Will Acai Berries, Thermogenics & Herbal Tea Help Me Lose Weight?

Every day, there are new products being introduced around the world to combat weight loss. Acai berries, thermogenics and herbal tea’s are just some examples. So will they help you to lose weight?

This is only a very short article. I do apologise if you were seeking to read through a highly detailed review of the effectiveness of acai berries for weight loss. However, don’t stop reading now – this article is short for a reason – there is a very profound message that I do want to highlight before you proceed to research weight loss products further.

Weight loss products – whether nutritional or physical exercise products (eg. Cardio Twister) often have one thing in common – they don’t work for the masses. The vast majority of people who purchase these products will do so in the hope that this will be the key to losing weight once and for all. This is fueled by very persuasive marketing, appealing to our emotional desire to look great.

But the problem with weight loss lies deeper than any herbal tea. The true key to losing weight – forever – is to create a lifestyle that supports that lower bodyweight.

Living a sedentary lifestyle with poor nutritional habits is how you encourage weight gain – possibly the situation that you are in right now if you are reading this article. The addition of a “supplement” to your poor lifestyle habits will not improve the general environment that you subject your body to – physically and nutritionally. Thus, they will have little bearing on your body shape.

These products will never be effective in isolation. No matter how healthy or promising they may be, if you have no clue about good nutrition and effective physical exercise, I can almost guarantee that you will not accomplish your goals with the addition of one product.

To summarise:

Your body adapts to the lifestyle to which you subject it to. Supplements cannot reverse bad lifestyle habits.

That’s not to say acai berries aren’t healthy – far from it. Just don’t start buying them expecting to lose kilograms of body weight as a result.

This is a very brief article, but I do hope that you will continue reading up on this concept in further detail in an article I wrote entitled “How to Lose Weight“. This article elaborates on this “lifestyle” concept in much more detail, and provides some verbs to get started on your weight loss journey right away.

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What You Should Not Do When Losing Weight

Let’s take an alternative view at losing weight and identify three key (yet common) things that you should not do when losing weight.  This could save you a lot of time, effort and disappointment in your weight loss endeavours!

Weight Loss Don’t #1: Do Not Starve Yourself When Losing Weight

You may be familiar with the concept of calories in versus calories out. In a nutshell, to lose weight, you need to create a calorie deficit. However, taking this to the extreme by starving yourself can have some major side effects.

When I refer to “starving” yourself, I mean creating such a significant calorie deficit that you become lethargic, malnourished, moody and generally unhappy. You don’t necessarily need to eat “nothing” to starve yourself.

Starving yourself can lead to a significant amount of muscle loss, decreasing your basal metabolic rate (your BMR, or the number of calories you expend naturally each day). This will lead to a slowing of your metabolism.

Further, you can run into an array of medical problems by taking such an unhealthy approach to weight loss. Food allergies are just the beginning – you may develop toxic chemical imbalances, a serious eating disorder or become hospitalised.

Weight Loss Don’t #2: Do Not Follow a Fad Diet

A fad diet is often a form of starvation. Two common fad diets come in the form of a protein shake diet (that significantly reduces carbohydrates – an important nutrient) or a fad detox diet (that may reduce your intake of a whole range of nutrients).

Apart from the health concerns associated with the vast majority of fad diets, their long-term sustainability is very poor. Of course, if you undertake a diet, it is unlikely that you will want to adhere to it for 5, 10, 20 or 50 years. So, what happens once you come off the fad diet?

In theory, it seems easy to follow a fad diet, lose 10kg and then maintain the lower weight. But in practice this is nearly always not the case. The reason is because your body adapts to the lifestyle to which you subject it to. A fad diet (or, a temporary fix), will result in a significant calorie deficit and thus your body will change due to the calorie limitations. Stop the fad diet and resume eating “normal” foods and your body will adapt to this new environment that you subject it to.

