The 2 Secrets To Long Term Fat Loss
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I think this article will surprise you a bit. We’re going to share a couple of secrets to long term fat-loss, but the secrets really don’t have anything to do with diet and exercise. Surprised? I thought you might be. Check out this article from Fitness Expert Mitch Rothbardt to find out what these 2 secrets are.
The 2 Secrets To Long Term Fat Loss by Mitch Rothbardt
Who out there is trying to lose weight? Well, I can’t see your hands raised from all the way over here but I assume it’s a lot of you. We all know there’s a ton of information out there. I did a quick Google search and within the first three pages found sites that told me not to eat low fat, sites that told me to eat low fat, separate sites that told me both that I didn’t have to exercise and that I did have to exercise. It’s no wonder there’s so much confusion.
Well, I’m going to save you lots of time. I’m going to let you in on the two most super important secrets about fat loss. Are you ready for the first one? Here it is:
It doesn’t matter.
That’s it. It doesn’t matter. Low fat, high fat, low carb, high carb. It doesn’t matter. “How can that be?” you ask. It doesn’t matter because of the second secret:
There will be no sustainable weight loss unless you truly believe it’s possible and it’s who you are.
What does that mean? In short, it means that you’ve got to have your mind right for anything to work long-term. We all know of someone who has lost a bunch of weight only to put it all back on and then some. In fact, studies have shown that over 80% people that have lost a bunch of weight gain it all back within two years and that number jumps to 95% if it’s considered a crash diet.
Why is that? Why would someone go through all that work only to go back to what they did before? Here’s why: They never changed their self-belief. They never looked in the mirror and told themselves “I am a person who exercises and eats clean and healthy food.” Instead, they looked at things as a matter of will power and denial. They denied themselves a lot of food. They forced themselves to go to the gym. They eventually hit their goal, but because they never made the mental transition from “I am an overweight person who is now on a diet” to “I am a person who eats healthy and exercises” when they did hit their goal and didn’t need to be on a diet anymore their mental image only told them that “I am an overweight person who no longer needs to be on a diet.”
What I’d like to do is share a few different ways you can help your self-image so that you can make your changes stick.
1. Don’t deny yourself, reward yourself. OK, what do you think is a better approach:
A. I can’t believe I can never eat pizza or ice cream again! This is going to be sooooo hard!
B. If I can eat well this week and hit the gym three times I get to have pizza and ice cream on Saturday!
Of course the answer is “B”. One of the most important ways to help our self-image is with the way we talk to ourselves. We need to make sure that we stay positive. In the first example it’s all about what we can’t do. In the second example it’s about what we can do. We have to remember that the changes we’re making are for our life and I know if someone told me I could never eat another Pyzanno’s mushroom, garlic, and meatball pizza again, I would tell them to take their diet and stick it. The changes we make have to be sustainable or they’re ultimately useless.
Start with one change that you’re sure you can stick to and then add on to that each week or two. At the end of one or two months that could mean some very big changes that you’ve incorporated into your life. If you fall off the wagon a bit, don’t beat yourself up over it. Learn from it. Figure out what set you off and make adjustments so if that situation repeats itself you won’t fall into the same trap. Being better able to adapt to difficult situations is a very important skill and it’s a big factor in our self-confidence.
2. Emphasize function over form. What do I mean by that? How we feel about ourselves is usually impacted more by what we can do rather than what we appear we can do. The cool thing about that, is by figuring out the things we’d like to do and training towards those ends, looking like we can do those things is a pretty nice bonus that goes along with it. In other words, if you want to look strong, train to be strong. If you want to look like you can run a marathon, train to run a marathon.
You’re going to find that kind of training much more fulfilling in the long run and, better yet, who knows where it will take you. I have a client who came to me to lose weight and she soon realized that she loves lifting heavy weights. She’s now training for her first powerlifting meet. That never would have occurred to her if we only focused on the weight. (She also lost over 25 pounds.)
