Today I wanted to share with you a very insightful story that a friend of mine who runs a gym shared with me.
A woman came into his gym and said that she really wanted to join as she needed to lose weight for health reasons but she could not afford the monthly membership fee. My friend told the woman that he wanted to help her so he’d make her a deal…
He would give her a free 30 day membership. During those first 30 days, if she came in and exercised 15 times then he would give her the next 30 days for free, the same for the next month, and the next month. So in essence this woman could have a lifetime free membership IF she used it. The woman was so happy and very grateful to my friend for making such a generous deal with her. Do you know what happened in the following 30 days?
She showed up 6 times and never came back.
You can probably see what I’m getting at here….money wasn’t the issue. The cost of the gym membership wasn’t the ‘thing’ that was holding this woman back from losing weight. It was a convient scapegoat.
What are you convenient scape goats?
What are the reasons you give for not losing weight and reaching your goals?
Write them down, crumble up the paper, and throw it in the recycle bin never to mention them again.
Then get down to work and lose the weight.
What an amazing post and story! And it's so true, I've had similar things happen before with my boot camps. Really interesting huh? Thanks for sharing.
LOL – it is ironic that you share this story right now. I just won my gym membership free for the year!! I can guarantee it will be well used!!
I've had similar experiences where someone would say my bootcamps were too expensive and they were going to join the $10/month gym across town. They didn't go there after joining either. Price had nothing to do with it.
It has to do with "why" vs "how". Figuring out how to lose weight, exercise, eat right is pretty simple. But finding the real reason "why" is the hard part. Obviously this woman's perceived 'health reasons' weren't a big enough reason "why" she should lose weight.
Once the why is big enough, the how becomes easy.
~Dave
This is so true Mike!!! I offered a three week intro to my new class at the gym using metabolic training and the workout muse tracks. I had 36 people sign up and about 12 showed up and out of those 12, 4 are doing the class. Hey, it's a good place to start but people don't want to do the work.
For me, it all comes down to setting emotional, actionable goals, writing them down, rewriting them each day, reviewing them often, and replacing achieved goals with new ones. If I don't have a strong "why" or reason to keep motivated, my willpower eventually fades. I've learned it's up to me to take responsibility for my results. Thanks for the article. It reinforces how important it is to commit to the science of goal setting.
All you need to do to lose weight is cut calories. No gym required. Oh, yeah, that's not as profitable….. sorry.
Sicne Mike is a nutritionist- and not a gym owner- no need to admonish him about "profit". Yes, cutting caloires will cause you to lose weight- temporarily. But hopefully, most smart people are in it for the long haul and want to be healthy and strong. For some people, that means going to a gym for motivation. For others, they may work out at home. Whichever- exercise helps maintain muscle tissue and metabolism while cutting calories causes muscle tissue loss and metabolic slow down.
Guess what happens when your metabolism slows down? Weight gain. So- are you in for the long haul- or the short term?
Thanks Mike. Great post. I hear of and see this all the time here in Lebanon, where eating is a national event!!!!!! We are trying hard to show them what they are capable of, but they just stick to what they "know". It is a shame that some people are so afraid of change.
As Ex-Gym Rat posited, cutting calories is the way to loose weight. However, if you cut those calories and then, once you've lost the weight, return to old habits, those lost pounds probably will be found again. Sure, there are some people who can discipline themselves to loose weight sensibly, but I have found the pull of the gym, the presence of like-minded people and an occasional training series will kick-start me quicker than staring at the weights sitting on my floor at home. Too, weight-training revs your metabolism as well as help fend-off osteoporosis. And no, I am not a trainer nor have I ever worked at a gym; I am a 58-year old woman who cares about health and fitness!
The profit motive doesn't just tempt Mike, it's the entire industry of not only health and fitness but even plain food of any type alone.
The post I read most recently that made Mike most suspect is a post I can't find here at the moment which exclusively said to boost your metabolism eat eat eat. Yeah, sure, gain weight and spike your BMR.
Calorie Deficit is all there is to it, ever. You can eat 1500 calories in 5 minutes yet it will take you easily 3 hours of intense, fatiguing, exercise to burn those calories. If you want long term fat loss you don't have to burn your body out and lose sleep and productivity in the gym, you have to eat less.
Metabolic crash from low calories is a profit myth. It takes months of starving and the change is not significant. Most of it would be because you lost weight, thus your BMR is down.
Muscle loss from low calories is a profit myth. Muscles waste from atrophy – not using them. Break a leg, one leg is in a cast, the cast leg loses muscle, both legs get the same food intake, calories are decreased due to less activity and pain meds causing less hunger, leg without a cast gets stronger because you used the muscle more than ever to hop around.
Yes, exercise is good – weights/resistance and aerobics. This is not the key to fat loss; it is the key to muscle, bones and cardio/respiratory. You don't need a gym but for those of you that want it go for it.
Calorie deficit is essential. Can you lose weight without exercising? Yes.
Is the faster more effective way to lose weight to combine diet and exercise? Yes.
?Agreed. Not arguing here … just chatting.
I didn't leave out exercise. I separated it from fat loss.
Do you need a gym? No, and that can be counter productive if you increase your appetite too much … also let's not forget time, money, energy. Do you need to "boost your metabolism by eating more and eating through the day"? No, and that can be counter productive due to sustained insulin and calories.
I do appreciate that the article focuses on mentality. What I take from it is to remember: "It's not just about finding what works. It's about doing it."
I post this in a separate post for ease of censoring if it makes people all butt-hurt. I get most of my info from experience and spun off from a Master's Thesis by youtube.com/bradpilon , bradpilon.com and johnbarban.com . I found them from Rusty at fitnessblackbook.com, which is where I found Mike. I think Mike is honestly trying to help people but getting caught up in what the industry has long fed (pun) people.