Upon the conclusion of your fad diet, if you were to eat in a highly controlled manner and exercise regularly, you could keep that weight off. By why does this rarely happen? The reason is because during the fad diet, you do not learn how to develop new lifestyle habits. Instead, you learn how to use excessive amounts of willpower to follow an unrealistic and unsustainable approach to weight loss.

If you were just to follow the “maintenance plan” (ie. the healthy eating and exercise) in the first place, you would lose weight anyway. This is because again, your body adapts to the environment you subject it to.

And of course, this is not to mention the high incidence of binge food eating that occurs as a result of fad dieting. When you starve your body of essential nutrients (eg. good quality carbohydrates and fats), you will work up some HUGE cravings for them!

Weight Loss Don’t #3: Do Not Focus on Losing Weight as Quickly as Possible

This is the hardest part of weight loss. Nowadays, we all want everything yesterday! We are extremely impatient by nature and ultimately focus on the short-term rather than the long-term.

If you have been experiencing some yo-yo dieting in your lifetime, this is most likely heavily influenced by a focus on the short-term rather than the long-term.

Let’s assume that your weight has been fluctuating for the past five years and you’re approximately the same weight as five years ago, yet you want to lose 15kg. Five years ago, if you said to yourself, “I am going to lose 6kg a year”, that would seem pretty reasonable, wouldn’t it? It’s 0.5kg a month, which is an eighth of a kilogram a week. You could easily accomplish this by doing exactly what you are doing now, but by adding in a walk (or two) a week. Alternatively, you could cut out a few glasses of wine indefinitely, or choose to reduce the number of take-away meals you have each week.

Taking this approach, you would have accomplished your 15kg weight loss goal two and a half years ago (probably much sooner).

Conversely, assuming you have taken the short-term approach, you may wish to lose 15kg in 7.5 weeks. This may be influenced by some of the marketing that floats around this industry, making such a phenomenal degree of weight loss seem realistic to the average person. Well, 15kg in 7.5 weeks isn’t realistic for most of us (and nor is this sustainable!).

So, that would equate to 2kg a week. This will take some SERIOUS lifestyle renovating to sustain this degree of weight loss. You may have to:

1. Exercise 6 days a week, possibly twice a day at high intensities
2. Significantly reduce what you are eating
3. Move around as much as possible

This is an extremely unhealthy approach to weight loss mind you – 2kg of weight loss per week can increase the risk of various health complications.

But assuming that you did attempt a drastic lifestyle change, how long could you keep this up? Sure, you may be motivated in weeks 1 and 2…but come week 4 it is going to be really draining. It may even get to the point where you are so completely exhausted that you decide to throw in the towel and treat yourself to a bucket of ice-cream (or three).

If this has happened to you in the past, don’t fret – this happens to many, many people who yearn for a skinnier body. It all comes down to correct mindset and smart approaches to achieving your goal. So if you have failed in the past, there certainly is hope!

Hopefully here I have demonstrated the effect of short-term versus long-term thinking. A year or two may seem like a very long time, but this is exactly how you have to think if you want to take control of your body once and for all.

You may wish to read further on this topic that I have written about comprehensively. Here are two links to get you started:

Yo-Yo Dieting

How to Lose Weight

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Nerds Listen Up! Getting in Shape & Joining the Gym Advice

Are you what others refer to as a “nerd”? Or, in more politically correct terms, do you have a passion for less socially desirable activities such as maths, science or computers? And, have you always wanted to get in good shape, but felt intimidated by other, more socially adept people in the gym?

If the answer is yes, I can certainly relate to your situation. Whilst I am quite the health and fitness enthusiast, I have been (and still am) quite a bit of a “nerd”. Here are some of my high school qualifiers:

• I hated physical education with a passion and didn’t particularly look forward to sport
• I was never part of the “cool group”
• I played handball right up until year 12 during lunch breaks
• I was quite intimidated by girls
• In year 12, I would spend many of my free periods studying in the library away from friends in preparations for my HSC
• My year 12 subjects included Maths Extension 2 (ie. 4 unit maths), Physics, Chemistry and English Advanced (although I would have picked Biology or Computer Science if English wasn’t mandatory)
• I passed on many social outings to study for my HSC

Yes, I was a nerd. And the reason why I say that I still am is because I still have a strong passion for business, science and maths, I have a strong thirst for knowledge, I love documentaries and I’ve practically coded this entire website in PHP. In fact, a major reason why I began this personal training business is because this industry  really lacks in the number of nerds available to service it. Science is just so important in health and fitness!