3. Don’t make the “cardio” room the center of your exercise universe. There is nothing more transforming mentally than resistance training. Let me describe two situations:
A. You finish a set of squats with a weight that you’ve never been able to lift before. You rack the bar, lean on it and take a few deep breaths as you realize that the extra weight on the bar represents tangible progress.
B. You get off the treadmill after walking for 35 minutes.
Which one of these situations do you think has a better chance of improving your self-image? The other benefit of this is that over the long term, resistance training will help you lose more weight due to the increase in metabolism that comes with more lean body. Those long, slow cardio sessions actually slow down your metabolism over time leading to one of the top causes of poor self-image: doing hours and hours of cardio only to experience little or no weight loss at all!
4. Enjoy the process. This one is huge! Changing our bodies is not easy and don’t let anyone tell you it is. Our bodies still think that when winter comes we might not be able to find food for a few months. It thinks that, because in the whole history of man, this period, where we can get food pretty much whenever we want is a tiny little dot on a very long line. Basically, our bodies still think we have to kill a wooly mammoth for dinner. It doesn’t realize that we have a Safeway down the street, so from a strict survival standpoint that’s the most efficient thing our bodies can do. Right? Not changing is pretty easy. What this means for us is that after we come down a little from the excitement of starting a new program the reality is going to hit us that if we want to make substantial changes to our bodies, it’s going to take some time.
For example, if you want to lose weight, a very solid goal is 1-2 pounds a week. That doesn’t seem like much but its 75-100 pounds a year. That’s pretty darn good! The problem is that many people don’t last a year. They’re too focused on the final result instead of trying to learn something along the way. They see that it’ll take time and they give up. No, it’s not easy but that’s the point! Try to enjoy the process and you’ll see that enjoyment leak into your life outside the gym. You’ll learn how to plan for a goal. You’ll learn how to sacrifice for something you want. You’ll learn that if you put the work in you’ll get something even better back! You’ll learn that you can do things you might not think you can do, and you’ll learn that even if you can’t, you get so much out of trying.
You see, at the end of the day we are who we believe ourselves to be and we will behave in ways that reinforce that belief. If you think you’re unhealthy, then that is who will be looking back at you in the mirror each day and that person will have no reason not to order another piece of cake. It doesn’t matter anyway, right? Now I’m not saying that if you just think it, it will happen. This isn’t “The Secret”, after all. But if you first believe that you can change, then you will make changes and accomplish things that will earn you the right to improve your self-image. Then we can worry about whether we should go low carb or not.
Well, I’m going to save you lots of time. I’m going to let you in on the two most super important secrets about fat loss. Are you ready for the first one? Here it is:
It doesn’t matter.
That’s it. It doesn’t matter. Low fat, high fat, low carb, high carb. It doesn’t matter. “How can that be?” you ask. It doesn’t matter because of the second secret:
There will be no sustainable weight loss unless you truly believe it’s possible and it’s who you are.
What does that mean? In short, it means that you’ve got to have your mind right for anything to work long-term. We all know of someone who has lost a bunch of weight only to put it all back on and then some. In fact, studies have shown that over 80% people that have lost a bunch of weight gain it all back within two years and that number jumps to 95% if it’s considered a crash diet.
Why is that? Why would someone go through all that work only to go back to what they did before? Here’s why: They never changed their self-belief. They never looked in the mirror and told themselves “I am a person who exercises and eats clean and healthy food.” Instead, they looked at things as a matter of will power and denial. They denied themselves a lot of food. They forced themselves to go to the gym. They eventually hit their goal, but because they never made the mental transition from “I am an overweight person who is now on a diet” to “I am a person who eats healthy and exercises” when they did hit their goal and didn’t need to be on a diet anymore their mental image only told them that “I am an overweight person who no longer needs to be on a diet.”
What I’d like to do is share a few different ways you can help your self-image so that you can make your changes stick.
