared of what you don’t know
- Your peers aren’t supportive and inadvertently increase your likelihood of failure
- You think your body was ‘meant’ to be a certain shape, so why fight the inevitable
- You compare yourself to others and continuously feel like you are failing or not good enough
The Solutions </h3 >
Training:
- If you are very overweight, avoid exercises which include running and jumping on hard surfaces
- Find something that challenges you but doesn’t break you
- Make sure you enjoy it
Nutrition:
- Investing in a great coach will pay for itself ten-fold. There is a whirlwind of advertising, clever marketing and products which can lead you to believe you’re making a good choice when it could be the opposite. If they don’t ask about you, your lifestyle, your strengths and weaknesses, your daily routine, your background and your goals and hopes – ditch them!
- If you can’t afford a coach – don’t remove anything from your diet, simply reduce frequency or portion sizes (instead of buying large servings or multipacks, purchase a few single serving portions)
Mindset:
- Health and longevity in life should be at the forefront of your journey – if it’s not then take a step back, think about those around you and how they would cope if you weren’t around anymore.
- Chasing something you don’t know can be a scary process – the more you read about training, nutrition and growth mindset, the more informed, confident and trusting you will be of the process. We can recommend some great books and podcasts if you want.
- Surround yourself with people who have similar goals. Speak to people who also want to make lifestyle changes, who train at your gym, or follow certain groups or accounts on social media. The more you realise that everyone is in the same boat (no matter how lean/muscly/gorgeous they appear), the more relaxed you will feel.
- Don’t keep things bottled up – tell your coach how you’re feeling. They have heard it all before, and you never know, they might have some great advice…
If you’re not sure what is holding you back (but it’s definitely not ‘what nature gave you’, we promise!) we would be happy to give you a free consultation. Get in touch with us at http://www.pioneer-performance.co.uk.