Why am I telling you this? Well, I have been a fitness enthusiast ever since I stepped foot in a gym. But the fact is that the gym is a really intimidating place – especially for many people who fall into this politically incorrect category of being a “nerd”.

In high school, the stereotype dictates that only the “cool” people go into the gym – their great looking bodies compliment their near imperfect faces. Meanwhile, nerds are stereotypically supposed to have glasses, have a bad case of acne, be overweight, have very low self-esteem and never even think about being active…let alone join a gym!

Think about the humiliation a nerd would have to endure if they stepped foot into a gym where the seemingly “cool” people go to train. This is a thought that ran through my mind numerous times in high school when I did initially contemplate going into the gym and getting in shape. I thought I’d be laughed at and utterly humiliated because I was so grossly out of shape. Just imagine how tiny I would feel with these larger than life, buff and good looking guys staring at me thinking “what on Earth is he doing in a gym?!”.

Does that sound familiar at all? Well if it does, you’re not alone – there are many people who refuse to step foot into a gym because of this fear. But the truth of the matter is that if this were true, the whole industry would go bust, as the majority of gym patrons are actually out of shape and  seeking to lose weight. A typically gym is not full of buff guys that are going to laugh at you (that’s just a stereotype and something that you see in the movies).

If you do fall into this category and really yearn to do something about your physique once and for all, then you owe it to yourself to take control of your body. You will only even have one body, and the social stigma of a gym being a “cool peoples retreat” is a load of hogwash. The sooner you can wake up to that reality, the better.

I do understand that taking the plunge and actually stepping foot in a gym can be a huge step if you do feel a strong sense of intimidation. If this is too much for you to handle, take one step at a time so you can minimise the heightening of your anxiety levels.

The first thing that I would suggest is for you to do some reading of your own. If you actually have a feel for what you’re doing, it won’t seem that big a deal. I would strongly recommend reading through a number of articles freely available on this website (covering an array of topics including muscle gain, weight loss, nutrition, mindset, confidence levels etc).

I would also strongly recommend reading my weight loss book, “How to Transform the Average Joe in 12 Weeks”. If you can relate to this particular article, I’m very confident that you would get a lot of value from my personal experiences when I undertook a 12 week challenge. There is also a comprehensive “how-to” guide included in the book to get you started toward accomplishing your goals.

After you have a sense of what needs to be done, try speaking to a professional. There is nothing more discouraging than trying to accomplish your goals based on your general reading and failing. If you have a professional to sit down with you and discuss a viable approach in detail, then you’ll have every chance at being successful. We of course offer highly professional personal training services.

Once you’ve got an idea of what you’re doing, you have a plan and you are also armed with professional advice, that’s when joining a gym will just become “another step” in you accomplishing your goals. You’ll find that you will be a lot more confident knowing that you’ve done your homework and are aligned for success.

I do hope that you have obtained some value from this article, especially if you do classify yourself as a “nerd”. A gym can be a great tool to utilise in achieving your health and fitness goals that is there for all people, including yourself.

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Dealing with Unsupportive People when Losing Weight

A question that I encounter often from clients is “How do I deal with unsupportive people when I am trying to lose weight?” It is a very common issue, so if you around people who do not support your health and fitness goals, you are definitely not alone!

Being a personal trainer, I am fortunate enough to interact with a variety of clients who vary in their:

• Gender
• Age
• Goals
• Exercise Experience
• Body Shape
• Mindset
• Personality
• Marital Status
• Determination
• Motivation
• …and of course practically every other aspect to a person

Interestingly, people from all the above categories struggle with this issue of unsupportive people. This ranges from people who are just starting out, to others who have been training for years and are in excellent shape.