1. Don’t deny yourself, reward yourself. OK, what do you think is a better approach:
A. I can’t believe I can never eat pizza or ice cream again! This is going to be sooooo hard!
B. If I can eat well this week and hit the gym three times I get to have pizza and ice cream on Saturday!
Of course the answer is “B”. One of the most important ways to help our self-image is with the way we talk to ourselves. We need to make sure that we stay positive. In the first example it’s all about what we can’t do. In the second example it’s about what we can do. We have to remember that the changes we’re making are for our life and I know if someone told me I could never eat another Pyzanno’s mushroom, garlic, and meatball pizza again, I would tell them to take their diet and stick it. The changes we make have to be sustainable or they’re ultimately useless.
Start with one change that you’re sure you can stick to and then add on to that each week or two. At the end of one or two months that could mean some very big changes that you’ve incorporated into your life. If you fall off the wagon a bit, don’t beat yourself up over it. Learn from it. Figure out what set you off and make adjustments so if that situation repeats itself you won’t fall into the same trap. Being better able to adapt to difficult situations is a very important skill and it’s a big factor in our self-confidence.
2. Emphasize function over form. What do I mean by that? How we feel about ourselves is usually impacted more by what we can do rather than what we appear we can do. The cool thing about that, is by figuring out the things we’d like to do and training towards those ends, looking like we can do those things is a pretty nice bonus that goes along with it. In other words, if you want to look strong, train to be strong. If you want to look like you can run a marathon, train to run a marathon.
You’re going to find that kind of training much more fulfilling in the long run and, better yet, who knows where it will take you. I have a client who came to me to lose weight and she soon realized that she loves lifting heavy weights. She’s now training for her first powerlifting meet. That never would have occurred to her if we only focused on the weight. (She also lost over 25 pounds.)
3. Don’t make the “cardio” room the center of your exercise universe. There is nothing more transforming mentally than resistance training. Let me describe two situations:
A. You finish a set of squats with a weight that you’ve never been able to lift before. You rack the bar, lean on it and take a few deep breaths as you realize that the extra weight on the bar represents tangible progress.
B. You get off the treadmill after walking for 35 minutes.
Which one of these situations do you think has a better chance of improving your self-image? The other benefit of this is that over the long term, resistance training will help you lose more weight due to the increase in metabolism that comes with more lean body. Those long, slow cardio sessions actually slow down your metabolism over time leading to one of the top causes of poor self-image: doing hours and hours of cardio only to experience little or no weight loss at all!
4. Enjoy the process. This one is huge! Changing our bodies is not easy and don’t let anyone tell you it is. Our bodies still think that when winter comes we might not be able to find food for a few months. It thinks that, because in the whole history of man, this period, where we can get food pretty much whenever we want is a tiny little dot on a very long line. Basically, our bodies still think we have to kill a wooly mammoth for dinner. It doesn’t realize that we have a Safeway down the street, so from a strict survival standpoint that’s the most efficient thing our bodies can do. Right? Not changing is pretty easy. What this means for us is that after we come down a little from the excitement of starting a new program the reality is going to hit us that if we want to make substantial changes to our bodies, it’s going to take some time.
For example, if you want to lose weight, a very solid goal is 1-2 pounds a week. That doesn’t seem like much but its 75-100 pounds a year. That’s pretty darn good! The problem is that many people don’t last a year. They’re too focused on the final result instead of trying to learn something along the way. They see that it’ll take time and they give up. No, it’s not easy but that’s the point! Try to enjoy the process and you’ll see that enjoyment leak into your life outside the gym. You’ll learn how to plan for a goal. You’ll learn how to sacrifice for something you want. You’ll learn that if you put the work in you’ll get something even better back! You’ll learn that you can do things you might not think you can do, and you’ll learn that even if you can’t, you get so much out of trying.
You see, at the end of the day we are who we believe ourselves to be and we will behave in ways that reinforce that belief. If you think you’re unhealthy, then that is who will be looking back at you in the mirror each day and that person will have no reason not to order another piece of cake. It doesn’t matter anyway, right? Now I’m not saying that if you just think it, it will happen. This isn’t “The Secret”, after all. But if you first believe that you can change, then you will make changes and accomplish things that will earn you the right to improve your self-image. Then we can worry about whether we should go low carb or not.
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