Trust me, this problem does not go away. This is something that I have personally been subject to for years due to my passion for health and fitness. Whilst eventually people may accept your choices, there will always be the people who would love to see you fail (often because they aren’t happy in their own skin!).

Here are a few very common examples of unsupportive people:

1. People at work trying to force you to eat something that you really don’t want to eat
2. Family members telling you that you are too skinny
3. Friends who practically shove a beer in your face when you would rather remain sober and focused on your own personal goals

It may be subtle, or it may be “laugh-in-your-face” (yes, I once had someone laugh in my face prior to my BodyBlitz competition many years ago). Either way, it’s a fact of life for most of us.

Speaking from personal experience, I do the following:

Distance yourself from these people. Whilst not always possible, do you really want to be around people who don’t have your best interests at heart? Furthermore, pessimistic people don’t really help you accomplish success in your life, so why would you want to spend your time hearing about how poorly you are doing?

Don’t let it get to you. If you want to accomplish something that is perfectly healthy, then go for it. This is your goal, not theirs. Why sacrifice your judgement for someone else’s?

In saying this, I do emphasise that this is a “healthy” goal. If you are chasing after something that is unhealthy, then someone else may very well be a voice of reason and this may be misconstrued as being “unsupportive”.

Have a conversation with the important people in your life and explain to them the reasons as to why you are doing this. Maybe they don’t understand just how important your goals are to you. Or maybe they don’t understand how their thoughts are being projected onto you.

Accept that people love to criticise others. Don’t let it get to you – accept the fact that many other people will try “level” with others to make themselves feel better. Some people are so insecure with themselves that they try to take down others around them to give themselves a bit of a boost. This is no reflection on you.

Use this to fuel your fire. If someone says that you “cannot” accomplish something, use it to your advantage to motivate yourself to accomplish that goal. This is actually a really powerful technique in turning negative energy into positive energy.

I’d love to hear your comments on this topic if you have any experiences or advice for others. This is such a common scenario for many people seeking to improve themselves and I’m sure we would all benefit by sharing ideas.

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How do I Increase the Intensity of my Workouts?

The intensity of your training is very important to producing amazing results. This is because our bodies adapt to extreme circumstances (or at least, what our bodies perceive to be extreme).

For example, if you run for an hour on end, you’ll probably feel quite fatigued if you’ve never done this before. This is because this is an extreme event. Your body will therefore adapt by repairing itself and overcompensating so next time it is better equipped to handle the long run. In other words, you become fitter.

Another example could be weight lifting. If you lift a heavy weight, then this is perceived by your body to be extreme because it struggled with lifting that weight. Therefore, your body will attempt to become stronger to handle this load more effectively next time.

This concept of “adaptation” is discussed in detail in an article I wrote a while ago entitled “The Art of Adaptation“. If you are not familiar with this concept, I strongly recommend that you read this article.

So now that we have identified the importance of incorporating a high degree of intensity into your workout, the question remains;

How do I increase the intensity of my workouts?

Great question – I’m glad you asked!

There are many ways to do this. Firstly, you can supplement with products that enhance your mental focus and energy levels. One example could be Xenadrine RFA-X. This product contains stimulants that can boost your energy levels during your workout.

To enhance your intensity, you must also ensure that your nutrition is appropriate. For, if you are consuming a low carbohydrate diet, your energy levels will most likely be low and thus your intensity will suffer.

Furthermore, your fitness can play a vital role to your workout intensity. If you are extremely unfit, you will feel tired and thus your output will diminish. This is true with both weight lifting and cardio. However, if you seek to improve your stamina, you will be able to give your workout 100% effort without your body complaining (as much).

Psychology, however, is a very important aspect to consider when seeking to increase the intensity of your workouts. If you can get your mind set up for peak performance, then you will have every chance at boosting your workout results. Ultimately your mindset will determine, to a great degree, the level of intensity of your workout.

I have just published a comprehensive article on the psychological interventions that you can employ to significantly enhance your workout intensity. The article is entitled “How to Increase the Intensity of your Weights Workout“.

It is always important to ensure that the intensity of your exercise session is appropriate for your goals, age, health and body. A doctors clearance is very important, but so too is the professional development of an effective approach to your goals. Never undertake a high intensity programme without the appropriate professional advice.

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Testing Your Mental Limits with Exercise

High intensity training is not for the faint hearted. It takes discipline, determination and focus to create an extremely effective, intense workout. And when you do it, you will suddenly realise that exercise is far more involved than just “going for a run” or “lifting weights”.

It’s no wonder why athletes have sports psychologists to calibrate their mind to produce maximum output during a race. For, it doesn’t matter how fit you are, if your mindset isn’t in check, you will not be able to produce amazing results.

Intense training, whilst extremely effective, is really tough going! The first time you attempt a really full-on workout, you will be utterly shattered upon the conclusion of that exercise session. Whilst that may be seen as a downside, as far as I am concerned, this is a huge advantage of high intensity training. For we learn best when we are faced with a challenge. In this case, a mental challenge.

You see, when you do push yourself to your physical limits, your mind begins to tell you such things as:

• Slow down, I’m tired
• Ouch, my legs are sore, give me a break
• This is too hard!!
  
• Don’t worry about giving it 100% now, you can always make up for this workout at a later date
  
• I’d much rather be lying down at home right now

And it will come as no surprise that you can be really effective at convincing yourself to do exactly the opposite of what you initially set out to do. It’s as if there is an angel and a devil on either shoulder, so to speak.

One major benefit that is often overlooked is the mental discipline it requires to flick that “devil” off your shoulder. Even though your body is screaming out at you to “STOP!”, you have enough mental toughness to push through that pain barrier. Not only will you obtain maximal physiological benefits, but the psychological benefits of this approach is extremely profound.

If you have the ability to control your emotions in such an extreme circumstance, how is this going to affect your day-to-day life? What if you are placed in a highly stressed situation? What if you are extremely frustrated? Chances are, you will be able to control yourself with the benefits attained from constantly testing your psychological extremities with high intensity training.

I have written a more comprehensive article on this topic that you may be interested in reading, The Psychological Benefits of Bodybuilding.

With all intense training, it is always imperative to first ensure that it is safe to do so. So always consult a doctor prior to initiating an exercise regime.

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An “All-or-Nothing” Approach to Weight Loss is Doomed for Failure

I’ll admit it, I used to be a perfectionist. If something was only 99% complete, I had to spend significant portion of my time completing that last 1% of the job. After all, a job isn’t done, until it’s done…right? Well, the irony of the situation is that this final 1% would account for less than 1% of the importance of the project, yet it could take over half of my time!

I’m not here to talk about project management however, for I have plenty to learn on that particular subject! What I do wish to talk about is in regards to weight loss and undertaking an “all-or-nothing” approach to losing weight. This is perfectionism in disguise.

In case you are not familiar with what I mean by an “all-or-nothing” approach, I am simply referring to either being 100% committed to weight loss, or not committed at all. There is no in-between as you are either losing weight the most effective way you know possible, or you’re not bothering at all. This would constitute either following a full-on diet and remanding exercise regime, or pigging out on your favourite junk food whilst being a couch-potato. It’s black and white with no grey shades – you’re either losing weight or you’re not.

Does this sound familiar? If it does, ask yourself (honestly) if this approach is working for you in the long-term:

If yes, then you probably won’t get much value from this article because you’re already doing a great job at losing weight effectively.

If no, then an “all-or-nothing” approach just simply does not work for you. In fact, it doesn’t work for the vast majority of people. To be completely honest, in my years as both an exercise enthusiast and a professional personal trainer, I have never met anyone who claims that such an approach to weight loss has been effective for them.

An “all-or-nothing” approach is great for short-term, quick weight loss. If you are looking to lose weight over a few weeks, then this may be the solution for you. But there is a catch. By giving 100% to your weight loss endeavours, you will not be able to:

• Uphold this level of willpower in the long-term
• Develop some long-term strategies for weight loss
• Sustain the weight loss that you encounter in the short-term

Why? Well, an all-out approach requires you to place yourself far outside your comfort zone in regards to nutrition and exercise. You won’t enjoy it because you are depriving yourself of various aspects to your lifestyle that you love. Hence, you require willpower. Unless you want to live an unhappy life, in reality you are not going to be able to maintain this willpower forever. Eventually, you will cave in and revert back to poor lifestyle habits. These poor lifestyle habits will necessarily result in weight accumulation and you may find yourself back at square one in very little time at all.

This above scenario happens time and time again with extreme approaches to diet and exercise. It is also known as “yo-yo dieting” or more technically “weight cycling”, where you undertake a cycle of weight loss, then weight gain, then weight loss and so on indefinitely.

There is another very critical flaw in an “all-or-nothing” approach to weight loss – the guilt associated with “falling off the wagon”. Here’s a scenario:

You have been on a diet for two weeks and have lost an amazing 4kg of weight. You have been craving sugars, but have managed to summon the necessary willpower to adhere to the dietary guidelines. But then, you are invited out for a dinner at a restaurant. You see the menu and justify having a treat because you have lost so much weight. So, you order a large three course meal and have a few alcoholic drinks.

The next day you wake up and feel gross. You are disappointed with your eating last night and just feel really down on yourself. Although you don’t want to, you jump on the scales and see that you have gained a kilogram of weight. Disgusted at the sight of this weight gain, you binge all day long to comfort yourself.

You have fallen off the wagon, so to speak, and blame yourself. You cannot stick to that diet…maybe you are just meant to be overweight?

The guilt that is associated with “falling off the wagon” is a very powerful emotion. It can force you to give up on your weight loss goals altogether due to one simply slip up.

The reality of the situation is that this 1kg of weight loss was probably primarily a result of fluid retention from the additional carbohydrate intake the night before. You would have still been well and truly out in front of where you began too. But in reality, it’s hard to see this when you feel like a complete and utter failure. Emotions are much more powerful that logic, especially “in the moment”.

Now in contrast to this, a “lifestyle” approach to weight loss does not allow you to “fall off the wagon”. In fact, you aren’t on a diet at all. Consequently, you do not:

• Require excessive willpower
• Feel anywhere near as much guilt if you treat yourself
• Feel as if you are on a diet

A “lifestyle” is all about losing weight in a manner that you enjoy. You don’t follow some silly strict guidelines, yet you set yourself up in an environment that is:

1. Enjoyable
2. Effective for weight loss

An “all-or-nothing” approach may be effective for weight loss in the short-term, yet it is not enjoyable. The fact that it is not enjoyable means that you will not be able to sustain this approach in the long-term. In contrast, a “lifestyle” approach is enjoyable and thus you will be able to remain at a lower weight indefinitely.

So what is your ideal lifestyle approach to weight loss? That is something that you will have to figure out, possibly with the assistance of an exercise professional. You have to allow yourself to enjoy the foods that you love to consume, yet in a moderated manner in conjunction with a healthy, well-balanced dietary intake. You will also have to adhere to some form of exercise regime that you enjoy – whether that be outdoors, in a gym, at home or as part of a sports or leisure activity.

A lifestyle approach to weight loss is all about implementing some common sense principles into your routine. Yes, good old common sense! If you would like to continue to read further on this topic, then I strongly recommend my article, How to Lose Weight. This article will expand on this “lifestyle” concept to weight loss.

I wish you all the best in your weight loss endeavours!

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“You Are What You Eat”…And How You Live Your Lifestyle

Your body is unforgiving. The saying “You are what you eat” is so very true. Yet it is also important to consider that the way in which you live your overall lifestyle is also extremely important in determining your body weight and body shape.

This is common knowledge. What you eat and how you move around will determine how your body looks. But have you ever really considered this before? That your body shape is a function of every single “input” into your body?

Inputs include what you eat, when you eat it and your portion sizes. These inputs also include your exercise – the type of exercise you do, the intensity of your exercise, how often you exercise. Furthermore, inputs also include how often you sleep, how physical your job is, whether you play sport, how far you walk each day, your stress levels and so on. All of these inputs come together to form a particular body shape – the body shape that you currently are living with.

Let’s say that your goal is to lose weight. Therefore in order to accomplish this, you need to change your inputs to result in the weight loss “output”. So, you may reduce the amount of food you consume, get 8 hours of sleep a night, perform some intense exercise and walk to and from work each day. This shift in inputs is going to result in a change in output. The rate at which your body shape changes will be highly variable between individuals, but your body shape will most certainly change.

Alternatively consider muscle and weight gain. If your current inputs are walking to and from work each day and eating a limited number of calories, you would therefore have to modify these to eating more calories each day and performing specific exercises to induce muscle development.

Dieting is a change in inputs, be it often a temporary change. You change the food that you take in to induce rapid weight loss. If you revert back to your pre-dieting inputs, your output will eventually be similar to your original body shape.

So the key is to change your inputs in a manner that necessarily result in the desired output. But the key is to change these inputs permanently. As I said, the body is unforgiving – it will adapt to the environment to which it is subjected to.

Whilst the body is unforgiving, it is also honest. It will tell you how you’re doing. In fact, it is the one and only accurate indicator to your progress (obviously because it is the thing you are trying to change)! So, if you are progressing toward your goal, such as losing weight, your inputs are correctly aligned. If not, you need to revise your inputs.

Because the body is so honest, this means that you need to be honest with yourself. If you have a slip up with your nutrition, or skip a few workouts – identify it, learn from the mistake and move on. The body will not say to you “Oh, don’t worry about it, I’ll just continue to lose weight anyway – I understand you were feeling tired that day” – even though you may feel the urge to rationalise in this manner (hey, it’s normal human behaviour, I’m sure we’ve all done it at some point). Be honest with yourself and you will reap the benefits.

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Getting Motivation for Weight Loss

There are so many people out there that know “how” to lose weight. Sure, you can dissect weight loss until it becomes a complex science – but on the surface it doesn’t take a genius to work it out! Put simply:

• Perform some appropriate exercise
• Watch the types and servings of foods that you eat
• Do this consistently and monitor your results, to ensure you are losing weight

Easy, right? Well…it’s actually very deceivingly easy. What I have found from my professional experience is that most people know this.  Nearly everyone knows what they have to do in order to lose weight. But what most people lack is getting the motivation for weight loss.

Motivation is not about “wanting” to achieve a desired body weight. Far from it. Motivation is about getting pro-active about your goals and once and for all “pulling your finger out”, so to speak. Furthermore, motivation is about continuing to work toward your goals in a consistent manner day after day, rather than pursuing your goals on a temporary basis only to fall back into old lifestyle habits.

So, how do you get this necessary motivation for weight loss? Great question! Honestly, if I had the one single answer to this question, I would either be extremely rich or be out of a job!! But there are some things that you can do in order to find this motivation.

Firstly, you have to identify that no one else can motivate you, but yourself. Motivation must be intrinsic, or internal. If the internal motivation is not present, absolutely no amount of external motivation will do you any good. You have to want your goal bad enough to make some serious changes in your life.

So, step one would be to find that intrinsic motivation, or that “inner fire”. YOU (and only you) have to get deadly serious about achieving your weight loss goal. You have to believe that you are capable of success – no matter what anyone else thinks or feels. You have to tell yourself that you are sick and tired of being overweight and unhappy with your body and you are going to do this for yourself!

For if these beliefs are not present, you will not be successful. That may sound quite frank, but it is the honest truth.

Now, if that motivation is present, that’s when an extrinsic, or external form of motivation is going to be of benefit. You know you are going to achieve these goals, so why not have someone else help you to get from A to B? This could be for example:

• Your partner
• A family member
• A friend
• A group of friends
• A group of other people seeking to lose weight also
• A personal trainer

Other people will be a key factor to your success. They will make your journey more enjoyable and you won’t feel isolated in your attempts in improving yourself. A sense of community or belonging is very important, because we are highly social creatures.

There will be days where you will feel discouraged and this is where the external motivation is of great value to you in your weight loss endeavours. So long as you still carry the intrinsic belief of success, other people can help to pick you up and remedy the more superficial setbacks that you will incur. This could be something along the lines of a slip-up with your nutrition, illness, a missed workout or just feeling down.

I am a very passionate person about personal training because having your own personal trainer not only ensures that you remain motivated, but a fitness professional will make sure that you progress toward your weight loss goal in the safest, most appropriate and most efficient manner possible. So please do seriously consider hiring professional help if you are deadly serious about losing weight.

I wish you all the best in your endeavours toward your ideal physique! Please get started now. The sooner you get on top of things, the sooner you will see results and feel great about yourself!

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What is the Best Weight Loss Machine?

A really common question that I have been asked by clientele is something along the lines of “What is the best weight loss machine?” As simple as this question may seem at first, it can be quite involved in ascertaining precisely what the best weight loss machine would be for you as an individual.

Let’s begin with a bit of background information. Going right back to the fundamentals of weight loss, losing weight is a function of a calorie deficit. In other words, you must consume less calories than what you expend.

Your calorie intake is primarily a function of the foods that you consume. If you eat more calorie rich food, your daily calorie intake will increase.

Your calorie expenditure is a function of many things including your basal metabolic rate (BMR), various metabolic processes and exercise. Disregarding everything else, let’s focus purely on exercise for the time being (even though exercise in isolation is a very small piece to the weight loss puzzle).

Considering that this article has been written with the focus on what the best weight loss machine is, we are therefore interested in what weight loss machine will provide the greatest calorie expenditure to create a greater calorie deficit. In other words, if you can perform exercise whereby you expend more calories in the same period of time, this will increase the likelihood of creating a calorie deficit which results in weight loss.

The trick to selecting which weight loss machine to use is to ensure that you can exercise at an intensity that is outside your comfort zone. By exercising vigorously, you will therefore be expending more calories and thus create a greater calorie deficit. This of course assumes that you have established a deficit by accommodating for all other factors also.

What I am getting at is that there is no single “best” weight loss machine. The treadmill may be very effective, but so too can an upright bike, elliptical trainer or rowing machine.

In order for you to select the best weight loss machine for you, use a machine that:

• You enjoy using (you’ll want to use it more!)
• Is comfortable for you
• Does not impact any injuries
• Is low risk
• Is of good quality and make
• Is not a fad product that claims to transform your body practically overnight

In saying all of the above, there is a bit of a disclaimer on the intensity front. If you haven’t exercised regularly before, it is not a wise idea to go “gung-ho” into a super-intense workout. I have blogged about this before and you may wish to read up on this topic in greater detail and discover the the Dangers of Exercising Too Vigorously.

Further to this, you may be interested in learning that different formats of exercise, such as the combination of weight training and cardio training can have a far more profound impact on weight loss than just using a single weight loss machine. Nutrition also plays a vital part in weight loss, so it is important to develop an appropriate approach to nutrition that will result in the desired degree of weight loss.

And I would like to leave you with a final thought. Never go out and buy a particular weight loss machine and expect it, in isolation, to result in weight loss. Weight loss requires a holistic lifestyle approach – buying a particular piece of cardio apparatus is practically setting yourself up for failure. If this is what you are considering doing, I very strongly recommend you have a read of my popular article, How to Lose Weight.

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